Staff or Principal Applications Engineer

Antora Energy delivers affordable, reliable energy to industry, data centers, and the grid. Our thermal batteries turn low-cost electricity into always-on heat and power, without supply-constrained critical minerals or multi-year construction timelines. We are growing our company with people who put team and mission first, value connection through laughter and joy, and work with humility and openness. We are committed to building a diverse, passionate, and creative team dedicated to a future powered by abundant, clean, low-cost energy. Position Summary We are seeking a Staff or Principal Applications Engineer to establish Antora's applications engineering function — the senior technical authority for the customer opportunities that don't fit a standard template. Antora's standard configurations run through repeatable tools and playbooks operated by our business development team; you will own everything that doesn't: the first-of-a-kind applications, constrained sites, and novel configurations of Antora's thermal batteries across industrial process heat and utility-scale power for data centers and the grid, in the U.S. and internationally. When we dive into a new customer application, you are the engineer who joins the first call, earns the trust of senior customer technical leadership, and creatively develops the solution around Antora's product: running technical discovery, sizing and configuring the system, producing conceptual site layouts and heat and power integration designs, setting the technical basis for performance guarantees, and building the cost estimates behind commercial contracts and investment decisions, then handing a clean basis of design to our project engineering team for detailed design and execution. You are also the technical conscience on what Antora commits to, with the standing and judgment to hold the line on feasibility, schedule, and performance so we win deals we can actually deliver. This role will report to the VP of Product Management within Antora’s Commercial team. Roles & Responsibilities Serve as the technical lead for Antora's most complex and novel 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 on novel applications: own customer data requests (load profiles, steam conditions, utility data, plot plans, one-lines) and site walkdowns, and lead first-pass technical screening where no playbook exists Size and configure Antora's product at the edges of its configurable envelope (and beyond), creatively optimizing trade-offs across performance, cost, schedule, and site constraints Produce conceptual site layouts, heat and power integration designs, and site boundary-condition definitions Own configuration of complex customer, grid, and project interfaces for novel applications — including, but not limited to, controls integration, product-side electrical configuration, product-to-interconnection handoff, cybersecurity requirements, and energy market operations coordination Own performance-guarantee assumptions and proposal-stage analysis/cost estimates for commercial contracts and internal approvals with clear judgment on execution and economic impact 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) Partner closely with product management to co-define where the standard product envelope ends and bespoke applications work begins, and keeping executive stakeholders aligned on what we’re committing to Act as the technical escalation point and reviewer for the sales engineers who run standard opportunities — mentoring them and together with product management, setting the technical standards they work to Channel voice-of-customer and market intelligence back to product management to drive product changes that improve performance, customer satisfaction, and addressable market Codify design judgment into playbooks, reference designs, and design rules, partnering with software, analytics, and product management to turn them into tools and standard product requirements where applicable Typical travel of ~25%, potentially including some international travel 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 Experience leading first-of-a-kind industrial and power projects, including managing executive stakeholders in external organizations Deep expertise in power systems (MV/HV electrical, synchronous and inverter-based resources, grid interconnection) with working fluency in industrial process/thermal systems (steam and utility systems, heat integration) — or the reverse — with genuine depth on at least one side 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 the 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 strong instincts for which workflows to automate Self-directed operator who thrives owning a small number of deep,