Greenhill

Details

Positions: Software Engineering Intern - Fleet & Grid Flexibility (Demand Response)
Location: Stanford / Palo Alto, CA (hybrid possible)
Innovation Area: Built Environment and Infrastructure; Energy Management and Efficiency; Grid Integration and Resiliency
Position Type: TomKat Center-supported
Compensation: $8,500
Internship Term: 8 weeks

Apply Here

Greenhill is building a new class of intelligent heat pumps and the foundation of American energy efficiency. We are building high-efficiency commercial heat pumps affordable enough to replace every gas furnace in America. Installation friction, not technology performance, is why commercial buildings remain stuck on decades-old HVAC systems. Building owners choose economic survival, not emissions. They're trapped paying massive energy bills because the upfront cost to escape is impossible. Greenhill has solved this with the Model G.

And we’re not just selling hardware. We’re building the world’s first cloud-connected, revenue-generating HVAC fleet. Every Greenhill unit is designed to be connected, observable, and controllable - so thousands of rooftops can behave like a coordinated energy system. That unlocks demand response and grid services: aggregating flexible capacity across sites, responding automatically during grid events, and sharing the value back with customers- turning HVAC from a pure operating expense into a revenue-generating asset.

If you want to build the systems that will define this century - where electrification scales like software and energy savings become a platform - join us!

Responsibilities

This is a full end-to-end summer build. Your mission is to take Greenhill’s “Flex Capacity” vision from idea to prototype.

Map the end-to-end system architecture (edge hardware, connectivity, cloud, fleet control, DR integrations, performance verification, customer value-sharing).
Define the edge telemetry + control approach: required signals, safe/reliable collection, intermittent connectivity handling, and secure device identity/access.
Design the cloud foundation: provisioning/auth, APIs, telemetry ingestion, time-series storage, monitoring/alerting, and audit logs.
Prototype the DR dispatch loop: event intake, staged curtailment, comfort/safety guardrails, fail-safes, rollback, and performance reporting..
Deliver a ship-ready package: architecture diagrams, interface specs, threat model, prototype/simulator demo, and a production roadmap.

Who Should Apply

You’re the type who wants to build software that touches the physical world and has to work when it matters. You get excited about platforms that manage and control a distributed fleet - where reliability, observability, and correctness are part of the product.

If you want a summer project that feels like cloud infrastructure + fleet control + energy markets, this is it. Roles at modern energy companies describe their cloud services as the “heart” that manages/monitors/controls a distributed fleet - this internship is exactly that, applied to commercial heat pumps at scale!

Required Expertise

Strong programming ability (Python plus one of: Go / Java / TypeScript or similar)
Solid CS fundamentals: data structures, APIs, systems thinking, debugging, and writing production-quality code
First principles approach to software engineering.
Deep understanding of the software development lifecycle, including version control, code reviews, testing, and code quality assurance.
Hands-on experience with scaling cloud services using modern cloud technologies.
Comfort with ambiguity + high ownership (you can turn a big vision into a real build plan)

Preferred Skills/Majors