Research Engineer, AI for Electrical Power Systems

Snapshot

Artificial Intelligence could be one of humanity’s most useful inventions. At Google DeepMind, we’re a team of scientists, engineers, machine learning experts and more, working together to advance the state of the art in artificial intelligence. We use our technologies for widespread public benefit and scientific discovery, and collaborate with others on critical challenges, ensuring safety and ethics are the highest priority.

About Us

We're now creating an exciting new team focused on catalysing AI breakthroughs through external projects and partnerships, with an emphasis on maximizing the efficiency while reducing the carbon footprint of energy generation.

We’re a dedicated scientific community, committed to “solving intelligence” and ensuring our technology is used for widespread public benefit. We’ve built a supportive and inclusive environment where collaboration is encouraged and knowledge is shared freely. We don’t set limits based on what others think is possible or impossible. We drive ourselves and inspire each other to push boundaries and achieve ambitious goals.

We constantly iterate on our workplace experience with the goal of ensuring it encourages a balanced life. From excellent office facilities through to extensive manager support, we strive to support our people and their needs as effectively as possible.

Our list of benefits is extensive, and we’re happy to discuss this further throughout the interview process.

The Role

In this role, you will work at the cutting edge of power systems and machine learning within a dedicated, impactful team of engineers and scientists at Google DeepMind. You will be instrumental in developing and deploying innovative AI solutions to optimize the operation of electrical power grids. This is an individual contributor role with significant opportunity to shape our technical direction and potential for future leadership growth. Your responsibilities will span the entire lifecycle of our projects, from foundational modeling of power system components and data generation to the implementation, testing, and real-world deployment of machine learning models.

Key responsibilities:

• Develop and maintain accurate computational models of electrical power grid components (e.g., transmission lines, transformers, generators, switches) and their operational constraints (e.g., power flow equations, thermal limits, voltage limits).
• Design, implement, and maintain robust systems and workflows for generating large-scale synthetic datasets of power grid optimization problems based on various open-source grid models.
• Implement and utilize traditional optimization solvers (e.g., linear programming, mixed-integer programming, non-linear programming) to solve power grid optimization problems within our generated datasets. This may involve adapting existing solvers or developing custom solvers using libraries like Gurobi, IPOPT, etc.
• Maintain and contribute to our machine learning codebase, ensuring efficient data structures and seamless integration with our power system models and optimization solvers.
• Participate in the deployment of trained machine learning models to cloud infrastructure, including the design and development of robust and scalable APIs for external access and integration.
• Design and implement rigorous unit, integration, and system tests to ensure the reliability, accuracy, and performance of our software and models.
• Analyze the performance of our machine learning models and traditional optimization methods, identify areas for improvement, and develop insightful visualizations of results, including power grid constraint violations.
• Work closely with a team of engineers and research scientists, and product managers to deliver real-world impact
• Stay up-to-date with the latest advancements in both power systems engineering and relevant machine learning techniques, and contribute your expertise to the team's collective knowledge.
• Work in collaboration with our Ethics and Governance teams to ensure our AI solutions for power systems are developed ethically and contribute to broad societal benefits.

About You

Essential Qualifications:

• Master's degree or equivalent practical experience in Power Systems, Electrical Engineering, or other related discipline.
• Demonstrable experience in designing, developing, and deploying production-grade software, particularly within the domain of Electrical Power Systems.
• Strong theoretical and practical understanding of power system fundamentals, including power flow, optimal power flow (OPF), and common operational challenges.
• Experience with machine learning models using frameworks, such as TensorFlow or Jax.
• Proficiency in Python
• Experience using commercial or open-source optimization solvers, such as Gurobi, CPLEX, IPOPT, or similar.
• A strong interest in applying artificial intelligence and machine learning to solve real-world challenges in the energy sector.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience developing custom optimization solvers or algorithms for power grid problems on top of standard optimization libraries.
• Familiarity with data science libraries such as NumPy, Pandas, and visualization tools (e.g., Matplotlib, Seaborn).
• Experience with cloud computing platforms (e.g., Google Cloud Platform, AWS, Azure) and containerization technologies (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes).
• Experience contributing to open-source software projects and a strong understanding of open-source development best practices.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to effectively communicate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.

At Google DeepMind, we value diversity of experience, knowledge, backgrounds and perspectives and harness these qualities to create extraordinary impact. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of sex, race, religion or belief, ethnic or national origin, disability, age, citizenship, marital, domestic or civil partnership status, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, or related condition (including breastfeeding) or any other basis as protected by applicable law. If you have a disability or additional need that requires accommodation, please do not hesitate to let us know.