Substation Automation Engineer - Grid Modernization (IEC 61850)

The Opportunity

In this role, you may have the opportunity to:

• Lead the transition of IEC 61850‑based digital and virtual substations from pilot to production , shaping real-world grid modernization outcomes.
• Design and standardize secure, vendor‑agnostic substation automation architectures that improve resilience, flexibility, and scalability.
• Serve as a technical leader and subject‑matter expert , influencing system architecture, best practices, and emerging standards.
• Collaborate with utilities, technology partners, and industry groups (including vPAC Alliance ) to help define the future of protection, automation, and control.

*** Candidates located near any Black & Veatch U.S. Regional Office (bv.com/offices) may be considered. ***

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The Team

Black & Veatch is expanding its Power SCADA team to support a strategic grid modernization initiative focused on IEC 61850‑ based substation automation and virtual substation technologies. As a founding member of the Virtual Protection, Automation, and Control (vPAC) Alliance, Black & Veatch is collaborating with industry leaders to advance open, secure, and vendor ‑ agnostic digital substation solutions that replace traditional, hardware ‑ intensive architectures with virtualized, software ‑ defined platforms. Following successful pilot efforts, BV is now transitioning virtual substations into production environments. This role is being created to bring in experienced SCADA professionals who can help design, implement, standardize, and support production ‑ ready Power SCADA solutions that enable resilient, flexible, and future ‑ ready grid infrastructure. 

Key Responsibilities

IEC 61850 Engineering & Modeling 

• Develop SCL engineering artifacts including ICD, CID, and SCD files, datasets, logical node mappings, reporting and control blocks, and GOOSE publications and subscriptions. 
• Configure and validate MMS, GOOSE, and SV messaging for protection, automation, monitoring, and SCADA applications. 

Substation Networking & Time Synchronization 

• Design and document station-bus and process-bus network architectures using PRP/HSR, VLANs, QoS, multicast management, and traffic segmentation practices. 
• Design deterministic real-time networking paths for time-sensitive protection and automation applications, incorporating latency budgeting, PTP timing performance, and behaviors defined for substation-class devices meeting IEC 61850-3 and IEEE 1613 environmental and EMC requirements. 
• Diagnose and optimize real-time network behavior through traffic-capture analysis, timing-accuracy evaluation, and system-level tuning techniques for time-critical digital-substation workloads. 
• Develop PTP-based time-synchronization architectures including grandmaster, boundary, and transparent clock configurations and incorporate timing considerations into the system design. 

Protection, Automation & SCADA Integration 

• Integrate multi-vendor IEDs with protection settings and logic, coordinating measurements, controls, alarms, and event data with SCADA and HMI systems. 
• Apply IEC 61850 data-modeling concepts to confirm interoperability across mixed fleets of protection and control devices. 

Cybersecurity & System Hardening 

• Incorporate cybersecurity principles into system architecture, including authentication, role-based access control, network segmentation, secure communications, and device hardening. 
• Apply cyber-informed engineering principles by identifying high-consequence functions and integrating protective measures directly into system architecture, embedding security decisions from the earliest stages of engineering rather than treating them as add-on controls. 

Virtualization of Substation Functions 

• Develop and configure virtualized protection, HMI, gateway/RTU, and related substation applications on platforms including VMware ESXi with vCenter, vSAN, and NSX; Red Hat KVM or OpenShift Virtualization; and SEAPATH’s real-time, high-availability hypervisor platform designed to run virtualized protection, automation, and control workloads with deterministic performance and PTP-synchronized operation on industrial servers meeting IEC 61850-3 and IEEE 1613 criteria. 

Industry Engagement & Technical Leadership 

• Contribute to, or develop toward contributing to, IEEE and IEC standards and collaborative initiatives related to IEC 61850, digital substations, time synchronization, and cybersecurity. 
• Support participation in technical bodies and industry groups such as IEC, IEEE, CIGRE, ISA99, and vPAC Alliance workstreams. 
• Support the advancement and practical application of virtualized protection, automation, and control concepts in alignment with the architectural direction established by the vPAC Alliance. 

Project Delivery & Collaboration 

• Produce engineering documentation including network specifications, SCL models, timing plans, interface definitions, and system diagrams used across design, laboratory validation, and field implementation. 
• Collaborate with project managers, technical leads, clients, and vendors to align designs with project goals, operational requirements, and industry best practices. 

Preferred Qualifications

• Familiarity with cybersecurity frameworks for operational technology environments, including secure communications and system-hardening practices.
• Interest or participation in IEEE and IEC standards development related to IEC 61850, time synchronization, digital substations, and cybersecurity.
• Experience deploying or supporting virtualized protection, automation, and control applications on VMware ESXi/vCenter/vSAN/NSX, Red Hat KVM or OpenShift Virtualization, and SEAPATH’s real-time, high-availability hypervisor platform for vPAC workloads.
• Experience deploying virtualized substation workloads on industrial servers certified to IEC 618503 and IEEE 1613 environmental and EMC requirements.
• Familiarity with vPAC architectural principles and emerging practices for hosting protection, automation, and control systems on virtualized platforms.
• Interest in or experience with virtualized protection, automation, and control concepts. 
• Professional Engineer (PE) License.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Engineering from either a recognized accredited program in their home country or the country in which the professional is practicing.
• Minimum of 5 years related work experience.
• 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

• Professional Engineer (PE) license preferred

Work Environment/Physical Demands

• This position would require working in a typical office environment. The position may entail prolonged periods of sitting and computer use, and the professional would ideally be able to maintain focus and attention to detail throughout the workday. The position may also be require physical tasks during site visits, including crouching, grasping, and standing/walking for extended periods of time.
• Hybrid or flexible work options may be offered after the first 90 days of employment based upon manager discretion, job performance and work assignments.

Compensation Transparency

In accordance with local requirements, the annual compensation ranges for this role are listed below by state or jurisdiction and reflect the applicable office location(s) within each. Final compensation is determined based on factors such as skills, experience, qualifications, internal alignment, geographic location, and other factors permitted by law. 

• State of California: 125,879 - 237,640
• State of Colorado: 120,406-201,080
• State of Illinois: 120,406-201,080
• State of Massachusetts: 131,352 - 219,360
• State of Minnesota: 114,933-191,940