Senior Software Engineer - Australia

Job description

Join Powerline and help revolutionize the future of the electricity grid! We are a disruptive, VC-backed climate tech company based in Silicon Valley with offices in Australia and Europe. Our cutting-edge technology leverages machine learning and artificial intelligence to optimize renewable energy and battery storage projects on the electricity grid. Our products help renewable project owners achieve strong economics and operational excellence, paving the way for a decarbonized and profitable future grid. We work on exciting projects with leaders in the world’s most lucrative and complex electricity markets. About the role: As a Senior Software Engineer at Powerline, you will build the systems that power renewable and battery storage optimization: real-time market data pipelines, optimization and machine learning model integration, the dashboards that visualize asset performance, and the infrastructure behind our AI agents. The role centers on backend systems, but the boundaries are flexible: depending on your strengths and interests, your focus may lean toward distributed backend services, front-end interfaces, or AI-powered tooling. You will collaborate with a world-class team of engineers, data scientists, and energy market experts to build and evolve our core platform. This is an incredible opportunity to become an early and foundational team member at a climate tech company entering a major growth phase, solving one of the most important challenges in the global energy transition. This position is based in Australia, with a preference for candidates who can work from our Melbourne office two to three days per week. Key Responsibilities: - Design, build, and deploy software systems that optimize renewable and battery storage operations. - Collaborate with cross-functional teams to integrate machine learning and optimization models. - Build the tools, data access layers, and infrastructure that power Powerline's AI agents to reason over energy market data and asset operations. - Contribute to intuitive, user-friendly interfaces that let internal and external users monitor asset performance in real time. - Own the full software development lifecycle from architecture and design to implementation and maintenance. - Ensure production systems are scalable, reliable, and high-performing. - Diagnose bottlenecks, resolve real-time issues, and continuously improve system performance and monitoring/alerting. - Stay current on trends in software engineering, renewable energy, and grid technology to drive innovation. Requirements: - 5+ years of software engineering experience, focusing on large-scale, real-time systems. - Strong proficiency in Python, with excellent coding, testing, and debugging skills. - Experience building and maintaining APIs, distributed systems, and data pipelines. - Solid understanding of SQL and NoSQL database design and deployment. - Strong communication skills and the ability to collaborate effectively with diverse teams, including engineers, data scientists, and energy market experts in a distributed working environment. Strong Plus (any of the following): - Experience in energy markets, renewable energy technologies, or energy storage systems. - Familiarity with machine learning and optimization models. - Experience with LLM-powered or agentic applications (tool-using agents, RAG, agent evaluation). - Knowledge of data visualization and dashboard tools. - Front-end development experience, particularly with frameworks like React, Angular, or Svelte.