Back to jobs
New

Senior Optimization Engineer

San Francisco, CA

Location: San Francisco, CA (Hybrid)

What is Verse? 

The race to AI has become the race to power. Every breakthrough in artificial intelligence depends on one thing: access to electricity. But across the country, aging grid infrastructure and years-long interconnection queues are slowing the deployment of the data centers that will power the next generation of innovation. Solving this challenge isn't just about energy—it's about unlocking the future of AI.

At Verse, we're building the energy intelligence platform for the AI economy. Our software helps the world's largest energy consumers achieve faster, cheaper, and cleaner power by combining real-time control of energy assets with complete visibility into their energy portfolio. Backed by Bessemer Venture Partners, GV, Coatue, and NVIDIA, and built by pioneers in grid-scale batteries, energy markets, and enterprise software, we're redefining how the world's most ambitious organizations access and manage energy.

The Role

We're seeking an experienced Senior Optimization Engineer to join our Data Science Team. In this role, you will lead the design, development, and deployment of optimization models that power our software platform across applications including electricity markets, renewable energy, and battery energy storage systems.

You will be responsible for developing production-grade optimization engines that solve complex operational and planning problems at scale. This role requires deep expertise in mathematical optimization, strong software engineering skills in Python, and experience building optimization models that integrate with production systems. The ideal candidate has significant experience in the energy industry, particularly electricity markets and battery storage optimization.

This position emphasizes technical leadership, ownership of complex optimization projects, and collaboration across engineering, product, and commercial teams to deliver high-impact optimization solutions.

Key Responsibilities

  • Lead End-to-End Optimization Engineering: Lead the development of optimization solutions from mathematical formulation through production deployment. Translate business requirements into scalable optimization models and implement them as robust, maintainable Python software. Design reusable optimization frameworks and services that integrate seamlessly into Verse's cloud platform and support long-term product development
  • Optimization Modeling & Solver Development: Design and implement mathematical optimization models using linear, mixed-integer, quadratic, and related optimization techniques. Formulate robust models for scheduling, dispatch, planning, and operational decision-making, and improve solver performance through model reformulation, decomposition methods, warm starts, heuristics, and parameter tuning to ensure scalable, production-ready optimization solutions.
  • Energy Systems Modeling: Develop optimization models for electricity markets, battery energy storage systems, renewable energy assets, and other distributed energy resources. Translate market rules and operational constraints into mathematically rigorous optimization formulations.
  • Software Engineering & Productionization: Write clean, well-tested, and maintainable Python code following modern software engineering best practices. Contribute to architecture decisions, testing frameworks, CI/CD pipelines, and deployment of optimization services.
  • Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner closely with product managers, software engineers, data scientists, and commercial stakeholders to understand business requirements and deliver optimization capabilities that integrate into customer-facing products.
  • Technical Leadership: Mentor junior engineers, establish best practices for optimization modeling and software development, conduct code reviews, and help shape the technical direction of Verse's optimization platform.

What We're Looking For (Minimum Qualifications)

  • 5+ years of professional experience developing mathematical optimization models in production environments
  • Demonstrated experience independently leading complex optimization projects from formulation through deployment
  • Professional experience developing production software in Python
  • Experience deploying optimization models into scalable production systems
  • Professional experience in the energy industry is required
  • Experience with battery energy storage optimization is strongly preferred
  • Master's degree or higher in Operations Research, Industrial Engineering, Applied Mathematics, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related quantitative field. A bachelor's degree with significant relevant experience may also be considered.

What Will Make You Stand Out (Preferred Qualifications)

  • Experience optimizing battery energy storage systems in wholesale electricity markets
  • Knowledge of market optimization problems involving ISO/RTO markets (CAISO, ERCOT, PJM, MISO, NYISO, ISO-NE, etc.)
  • Familiarity with stochastic optimization, robust optimization, or multi-stage optimization methods
  • Experience developing optimization services for real-time or operational decision support systems
  • Experience mentoring engineers or leading technical projects
  • PhD in Operations Research, Applied Mathematics, Industrial Engineering, or a related quantitative discipline

What makes Verse a great place to work? 

Lead with Empathy: We lift each other up with humility and kindness, always putting colleagues and customers first
Be Honest & Transparent: We prioritize effective communication to build trust with our team, customers, and stakeholders
Move with Balance & Precision: We believe speed and perseverance must be accompanied by thoughtfulness and reflection
Leave the World a Better Place: We are passionate about our mission, and we strive to create a sustainable world for future generations

Base Pay Range

$150,000-$210,000

This is the estimated base salary range for this position, which does not include the value of benefits or a potential equity grant. A wide range of factors are considered in making compensation decisions, including but not limited to skill sets, market conditions, experience and training, licensure and certifications, and business and organizational needs.

Benefits and Employee Perks 

  • Competitive compensation and equity grant at a high-growth start up 
  • Comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental and vision insurance, and 401k 
  • Flexible hours and unlimited PTO 
  • Diverse and inclusive working environment 

Verse is an equal opportunity employer. All applicants and employees are considered for hire, promotion, and compensation without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, marital or familial status.

 

 

 

Create a Job Alert

Interested in building your career at Verse? Get future opportunities sent straight to your email.

Apply for this job

*

indicates a required field

Resume/CV*

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Cover Letter

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

U.S. Standard Demographic Questions

We invite applicants to share their demographic background. If you choose to complete this survey, your responses may be used to identify areas of improvement in our hiring process.
Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file.

As set forth in Verse’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

Select...
Select...
Race & Ethnicity Definitions

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection. As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measure the effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categories is as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.

Select...

Voluntary Self-Identification of Disability

Form CC-305
Page 1 of 1
OMB Control Number 1250-0005
Expires 04/30/2026

Why are you being asked to complete this form?

We are a federal contractor or subcontractor. The law requires us to provide equal employment opportunity to qualified people with disabilities. We have a goal of having at least 7% of our workers as people with disabilities. The law says we must measure our progress towards this goal. To do this, we must ask applicants and employees if they have a disability or have ever had one. People can become disabled, so we need to ask this question at least every five years.

Completing this form is voluntary, and we hope that you will choose to do so. Your answer is confidential. No one who makes hiring decisions will see it. Your decision to complete the form and your answer will not harm you in any way. If you want to learn more about the law or this form, visit the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) website at www.dol.gov/ofccp.

How do you know if you have a disability?

A disability is a condition that substantially limits one or more of your “major life activities.” If you have or have ever had such a condition, you are a person with a disability. Disabilities include, but are not limited to:

  • Alcohol or other substance use disorder (not currently using drugs illegally)
  • Autoimmune disorder, for example, lupus, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, HIV/AIDS
  • Blind or low vision
  • Cancer (past or present)
  • Cardiovascular or heart disease
  • Celiac disease
  • Cerebral palsy
  • Deaf or serious difficulty hearing
  • Diabetes
  • Disfigurement, for example, disfigurement caused by burns, wounds, accidents, or congenital disorders
  • Epilepsy or other seizure disorder
  • Gastrointestinal disorders, for example, Crohn's Disease, irritable bowel syndrome
  • Intellectual or developmental disability
  • Mental health conditions, for example, depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, schizophrenia, PTSD
  • Missing limbs or partially missing limbs
  • Mobility impairment, benefiting from the use of a wheelchair, scooter, walker, leg brace(s) and/or other supports
  • Nervous system condition, for example, migraine headaches, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis (MS)
  • Neurodivergence, for example, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder, dyslexia, dyspraxia, other learning disabilities
  • Partial or complete paralysis (any cause)
  • Pulmonary or respiratory conditions, for example, tuberculosis, asthma, emphysema
  • Short stature (dwarfism)
  • Traumatic brain injury
Select...

PUBLIC BURDEN STATEMENT: According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless such collection displays a valid OMB control number. This survey should take about 5 minutes to complete.