Staff Applications Engineer

Position Summary

We are seeking a Staff Applications Engineer to establish Antora's applications engineering function. This role serves as the technical lead for customer opportunities across industrial heat, combined heat & power, and power applications. You will join business development on sales calls and own the technical conversation with customer engineering/operations teams and executives.

Roles & Responsibilities

• Serve as the technical lead for customer opportunities across industrial heat, combined heat & power, and power applications, joining business development on sales calls and owning the technical conversation with customer engineering/operations teams and executives
• Run technical discovery: own customer data requests (load profiles, steam conditions, utility data, plot plans, one-lines) and site walkdowns; validate opportunity screens for standard applications and run first-pass technical screening for novel ones
• Size and configure Antora's product for each site within its configurable envelope, creatively optimizing trade-offs across performance, cost, and site constraints
• Produce conceptual site layouts, heat integration designs, and site boundary-condition definitions
• Own the product-side electrical configuration and manage the product-to-interconnection interface with our energy/interconnection team
• Support RFP/RFI responses; anticipate and resolve customer technical objections to keep deals moving
• Support commercial negotiations with technical exhibits and performance guarantees for LOIs and term sheets with sharp judgment on the economic implications of design choices and guarantees we commit to
• Prepare basis-of-design handoff packages (configuration specs, layouts, integration concepts, assumptions, and risks) that enable project engineering to pick up projects cleanly for detailed design (FEED and beyond)
• Channel voice-of-customer and market intel back to product management to sharpen the product and roadmap
• Scale the applications engineering function: partner with our software and AI team to build tools to automate processes such as layouts, drawings, and cost estimates; mentor and help grow a small team of applications engineers over time

Key Qualifications

• Bachelor's or equivalent in mechanical, chemical, or electrical engineering (or related field) and 12+ years of experience (or 8+ with a relevant advanced degree) across utility-scale energy projects, large industrial facilities, and/or energy equipment applications
• Deep expertise in either industrial process/thermal systems (steam and utility systems, heat integration) or power systems (MV/HV electrical, grid interconnection) – with working fluency in the other and the range to engage customer engineers credibly in both
• Experience with energy storage and/or utility-scale energy projects, including site layout and equipment configuration
• Familiarity with codes and standards governing industrial energy facilities – NFPA, NEC, ASME, API, UL, etc.
• Comfortable producing and reviewing PFDs, one-line diagrams, and site layout drawings
• Strong techno-economic intuition and commercial judgment – instinctively connects configuration trade-offs and performance guarantees to project economics
• Exceptional customer-facing communication and presentation skills
• AI-fluent: high level of comfort with leading AI tools (Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, etc.) and has strong instincts for which workflows to automate
• Self-directed operator who thrives running many parallel projects in a fast-paced startup environment

Desired Experience

• Spanning both thermal/process and power/grid project environments
• Prior applications, sales, or solutions engineering role at an energy technology OEM
• Solid understanding of energy market fundamentals and battery dispatch or techno-economic modeling
• Python proficiency
• Experience working with or for EPC firms
• Experience working on projects in international markets (particular preference for EU and Australia)
• Familiarity with European codes and standards
• Experience building commercial tools and automations
• PE license in a related discipline.