Principal Engineer - Substation Commissioning

The Team

The Principal Engineering Group within the Substation Commissioning Team serves as the technical bridge between engineering design and field execution. This group provides advanced engineering support to commissioning teams, ensuring that substation designs are constructible, testable, and capable of safe energization. Principal Engineers focus on resolving complex technical issues, developing commissioning standards, supporting field execution, and coordinating across disciplines.

Job Summary

• Supports commissioning teams by resolving defined technical issues with guidance from senior engineers.
• Reviews protection, control, and SCADA designs for basic constructability and testability.
• Assists with development of commissioning test plans and procedures for standard applications with support/review from senior engineers
• Supports field teams with relay logic interpretation, test result review, and troubleshooting.
• Participates in engineering and commissioning project meetings and RFIs as a technical contributor.
• Applies established commissioning standards, tools, and checklists; checks project results for alignment with standards.

Key Responsibilities

Field Engineering Support

• Troubleshoot and resolve complex design, logic, and protection issues encountered during commissioning, including protection, lockout logic, interlocks, and control schemes.  
• Serve as the technical liaison between field commissioning teams, relay settings engineers, SCADA engineers, design engineering management, construction teams, and external EPCs or utilities.
• Review and respond to client RFIs related to protection philosophy, commissioning approach, and testing limitations.
• Review commissioning test results, relay event reports, and as ‑ found conditions to identify root causes and recommend corrective actions.
• Provide on ‑ call or scheduled engineering support to field teams during critical testing and energization activities.

Standards, Tools, and Process Development

• Develop and maintain commissioning standards, technical guidance documents, templates, and checklists.
• Support development of Engineering tools and process improvements that support both Engineering teams and Commissioning teams.
• Provide commissioning ‑ focused input into engineering standards, specifications, and compliance documentation.
• Identify recurring field issues and drive standardization efforts to reduce execution risk and rework. 

Commissioning Test Planning and Validation

• Develop commissioning test plans forongoing projects, standardize around typical protection applications to have baseline test plan templates
• Develop testing solutions for complex or non ‑ standard protection and automation schemes such as GOOSE/Sampled Values/Centralized and Virtual Protection.
• Define staged testing approaches, including bench simulation, lab testing, and end ‑ to ‑ end validation.
  

Design Review and Constructability

• Review protection, control, and SCADA designs for constructability, testability, and commissioning feasibility.
• Identify design assumptions that may impact field testing or operational performance.  
• Provide direct feedback to engineering teams to resolve constructability issues prior to field execution.
• Interdisciplinary and External Coordination
• Coordinate across protection, SCADA, relay settings, construction, and commissioning disciplines.
• Participate in coordination meetings with project management, engineering, EPC partners, and owners to resolve technical execution issues.
• Provide commissioning ‑ focused recommendations during client and utility discussions.
  

Continuous Improvement and Mentorship

• Identify process inefficiencies and recommend improvements to commissioning workflows.  
• Mentor junior engineers and field staff on protection concepts, commissioning logic, and troubleshooting methods.
• Promote a culture of technical rigor, quality, knowledge sharing, and continuous improvement

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering or related field.
• 5+ years of experience in protection & control engineering, relay settings, substation commissioning, or related roles.

Preferred Software Competency

• Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio, SharePoint).

• Engineering/Design Software (Bluebeam, Autocad, Microstation).

• Network Simulation Software (ASPEN/CAPE/ETAP).

• Relay Settings & SCADA Software (SEL/GE/EATON/SIEMENS).

• Testing & Commissioning Software (Doble/Omicron).

Minimum Qualifications

No prior startup experience required. All applicants must be able to complete pre-employment onboarding requirements (if selected) which may include any/all of the following: criminal/civil background check, drug screen, and motor vehicle records search, in compliance with any applicable laws and regulations.

Certifications

OSHA 10 Hour Training