Structural Design Engineer

Join Our Team At Dis-Tran Packaged Substations

Dis-Tran Packaged Substations has been an industry leader in the design and supply of high-voltage, open-air substations, and switchyards since 1965. Over a half-century of building meaningful relationships with our customers and vendors boils down to one thing: people. We take pride in our collaborative approach where everything we do is designed to deliver the project the right way, your way. Though we have grown over the years, and now offer new innovations like our Factory-Built Substations, our age-old commitment will never change: to take care of you like family.

The Design Engineer (DE) shall be a member of a project engineering team responsible for completing assigned tasks within the allotted schedule and cost constraints. The Design Engineer shall report directly to the Manager of the Engineering Department, who is responsible for managing the engineering and design schedules and supervising team members. The Design Engineer shall be fully capable and willing to perform all tasks assigned by the Manager of the Engineering Department.

The Design Engineer shall be the single person on the Engineering and Design Team who is responsible and accountable for all aspects related to the structural and physical substation design of the project. The engineer is expected to be knowledgeable in all aspects of substation design, including structural steel, foundations, rigid and flexible bus design, substation layout, electrical clearance and safety requirements, and equipment functions and their purpose. The engineer assigned to perform the structural calculations on a project is expected to follow the project throughout the design process, supporting the design team and providing technical advice. The engineer shall provide guidance, direction, instruction, and leadership to the design team pertaining to technical issues. The main objectives for the design engineer shall be 0 Errors, 0 Missed Commitments, and efficient production.

Core Competencies:

• Customer Focus
• Decision Quality
• Business Insight
• Drives Results
• Collaborates
• Communicates Effectively
• Courage
• Instills Trust
• Manages Ambiguity

Essential Duties And Responsibilities:

• Subject matter expert in folded plate structure design,
• Creating and/or checking structural steel designs and calculations,
• Creating and/or checking foundation designs and calculations,
• Creating and/or checking rigid bus calculations, and
• Creating and/or checking sag and tensions designs and calculations,
• Subject matter expert in folded plate structure design
• The DE shall be capable of applying engineering principles, judgment, and knowledge to develop innovative and cost saving solutions for all Dis-Tran projects.
• The DE shall be responsible for producing accurate and organized structural calculations, for customer review, sizing all structural elements for structures to be fabricated as well as providing reactions for foundation design.
• The DE shall be fully knowledgeable of Dis-Tran design standards including all applicable building codes and standards relating to physical and structural substation design.
• The DE shall produce efficient steel designs that meet all requirements of building codes, customer specifications, and equipment operational requirements. The engineer is expected to and be responsible for ensuring that all reasonable efforts are made to keep steel designs within the quoted steel cost.
• The DE shall have a thorough knowledge of all electrical clearance requirements, and assure they are met.
• The DE shall have a thorough knowledge of the function and operation of all substation equipment. Applying this knowledge is critical to producing adequate structure designs.
• The DE shall have a working knowledge of all engineering software used by Dis-Tran.
• The DE shall be capable of reviewing/checking the bus design and structural layout for all projects.
• The DE shall be able to produce foundation designs and foundation construction drawings.
• The DE shall be responsible for following the project throughout the design process, supporting the design team on technical matters, and ensuring that their design intent is maintained.
• The DE shall be responsible for helping, including working with project management, to resolve or remove any impediments to the successful completion of the project.
• The DE shall be responsible for knowing and understanding the specifications and/or customer requests – communicating any items that may be easily missed to the design team. It is expected that the engineer will remain in touch with the design team on a periodic basis while the work is ongoing.
• The DE shall proactively schedule any team meetings that may be necessary due to multitudes of customer changes, piecemealed information, a sense of team confusion, conflicting specifications, progress getting off track, etc. Also, the engineer shall help make any decisions necessary to keep all parts/aspects of the project moving forward.
• The DE shall schedule any necessary check points for drawing and/or drawing package review to ensure the highest quality possible (ex. scheduling a checking session to review the entire drawings package for an EPC job to ensure all changes or modifications along the way were incorporated).
• All structural-related submittals are to be funneled through the responsible engineer for review prior to submittal.
• The DE shall assist the Proposal Department, when required, by providing structural design and anchor bolt estimates for bid purposes, including sketches for customer clarifications when required. The structural design estimates will typically involve determining the weights of individual structures utilizing established Dis-Tran standards.
• The Design Engineer must be willing to work with substation designers to improve accuracy and efficiency in production of construction and shop drawings.
• The Design Engineer must be willing to work with project managers and/or substation designers to coordinate structural portions of projects.
• The Design Engineer must be willing to work with project managers/coordinators to resolve field problems in a timely and cost-efficient manner.
• The Design Engineer must be willing to work with other engineering staff members to improve accuracy and efficiency of design methods.
• The Design Engineer shall be responsible for communicating with customers as needed to explain or clarify structural related matters.
• The Design Engineer shall be capable and willing to assist other groups by being part of developmental teams as needed. The Design Engineer shall also be capable and willing to assist other Dis-Tran operating companies when required in providing engineering effort for their needs.
• The Design Engineer must be willing to work overtime as needed to complete assigned project tasks on schedule as requested by the Manager of the Engineering Department.
• The Design Engineer must be able to work efficiently and must be task focused at all times realizing that early completion of any task is important to the success of the project as a whole and to a greater extent the success of the company.
• The Design Engineer shall be willing to assist in the research/development of new productivity tools to be used within the existing design software. The Design Engineer shall notify the Manager of the Engineering Department of any procedures that might be enhanced to improve productivity.
• The Design Engineer shall be responsible for providing periodic schedule updates to the Manager of the Engineering Department for tasks that are in process.

Education And Experience:

• Bachelor's Degree in Civil Engineering with a concentration in Structural Engineering is preferred or Mechanical Engineering from an accredited college or University.
• Structural Licensure (SE) is preferred.
• Knowledge of PLS is required.
• Knowledge of substation and transmission line folded plate structure design and fabrication is required.
• Working knowledge of Staad Pro, MathCAD, Risa, L-Pile is preferred.
• Excellent communication, organization, and writing skills are necessary.