Interconnection Strategy Lead

About Mainspring Mainspring Energy manufactures and delivers fuel-flexible, low-emissions local power solutions that rapidly add new capacity and deliver reliable, affordable, and sustainable electric power. The company began commercial shipments of its Mainspring Linear Generators in 2020 and today has hundreds of megawatts in advanced development and field operations for leading Fortune 500 companies, data centers, and utilities. Mainspring also partners with global energy leaders including AEP, NextEra Energy Resources, Schneider Electric, and more. The core values that ground our work, guide our decisions, and connect us together: Pragmatic Optimism Excellence without Ego Proactive Collaboration Position Overview Mainspring needs a role focused on building the Company’s utility and interconnection strategy capability for larger, more complex projects and customers. This position of Interconnection Strategy Lead is intended to bridge project execution, utility strategy, transmission-scale readiness, internal workflow design, and requirements intelligence to support Mainspring scaling beyond one-off projects and manual coordination. The role will support larger customer segments such as data centers, utilities, and enterprise accounts, while helping the organization prepare for utility-scale, transmission-adjacent, and geographically diverse deployments. It also includes strategic review and planning for interconnection across North America. The purpose of this role is to translate utility, market, interconnection, and regulatory complexity into repeatable business processes, customer-ready guidance, and scalable internal systems. This position focuses on developing a more programmatic capability that supports larger sites, more sophisticated customers, and increasing process complexity. Responsibilities Utility and Interconnection Strategy Lead utility and interconnection strategy for complex customer opportunities, including large-load, utility-scale, and enterprise projects. Evaluate site-specific interconnection pathways, utility requirements, and market-participation implications, including differences between market participant and non-market participant pathways where relevant. Identify material cost, schedule, and technical risks early, including study triggers, protection requirements, relay requirements, and other constraints that can affect project viability. Develop or coordinate alternative operating, engineering, and interconnection approaches where standard utility requirements create unacceptable delay or cost exposure. Large-Site and Transmission Readiness Support Mainspring’s transition from smaller distributed projects toward larger 10 MW-plus opportunities and other projects that may cross ISO, transmission, or additional utility thresholds. Help define the technical and process capabilities required to succeed in larger projects, including OEM model availability, transmission-grid interaction understanding, and cross-functional readiness. Coordinate with internal and external technical stakeholders to address issues related to power systems behavior, controls, grid interaction, and compliance expectations. Contribute to readiness planning for markets and customers that require stronger utility-strategy sophistication, including enterprise accounts and island or nonstandard regions. Regulatory and Compliance Readiness Support internal understanding of utility, transmission, and relevant NERC considerations that may affect large-scale projects and customer diligence. Help surface what information customers and internal teams will increasingly expect as project size and complexity grow. Coordinate with internal compliance, controls, security, and technical stakeholders where interconnection, cyber, controls, or compliance considerations overlap. Process, Workflow, and Systems Design Design and improve repeatable workflows for interconnection and utility-related work in Jira, including issue types, note templates, required fields, statuses, milestones, and handoffs. Replace manual and spreadsheet-based tracking where practical with clearer, auditable workflow structures that support scale. Build practical instructions and operating methods that allow adjacent team members to contribute to opportunity scrubs, site reviews, and process execution more consistently. Work with internal systems and operations stakeholders to connect interconnection workflows to broader tooling such as Jira and Procore. Knowledge Management and Requirements Intelligence Create and maintain reusable guidance, templates, and internal reference material for recurring interconnection and utility questions. Support the development of a structured repository for utility documents, web links, meeting notes, and requirements records using Google Workspace and related tools. Help define how AI-assisted tools can be used to standardize internal reports, reference documents, and customer-facing outputs while preserving required human review and information-security guardrails. Reduce organizational dependence on tribal knowledge by converting recurring analyses into maintained, reusable assets. Cross-Functional Leadership Serve as a strategic partner across Sales, Interconnection, PM, PE, Controls, and other teams involved in opportunity evaluation and project execution. Translate technical and regulatory issues into language that supports decision-making by commercial, delivery, and leadership stakeholders. Help define priorities, clarify ownership, and advance work even where processes are immature or feedback loops are incomplete. Contribute to the design of a more scalable operating model for utility and interconnection support as the company grows. Leverage your mechanical prowess and unique skills to construct cutting-edge components and assemblies for our generators, following procedures while also identifying opportunities for innovation. Conducting thorough inspections of test units and meticulously documenting your findings to provide crucial insights for our engineering team. Proactively identify and implement improvements that enhance both the safety and efficiency of our groundbreaking work. Minimum of 10 years of electric interconnection experience, with gas interconnection as a plus. Operates with a high degree of autonomy, possesses experience scaling and automating programs, and provides strategic solutions across multiple internal stakeholders Experience with distributed generation, utility interconnection, and project development across utility-facing energy projects Demonstrated ability to support complex interconnection pathways involving market participation, utility studies, protection requirements, or transmission-scale considerations Familiarity with larger-site or utility-scale project dynamics, including issues that emerge at higher megawatt thresholds Working knowledge of how utility, compliance, controls, and customer requirements intersect on larger and more sophisticated projects Experience designing or improving workflows, operating processes, templates, or systems that enable scale across teams Strong written communication skills, including the ability to produce customer-ready guidance, internal frameworks, and structured documentation Ability to work cross-functionally and influence without relying solely on formal authority Comfort using modern tooling, including workflow systems, structured knowledge repositories, and AI-assisted drafting tools within company policy boundaries Bachelor’s Degree preferred Does your experience not meet all of our posted requirements? Studies have shown that some people are less likely to apply to positions unless they meet every listed requirement. At Mainspring, we are committed to building a diverse, inclusive, flexible, and collaborative environment, so if you want to help us transition the world to clean and affordable electricity, and don’t meet all posted requirements for a particular role, we’d still love to hear from you. Mainspring can sometimes be flexible enough to shift responsibilities for the right person, or otherwise identify open or upcoming roles that may better fit your professional background. In more traditional words, Mainspring Energy, Inc is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, or protected veteran status and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability. This compensation and benefits information is based on Mainspring Energy's estimate as of the date of publication and may be modified in the future. We generally do not negotiate on salary once we have made an offer. The level of pay within the range will depend on a variety of job-related factors that may include location, relevant prior experience and/or education, or particular skills and expertise. New hires joining the company tend to be paid within the starting base pay range noted above, with opportunities to increase pay over time based on development of additional skills, competencies, and company-specific knowledge.