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About This Role
Description:
Terra\-Gen is seeking a BESS (Battery Energy Storage System) Technician III to perform scheduled and unscheduled fieldwork required to operate and maintain the project to standards above industry best practice. Fieldwork includes, but is not limited to installing new systems, troubleshooting, testing, preventive maintenance, corrective maintenance, and assisting site visits. The BESS Technician may also be assigned the responsibility for observing the quality and safety practices of contractors performing BESS technical maintenance and commissioning type work.
- The ideal candidate would be a self\-starter and reports to and takes directions from the Remote Operations Site Supervisor.
- This is a full\-time position and may include working on\-call as scheduled, overtime, nights, weekends and/or holidays.
- Some travel may be required for this position.
- This role provides opportunities for professional growth.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
The candidate may perform work independently and/or in a team environment, depending upon skills, experience and job task.
Responsibilities include troubleshooting and repair of DC, low voltage AC, data acquisition, meteorological stations, ESS system components, including grounded circuits, safely and efficiently while using all safety practices. Tests to be performed by a technician include but are not limited to: Open circuit voltage; Operating DC current; and Resistance test.
- Understand, participate and promote general workplace safety and the ability to follow established environmental, safety and procedural standards as well as assist Terra\-Gen to improve upon the existing standards.
- Ability to excel individually or in a team atmosphere within a collaborative, cross\-functional and diverse organization.
- Ability to establish and maintain a positive and professional working relationship with all individuals.
- Maturity, professionalism and excellent communication skills, both verbally and in writing with superiors and colleagues.
- Models professional behaviors of conduct that reflect positively on themselves and the company.
- Developed interpersonal skills, strong work ethic with High\-energy.
- Detailed orientated with excellent hands\-on abilities.
- Perform preventive maintenance on ESS systems to include thermography of low and medium voltage equipment.
- Audit third party systems as directed for potential safety concerns, quality of work performed and possible improvement opportunities.
- Identify, coordinate, and observe contracted workers performing troubleshooting and repairs to OEM equipment to include medium voltage equipment.
- Document time, material, expenses and maintenance records in O\&Ms computer\-based maintenance management system (CMMS).
- Complete assigned training and qualification requirements within a specified time frame, including meeting or exceeding minimum test score requirements.
- Demonstrate technical aptitude and skill performing field tasks, learning progression and ability to apply training along with the ability to recognize and use stop work authority.
- Complete Safe work permits and conducts level appropriate JHA’s.
- Prepare reports and communicate to site management the results of maintenance activities.
- Perform other qualified duties as assigned.
Compensation: $26 \- $34 per hour
Requirements:
QUALIFICATIONS:
- Basic knowledge of ESS and the equipment to include related hazards and how to safely shut it down.
- Ability to safely troubleshoot system failures, to include ground faults.
- Strong analytical, diagnostic, and problem\-solving skills.
- Excellent verbal, written, communication and presentation skills.
- Strong prioritization skills.
- Driver’s license.
- Journeyman or licensed industrial electrician preferred.
- Knowledge of building and structural construction techniques preferred.
- Certified inverter training by Power Electronics, Sungrow preferred.
EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE:
- High school graduate or GED.
- 1\-3\+ years’ experience at a Utility\-scale Solar Plant.
- Practical experience with electrical wiring and basic construction practices required.
- Technical/science/engineering degree, certificate with energy systems preferred.
- Experience with metering and test equipment.
- Ability to organize, prioritize and complete multiple tasks simultaneously.
- Ability to demonstrate a responsive, customer service approach to listening and responding to requests.
- Ability to communicate status of work activities and issues with peers and management as they relate to projects and tasks.
- Experience reading and interpreting electrical, I\&C, and mechanical drawings and technical manuals.
- Proficient with the use of a computer and the Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook).
- OSHA 10 and CPR qualification preferred.
- NFPA 70E preferred.
COMMUNICATION SKILLS:
- Provide information/analysis to leadership and department managers.
- Create written reports/memos/emails to effectively communicate findings internally and externally.
- Effectively and professionally communicate with leadership, project managers and engineers.
- Effectively and professionally communicate with vendors and contractors.
- Effectively and professionally communicate with Quality/Product Development/Purchasing departments.
MATHEMATICAL SKILLS:
- Ability to analyze operating data and identify anomalies.
- Ability to calculate figures and amounts such as percentages, lengths, and electrical values.
- Ability to apply concepts of basic algebra, geometry, and statistical analysis.
- Ability to analyze and troubleshoot problems with utility scale PV systems.
- Ability to analyze, troubleshoot and identify problems with utility scale BESS systems.
REASONING ABILITY \& DECISION\-MAKING SKILLS:
- Ability to solve practical problems and deal with a variety of concrete variables in situations where only limited standardization may exist. Ability to interpret a variety of instructions furnished in written, verbal, diagram, architectural or electrical drawing, or schedule form.
PHYSICAL DEMANDS:
- Be able to inspect and work maintenance activities in outdoor construction type areas without handicap access.
- Regularly required to stand; walk; sit; use hands to finger, handle, or feel; and reach with hands to dexterously maneuver small parts in confined spaces, such as wires, screws, and various components within electrical equipment.
- Regularly required to kneel, crawl, climb ladders and stairs, use scissor lifts and manlift (cherry picker).
- Lift 50 pounds unassisted and up to 100 pounds assisted.
WORK ENVIRONMENT:
Some of the work will be performed in an office environment; however, the environment for field inspections exposes the employee to the risk of electric shock, heights, moving mechanical parts, hazardous materials, chemicals, fumes, and airborne particles. Additionally, while working outdoors, the employee is exposed to heat, cold, inclement weather, and ultraviolet radiation from the sun. The noise levels may require hearing protection.
*Terra\-Gen is an equal opportunity employer, drug\-free workplace, and complies with Americans with Disabilities Act and related laws and regulations as applicable. All applicants are considered for all positions without regard to age, race, religion, color, sex, gender, sexual orientation, pregnancy, national origin, ancestry, physical/mental disability, medical condition, military/veteran status, genetic information, marital status, ethnicity, alienage, or any other protected classification, in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws.*
*All offers of employment are contingent upon successful completion of a pre\-employment background check and drug screening. All qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with federal, state or local requirements such as the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act. Employees must be authorized to work in the US and employment is contingent upon presentation of acceptable documents as evidence of identity and employment authorization, as detailed on Form I\-9\.*
*Terra\-Gen provides a comprehensive benefits package that promotes employee ownership, employee health, performance, and success, which includes medical, dental, vision, short and long\-term disability, life insurance, an employee assistance program, paid time off, paid holidays, and 401(k) retirement savings plan with employer match.*
*The posted compensation is the range that we in good faith anticipate relying on when setting wages for this position. We may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range and this range is only applicable for jobs to be performed in California. This salary range may also be modified in the future, depending upon skills, experience, education, and geographical location.*
Salary Context
This $54K-$70K range is below the median for AI/ML Engineer roles in our dataset (median: $100K across 15465 roles with salary data).
View full AI/ML Engineer salary data →Role Details
About This Role
AI/ML Engineers build and deploy machine learning models in production. They work across the full ML lifecycle: data pipelines, model training, evaluation, and serving infrastructure. The role has evolved significantly over the past two years. Where ML Engineers once spent most of their time on model architecture, the job now tilts heavily toward inference optimization, cost management, and integrating LLM capabilities into existing systems. Companies want engineers who can ship production systems, and the experimenter-only role is fading fast.
Day-to-day, you're writing training pipelines, debugging data quality issues, setting up evaluation frameworks, and figuring out why your model performs differently in staging than it did on your dev set. The best ML engineers are obsessive about reproducibility and measurement. They instrument everything. They know that a model is only as good as the data feeding it and the infrastructure serving it.
Across the 26,159 AI roles we're tracking, AI/ML Engineer positions make up 91% of the market. At Terra-Gen Operating Company LLC, this role fits into their broader AI and engineering organization.
Demand for AI/ML Engineers has been strong and consistent. Unlike some AI roles that spike with hype cycles, ML engineering is a foundational need. Every company deploying AI models needs people who can keep them running, and the gap between research prototypes and production systems keeps growing.
What the Work Looks Like
A typical week might include: debugging a data pipeline that's silently dropping 3% of training examples, running A/B tests on a new model version, writing documentation for a feature flag system that lets you roll back model deployments, and reviewing a junior engineer's PR for a new evaluation metric. Meetings tend to be cross-functional since ML touches product, engineering, and data teams.
Demand for AI/ML Engineers has been strong and consistent. Unlike some AI roles that spike with hype cycles, ML engineering is a foundational need. Every company deploying AI models needs people who can keep them running, and the gap between research prototypes and production systems keeps growing.
Skills Required
Python and PyTorch dominate the requirements. Most roles expect experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and familiarity with ML frameworks like TensorFlow or JAX. RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) has become a top-3 skill requirement as companies integrate LLMs into their products. Docker and Kubernetes show up in about a third of postings, reflecting the production focus of the role.
Beyond the core stack, employers increasingly want experience with experiment tracking tools (MLflow, Weights & Biases), feature stores, and vector databases. Fine-tuning experience is valuable but less common than you'd think from reading Twitter. Most production LLM work is RAG and prompt engineering, not fine-tuning. If you have both, you're in a strong position.
Companies that are serious about AI/ML hiring tend to post specific infrastructure details in the job description: the frameworks they use, their model serving stack, their data pipeline tools. Vague postings that just say 'ML experience required' without specifics are often companies that haven't figured out what they need yet.
Compensation Benchmarks
AI/ML Engineer roles pay a median of $166,983 based on 13,781 positions with disclosed compensation. Mid-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $131,300. This role's midpoint ($62K) sits 63% below the category median. Disclosed range: $54K to $70K.
Across all AI roles, the market median is $184,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $244,000. The 90th percentile reaches $309,400. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Engineering Manager ($293,500) and AI Architect ($292,900). By seniority level: Entry: $76,880; Mid: $131,300; Senior: $227,400; Director: $244,288; VP: $234,620.
Terra-Gen Operating Company LLC AI Hiring
Terra-Gen Operating Company LLC has 3 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across AI/ML Engineer. Positions span Canyon Country, CA, US, Beaumont, CA, US, Mojave, CA, US. Compensation range: $70K - $76K.
Location Context
Across all AI roles, 7% (1,863 positions) offer remote work, while 24,200 require on-site attendance. Top AI hiring metros: Los Angeles (1,695 roles, $178,000 median); New York (1,670 roles, $200,000 median); San Francisco (1,059 roles, $244,000 median).
Career Path
Common paths into AI/ML Engineer roles include Data Scientist, Software Engineer, Research Engineer.
From here, career progression typically leads toward ML Architect, AI Engineering Manager, Principal ML Engineer.
The fastest path into ML engineering is through software engineering with a self-directed ML education. A CS degree helps, but production engineering skills matter more than academic credentials. Build something that works, deploy it, and measure it. That portfolio project is worth more than a Coursera certificate. For career growth, the fork comes around the senior level: go deep on technical complexity (staff/principal track) or move into managing ML teams.
What to Expect in Interviews
Expect system design questions around ML pipelines: how you'd build a training pipeline for a specific use case, handle data drift, or design A/B testing infrastructure for model deployments. Coding rounds typically involve Python, with emphasis on data manipulation (pandas, numpy) and algorithm implementation. Take-home assignments often ask you to build an end-to-end ML pipeline from raw data to deployed model.
When evaluating opportunities: Companies that are serious about AI/ML hiring tend to post specific infrastructure details in the job description: the frameworks they use, their model serving stack, their data pipeline tools. Vague postings that just say 'ML experience required' without specifics are often companies that haven't figured out what they need yet.
AI Hiring Overview
The AI job market has 26,159 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 2,416 entry-level, 16,247 mid-level, 5,153 senior, and 2,343 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 7% of the market (1,863 positions). The remaining 24,200 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $184,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $244,000. The 90th percentile reaches $309,400. Highest-paying categories: AI Engineering Manager ($293,500 median, 28 roles); AI Architect ($292,900 median, 108 roles); AI Safety ($274,200 median, 19 roles).
Demand for AI/ML Engineers has been strong and consistent. Unlike some AI roles that spike with hype cycles, ML engineering is a foundational need. Every company deploying AI models needs people who can keep them running, and the gap between research prototypes and production systems keeps growing.
The AI Job Market Today
The AI job market spans 26,159 open positions across 15 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (23,752), AI Software Engineer (598), AI Product Manager (594). These three account for the majority of open positions, though smaller categories often have higher per-role compensation because of specialized skill requirements.
The seniority mix tells a story about where AI teams are in their maturity. Entry-level roles (2,416) are outnumbered by mid-level (16,247) and senior (5,153) positions, reflecting that most companies are past the 'build a team from scratch' phase and need experienced engineers who can ship production systems. Leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level) total 2,343 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 7% of all AI roles (1,863 positions), with 24,200 requiring on-site or hybrid attendance. The remote share has stabilized after the post-pandemic correction. Senior and specialized roles (Research Scientist, ML Architect) are more likely to be remote-eligible than entry-level positions, partly because experienced hires have more negotiating power and partly because these roles require less hands-on mentorship.
AI compensation is structured in clear tiers. The market median sits at $184,000. Top-quartile roles start at $244,000, and the 90th percentile reaches $309,400. These figures include base salary with disclosed compensation. Total compensation (including equity, bonuses, and sign-on) runs 20-40% higher at companies that offer those components.
Category matters for compensation. AI Engineering Manager roles lead at $293,500 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $122,200. The spread between highest and lowest-paying categories reflects the premium on specialized technical skills versus broader analytical roles.
The most in-demand skills across all AI postings: Rag (16,749 postings), Aws (8,932 postings), Rust (7,660 postings), Python (3,815 postings), Azure (2,678 postings), Gcp (2,247 postings), Prompt Engineering (1,469 postings), Openai (1,269 postings). Python dominates, appearing in the vast majority of role descriptions regardless of category. Cloud platform experience (AWS, GCP, Azure) is the second most common requirement. The newer entrants to the top skills list (RAG, vector databases, LLM APIs) reflect the shift from traditional ML toward generative AI applications.
Frequently Asked Questions
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