Watt you build matters. Watt we engineer lasts.
Our current mission is to use our strength to see the world differently, challenge the normal to help empower builders to construct high caliber assets, apace and differently.
LIVING OUR BEST LIFE
THE PEOPLE
The ohmies behind the work.
Every project moves through engineers who care about what gets built — not just what gets delivered. Here's who's at the centre of it.
We started Illumine-i with a simple conviction: that engineering done with rigour and care makes everything downstream better — faster approvals, cleaner interconnections, fewer surprises at construction, and assets that age well. That conviction hasn't changed. What's changed is the complexity of the problems our clients are facing. We built this firm to go there with them.
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- Nithish Sairam
Nithish Sairam
Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Built Illumine-i after making strides at Tesla, OneRoof Energy, and NextEra Energy - firms where engineering precision isn't optional. He started this company on a single conviction: that good quality engineering upstream changes everything downstream. Off the clock, he's chasing waves, raising two daughters, and cultivating the kind of monk-level calm that makes complex problems look manageable.
Sudarsan Krishnan
Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer
The person the engineering team calls when the answer isn't in the manual. Sudarsan brings experience from Sunrun, SGC Power, and Black & Veatch - and a mind that processes technical problems the way most people process conversation. He'll reference a scene from a TV show to explain a load flow issue, and somehow it'll make complete sense.
Sam Zegenbal
Chief Operating Officer
Two decades of enterprise leadership, including a long tenure at Barclays has given Sam a particular skill: making large, complex organisations actually work. At Illumine-i he runs engineering operations, process innovation, AI & Automation. The kind of operator who makes hard things look routine. Also the kind of person who makes every room more alive simply by being in it. Jazz aficionado. Football player. Undisputed main character energy.
Eric Steele
Engineering Manager
Licensed PE with deep roots in utility, generation, and protection engineering - shaped by years at Omaha Public Power District, Vivint Solar, and Sunrun. Eric's range covers multi-scale PV through substation protection schemes, and his appetite for the technical detail hasn't dimmed with seniority. Ask him a complex engineering question at 5pm on a Friday. He'll still be going at 7. When he's not engineering, he's hunting down a cuisine he hasn't tried yet.
HOW WE OPERATE
Enjoy the journey.
Illumine-i is a platform where good people come and do great things by being their unconventional self.
INNOVATION
Boldly seeking new solutions and embracing change.
We build tools, automate processes, and model problems before they surface on site, because faster and more accurate is always better than the way it's always been done.
INTEGRITY
Doing the right thing, the right way, every time.
We flag the issue. Even when the project is behind, the client is impatient, and the fix is inconvenient. You'd think that's policy, but it's just how we're built.
INTIMACY
Cultivating trust and collaboration so everyone can thrive.
We stay in the project from feasibility through interconnection to O&M questions two years after COD. Clients say we feel like an extension of their team. That's deliberate.
IVE OTTERSON // IDENTITY: SEA OTTER //OFFICIAL MASCOT OF Illumine-i
The cute face you know.
The curious case you don’t.
I’m a natural engineer, building complex dens and using rocks to crack open the ocean’s treasures. I’m built for resilience, wrapped in the densest fur and endowed with a lung capacity for deep, focused dives.
I adapt to shifting tides, and while resting, I hold hands with my tribe to ensure we never drift apart. Crucially, I am an ecosystem guardian, preserving the vast kelp forests that anchor coastal life.
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In me, Illumine-i has found its mirror. I embody a geek culture built on innovation, integrity and intimacy — determined to build a better world.
CAREERS
Find your geek tribe.
We're always looking for engineers who think in systems, not just components.
