How to apply for Staff or Principal Applications Engineer

About Antora Energy

Antora Energy builds thermal batteries that store low-cost electricity as heat and deliver always-on industrial heat and power. The company says its products avoid supply-constrained critical minerals and multi-year construction timelines. It is hiring people who put team and mission first and value humility and openness.

About the role

This is a senior applications engineering role. You will build Antora's applications engineering function and own customer opportunities that do not fit standard templates. You will join first customer calls, run technical discovery, size and configure systems, and produce conceptual site layouts for industrial process heat and utility-scale power for data centers and the grid.

A typical day

A typical day may include a first call with a customer's technical leadership, technical discovery, and work on sizing, configuration, and conceptual site layouts. You will likely coordinate with business development on opportunities that do not fit standard tools and playbooks. Exact daily routines are not described in the job details, so ask about team structure and typical project flow in interviews.

Who Antora Energy is looking for

• Senior engineer with experience as a technical authority on first-of-a-kind or non-standard customer applications.
• Able to earn trust with senior customer technical leadership on the first call and lead technical discovery.
• Skilled at sizing and configuring thermal systems and producing conceptual site layouts and heat balances.
• Comfortable working across industrial process heat and utility-scale power applications in the U.S. and internationally.

Tips for this application

• Show one or two examples where you owned a non-standard customer application from first call through a configured solution, including how you handled constrained site conditions.
• Name the specific industries you have supported, such as industrial process heat, data centers, or utility-scale power, and describe the system sizes or load ranges you worked with.
• Describe your experience producing conceptual site layouts and heat balances, and list the tools or methods you used.
• Explain how you have worked with business development teams, since standard configurations run through their tools and playbooks and you will own everything outside that.
• Note any international project experience, because the role covers applications in the U.S. and internationally.

What to cover in your cover letter

Cover letter should focus on: first-of-a-kind applications you have led and the technical discovery you ran; your experience sizing and configuring thermal or energy systems for industrial or utility-scale customers; your ability to earn trust with senior customer technical leadership; and your interest in building a new applications engineering function at Antora.

Research before applying

• Read Antora's product materials on thermal batteries, including how they store electricity as heat and deliver always-on heat and power.
• Research Antora's target markets: industrial process heat, data centers, and the grid.
• Look up Antora's claims about avoiding supply-constrained critical minerals and multi-year construction timelines.
• Check Antora's public statements on company values, including team and mission first, connection through laughter and joy, and humility and openness.

Likely interview topics

Based on the job description, expect questions about:

• How you would run technical discovery on a first customer call for a novel thermal battery application.
• How you size and configure a thermal battery for an industrial process heat or data center load.
• How you produce conceptual site layouts and heat balances for a constrained site.
• How you would build the applications engineering function and decide what stays standard versus custom.
• How you work with business development teams and senior customer technical leadership.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Applying as a generalist without showing experience on first-of-a-kind or non-standard customer applications.
• Focusing only on standard product configurations instead of the custom work this role owns.
• Ignoring the customer-facing side of the role, such as technical discovery and earning trust with senior customer technical leadership.