Software Engineer (Power Systems)

About Squid

AI and data centres are booming, electrification is accelerating, and trillions in generation, storage, and connection projects are queued - but the real bottleneck is the grid.

Grid planning and operations are becoming a national-scale systems problem: complex network models, messy legacy data, strict governance, overloaded teams, and high-stakes decisions that affect real infrastructure.

Squid is building the agentic modelling platform for power grids: a versioned, auditable source of truth where network models, data, changes, assumptions, and decisions can be tracked - and where humans and AI agents can safely work together.

We unify legacy planning models, operational data, and grid workflows into software that helps teams run checks, compare models, explain changes, validate assumptions, and move faster without losing engineering rigour.

Based in London, Squid is backed by premier investors like Y Combinator and partners with industry leaders including National Grid and Northern Powergrid.

About the role

Pay Range: £75k-£200k (salary + equity)

Location: London, UK

We are hiring a Software Engineer with power systems experience to join Squid as one of our first engineers.

You will work closely with the founders and early engineering team to build production software for grid operators. The role combines general software engineering, power systems, applied AI and direct customer work.

You will contribute across the product, from backend services and data pipelines to frontend interfaces, cloud infrastructure and AI evaluation systems. You will also work with planners, operators and engineers to understand real grid workflows and turn them into reliable, usable software.

This is a high-ownership role based in our central London office, with the opportunity to shape the product, technical architecture and engineering culture from an early stage.

What you’ll do

• Build and ship production software across backend, frontend, data and cloud infrastructure.
• Develop tools for loading, validating, comparing, visualising and explaining power system models and datasets.
• Build workflows for grid planning, connections, scenario analysis, data quality and model governance.
• Design APIs, data pipelines and product interfaces for complex engineering workflows.
• Create benchmarks and evaluation tools for testing AI models and agents on real power systems tasks.
• Build human-in-the-loop systems that allow AI to assist engineers while keeping people in control.Work directly with customers to understand their problems, test solutions and improve the product.
• Use modern AI development tools to prototype, test and ship software quickly.

Qualifications

You do not need to meet every requirement. We are looking for strong software engineers who understand, or are motivated to go deep into, power systems.

You may be a strong fit if you have:

• Professional software engineering experience building and maintaining production systems.
• Experience with Python, TypeScript, React, Postgres, APIs, cloud infrastructure or data pipelines.
• A background in power systems, electrical engineering, grid modelling or energy software.
• Experience with load flow, short-circuit analysis, contingency studies, grid connections, network modelling or similar areas.
• Familiarity with tools such as pandapower, PyPSA, GridCal, OpenDSS, PowerFactory, IPSA, PSS®E or ETAP.
• Strong product judgement and the ability to turn unclear, real-world problems into practical software.
• Experience working across multiple parts of a software stack rather than within one narrow specialism.
• An interest in applied AI, model evaluation, agent systems and AI-assisted software development.
• The ability to communicate clearly and work directly with technical customers.
• High ownership, curiosity and a willingness to learn quickly.

Experience with CIM or CGMES, GIS, SCADA, ADMS, DMS, EMS, model validation, data-heavy products or domain-specific AI evaluation would be valuable, but is not required.

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