Lead Substation Engineer

Employment Type: Full-Time FSLA: Salary/Exempt Division: Arch Energy Department: Arch Energy

Reports to:

Supervisory Duties: No

The Lead Substation Engineer provides technical leadership and oversight for high-voltage substation projects supporting utility-scale solar and battery energy storage developments. This role is responsible for coordinating substation design, procurement, testing, construction support, and energization activities while ensuring quality, safety, reliability, and compliance throughout the project lifecycle.

Responsibilities / Essential Functions

• Lead physical and electrical design for AIS and GIS substations, switching stations, gen-ties, and interconnection facilities.
• Direct protection and control design, including relay schemes, AC/DC systems, SCADA, RTU, metering, telecom, and related interfaces.
• Manage EOR deliverables, design reviews, comment resolution, and utility coordination.
• Coordinate with utilities, transmission owners, OEMs, engineers, commissioning teams, and construction personnel.
• Perform design reviews to ensure technical accuracy, constructability, quality, and compliance.
• Review technical studies, including grounding, lightning protection, relay coordination, short-circuit, arc-flash, and load-flow studies.
• Develop and review equipment specifications and support procurement activities.
• Plan and witness factory acceptance testing (FAT) for major substation equipment.
• Provide field engineering support, site inspections, QA/QC reviews, and issue resolution during construction.
• Support testing, commissioning, energization, and project turnover activities.
• Identify and mitigate technical risks, design conflicts, and schedule impacts.
• Develop standards, specifications, templates, and best practices.
• Mentor engineers and designers and provide technical leadership across projects.
• Ensure engineering deliverables satisfy EPC contracts, utility standards, and interconnection requirements.

Key Skills

• High-voltage substation design and engineering
• AIS and GIS substation systems
• Protection and control systems
• Relay schemes and coordination
• SCADA, RTU, telecom, and metering systems
• Design review and quality control
• Utility and stakeholder coordination
• Equipment specification and procurement support
• Factory acceptance testing and commissioning
• Technical leadership and mentoring
• Risk management and problem-solving
• Strong written and verbal communication

Required Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from an accredited program.
• 8+ years of high-voltage substation engineering experience in an EPC, utility, owner, OEM, or consulting environment.
• Experience serving as a discipline lead or technical lead.
• Experience with 115 kV or higher substations.
• GIS substation experience strongly preferred.
• Experience coordinating EOR packages, design reviews, testing, and energization activities.
• Hands-on experience supporting or witnessing FATs for substation equipment.
• Knowledge of IEEE, NESC, NEC, NFPA 70E, ANSI/NETA, IEC, and utility standards.
• Proficiency with AutoCAD, MicroStation, Bluebeam, or similar platforms.
• Familiarity with grounding software and relay-setting/testing tools.
• Ability to travel to project sites, OEM facilities, utility meetings, and engineering offices as needed.