Director, Generation Controls, Protection, and Automation
Posted 29 Sep 2026
Advertised as “Director, Generation Controls, Protection, and Automation — Power and Energy”
BranchFactor Summary
The original posting with the fluff stripped out
- Expected experience
- 10+ yrs
- Management level
- People management
- Employment
- Remote
No salary listed for this role.
CertificationsProfessional Engineer
About Nscale
At Nscale, we are building the infrastructure for the AI revolution. Nscale is developing cutting-edge, sovereign generative AI solutions powered by a new generation of high-performance, sustainable data centers and GPUs built specifically for AI workloads.
The rapid growth of artificial intelligence is driving unprecedented global demand for compute and GPU infrastructure. Positioned at the heart of this transformation, Nscale is delivering the platforms that will enable the next decade of innovation.
Working closely with the world's most advanced AI technology providers — including Microsoft and NVIDIA — Nscale integrates next-generation compute hardware and GPU clusters across both partner and self-delivered facilities. This is a unique opportunity to join Nscale's journey, play a pivotal role in delivering transformative AI infrastructure, and help shape a company designed to scale rapidly across North America, Europe, and beyond.
About the Role
We are hiring a Director, Generation Controls, Protection, and Automation to own one of the hardest and most consequential technical problems in our portfolio: making multi-gigawatt, island-mode power systems stable, protected, and controllable while serving AI data center loads.
Nscale's Power and Energy group develops behind-the-meter generation colocated with our data center campuses: large reciprocating engine fleets, battery energy storage systems, and medium- and high-voltage distribution operating as islanded microgrids. These systems must hold frequency and voltage through some of the most dynamic load profiles in the industry, where GPU training workloads can swing hundreds of megawatts in seconds. Solving that requires controls, protection, and automation engineered as a single, coherent system, and this role owns that system.
This is a hands-on technical leadership role. You will set the controls and protection philosophy for our microgrids, drive the engineering through design, factory and hardware-in-the-loop testing, commissioning, and into operation, and manage the specialist engineers, consultants, and OEM technical teams doing the work. You will engage directly with generation, BESS, switchgear, and relay OEMs, and with the EMT modeling and controls integration partners who validate the designs before we energize.
You will work alongside a peer Director, Generation Electrical Engineering. The split is deliberate: your peer owns the power system itself — the equipment, its configuration, and its design basis. This role owns how that system is controlled and protected. The two scopes succeed or fail together, and close partnership is part of the job.
Location: Houston, TX (remote considered within the US, with regular site and vendor travel)