Job Title: AMI Architect — Advanced Metering Infrastructure
Location: Los Angeles, CA, Oregon & Washington [On-site / Hybrid]
Type: 12+ Months Contract
Function: Grid Edge / Metering Technology
Reports to: Director, Grid Modernization (or Enterprise Architecture)
Role Summary
We are seeking an AMI Architect to own the end-to-end technical architecture of our Advanced Metering Infrastructure — from the meter endpoint and communications network through the head end and into the meter data management and billing/CIS layers. This person is the authoritative technical voice for how smart meters, the AMI network, and the head end system are designed, integrated, and operated at scale.
A central requirement of this role is hands-on architecture experience with a Universal Head End System (UHES) — a meter- and vendor-agnostic head end capable of managing a mixed fleet (e.g., Itron, Landis+Gyr, Sensus, Aclara, Honeywell/Elster) under a single platform. The successful candidate will understand the trade-offs between a single-vendor head end and a universal head end, and will be able to design an integration and data model that avoids vendor lock-in while preserving each vendor's advanced meter capabilities.
Key Responsibilities
- Define and maintain the reference architecture for the full AMI stack: metering endpoints, the communications network (RF mesh, cellular/point-to-point, PLC), the head end system, and downstream integration to MDM, CIS/billing, OMS, DERMS, and analytics.
- Architect and govern the Universal Head End System, including the adapter/driver layer that normalizes device management, on demand reads, interval data collection, remote connect/disconnect, firmware/OTA management, and event/alarm handling across multiple meter vendors.
- Design the integration between the head end and the MDM and CIS/billing systems, including the canonical data model, VEE (validation, estimation, editing) touchpoints, and command orchestration.
- Establish standards for endpoint provisioning, key management, and the meter-to-cash data flow, ensuring interval and register reads land accurately and on time for billing.
- Own the AMI network design and capacity planning: collector/router/gateway placement, RF propagation and coverage, backhaul, and read-success-rate targets and remediation.
- Lead vendor evaluation and selection for meters, network, and head end components; produce architecture decision records and defend recommendations to technical and executive stakeholders.
- Define non-functional requirements — scalability to full-deployment endpoint volumes, latency for command/response, high availability, disaster recovery, and data retention.
- Establish cybersecurity architecture for the AMI ecosystem: endpoint authentication, encryption in transit and at rest, certificate/key lifecycle, network segmentation, and alignment to NERC CIP (where applicable), NIST, and IEC 62443.
- Provide technical leadership through deployment: design reviews, interface control documents, integration test strategy, cutover planning, and production stabilization/Day-2 operations.
- Serve as the escalation point for complex head end, network, and data-quality issues, and mentor engineers and integrators on AMI architecture patterns.
Required Qualifications
- 8+ years in utility technology with 5+ years specifically architecting or leading AMI / smart metering solutions in production at scale.
- Demonstrated hands-on experience with a Universal Head End System — designing, deploying, or operating a multi-vendor head end and its adapter/driver layer. Ability to speak specifically to how a UHES abstracts meter comms and manages a heterogeneous fleet.
- Deep working knowledge of at least two of the major AMI ecosystems: Itron (OpenWay / Riva / Gen5), Landis+Gyr (Gridstream / Command Center), Sensus (FlexNet), Aclara, or Honeywell/Elster.
- Strong grasp of AMI communications technologies: RF mesh, licensed/unlicensed point-to-point, cellular (LTE/NB-IoT/LTE-M), and PLC — including their coverage, latency, and operational trade-offs.
- Proven integration experience between the head end and MDM and CIS/billing systems, including interval/register data flows, VEE, and command-and-control (remote connect/disconnect, on-demand read, outage/restoration, tamper events).
- Solid understanding of metering fundamentals: interval vs. register data, TOU, net metering, revenue-grade accuracy, and meter events/alarms.
- Experience defining and delivering enterprise-grade non-functional requirements (scale, HA/DR, security) and integration patterns (APIs, messaging, batch).
- Excellent communication skills — able to move fluidly between deep technical design and executive-level trade-off discussions.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience with Oracle Utilities platforms — Meter Data Management, Customer to Meter (C2M), CCS — and the Smart Grid Gateway (SGG) adapter framework, or comparable MDM platforms (e.g., Siemens/eMeter).
- Familiarity with industry data and interoperability standards: MultiSpeak, CIM (IEC 61968/61970), DLMS/COSEM, and ANSI C12.19/C12.22.
- Experience with grid-edge adjacencies: OMS/DMS/ADMS, DERMS, EV managed charging, and the use of AMI data for grid analytics.
- AMI cybersecurity experience aligned to NERC CIP, NIST, and IEC 62443, including endpoint PKI and key management.
- Experience leading large-scale AMI deployments or mass meter migrations, including phased rollout and legacy AMR/AMI transition.
- Cloud architecture experience for AMI/MDM workloads (AWS, Azure, or OCI).
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field; relevant architecture or PM certifications a plus.
