Protective Relay Settings Engineer – Entry Level

Job Responsibilities

• Develops understanding of assigned client standards, policies, and procedures by reading and applying specific design guides, protection philosophies, standards, systems, and applicable engineering codes.
• Develops an understanding of and complies with Commonwealth Associates' quality program.
• Supports continuous improvement and change management efforts by proactively presenting leadership with new suggestions around process and practices innovation.
• Takes ownership of one's own professional development, striving for high-quality performance; remains self-aware and seeks support, guidance, and mentorship from other more experienced engineers.
• Attends internal and external client meetings, conference calls, and client site visits accompanied by a mentor.
• In collaboration with the Business Development department, represents the company's emerging professional engineers at career fairs as needed.
• Supports the needs of the internal project team while gaining a basic understanding of external clients' main interests, expectations, protection requirements, and project drivers.
• Coordinates with project teams, cross-functional teams, and other groups within the company to provide information and assistance as directed.
• Works with administrative staff to coordinate tasks and prepare documents.
• Collects, assimilates, reviews, and manages electrical system and equipment data used for engineering analysis and protective relay settings development.
• Assists with the development and maintenance of power system models used for fault analysis, protection studies, coordination, and relay settings calculations.
• Contributes to the preparation of engineering deliverables such as protective relay settings, calculations, coordination studies, technical reports, and supporting documentation.
• Performs basic engineering calculations and analyses related to short-circuit conditions, fault currents, protective device coordination, and relay settings under the guidance of more experienced engineers.
• Assists with the development and review of protective relay settings for transmission lines, substations, transformers, buses, breakers, and other electrical system equipment.
• Reviews system configurations, equipment ratings, fault study results, and protection requirements to support relay settings development.
• Assists with evaluating protection schemes to support appropriate system coordination, selectivity, sensitivity, and reliability.
• Develops proficiency with applicable protective relay settings, coordination, and power system analysis software and tools.
• Performs routine research related to protective relays, electrical equipment, industry standards, client requirements, and protection methodologies.
• Coordinates with Protection & Control design engineers and other engineering disciplines to help ensure relay settings and protection requirements align with project designs and system requirements.
• Supports quality reviews by checking study inputs, calculations, relay settings, and technical deliverables for accuracy and completeness.
• Prepares basic engineering calculations following standard methods and principles used in similar engineering analyses.
• Understands and works within budgeted hours, schedules, and quality requirements.
• Completes expense reports and timesheets in a timely and accurate manner and seeks direction from a supervisor when conflicts arise.
• Remains aware and demonstrates understanding of project scope management.