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Principal Protection & Control Engineer
The Client:
Our Client is an international and award-winning, multi-disciplinary Group of companies, operating and driving positive change in the electricity supply sector. With headquarters based in New Zealand, it’s heritage is rooted creatively developing, responsibly owning, and reliably operating electric utility infrastructure to serve local communities. Now, building upon many years of success, developing a reputation for quality services and technical excellence, the client is looking to expand its global presence by offering the same calibre of engineering consultancy and infrastructure design professional services into the UK market.
About the Role
With this exciting opportunity to be one of the early recruits that gets to shape client’s UK business, we are looking for a highly competent and experienced protection & control (P&C) engineer to take a leading role within this discipline, supporting the Chief P&C Engineer and leading winning and delivery of P&C work packages. The successful candidate will play an important role in taking client’s P&C engineering service offering into the UK electricity transmission & distribution (T&D) sector, pursuant to establishing and maintaining a reputable and profitable UK business, in line with the company’s values, objectives, and strategic plan.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES & DELIVERABLES:
• Undertake lead, approval and/or verification engineer roles on protection and control work packages/projects. Where required, this may also include undertaking similar client/third-party defined roles and associated responsibilities (e.g., National Grid Contractor Design Approval Engineer (CDAE) appointment), as required to take on responsibility for signing-off design documents.
• Undertake role of CDM Principal Designer representative, if required and if appropriate for the nature a given project.
• Support the Chief P&C Engineer with developing and implementing protection and control engineering procedures, best practices, and staff technical development paths. This includes producing technical and procedural authoring, as necessary.
• Support the Chief P&C Engineer with competency management activities for staff undertaking protection & control engineering work on behalf of the company. This may include carrying out technical competency assessments of more junior staff, as appropriate.
• Support the Chief P&C Engineer and UK Director with capability development, industry presence, and work winning activities relating to the protection and control market segment.
• Act in the capacity of a Supervising Engineer to provide day-to-day oversight of work allocation/delivery and professional development of allocated understudy (apprentice/graduate/assistant/staff engineer). Where feasible, be involved in the recruitment of the allocated understudy.
• Mentoring and training of junior P&C staff, pursuant to developing such staff into world-class engineers within their discipline.
• Drive the introduction of advanced techniques and technologies for P&C engineering and design, pursuant to continuously improving quality and efficiency of deliverables production and/or offering novel technical solutions and service offerings.
• Actively support engraining a culture of safety in design, technical excellent, and moral rigour in all decision making and work undertaken by staff.
QUALIFICATIONS & CERTIFICATIONS
Minimum:
• Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, or closely related discipline, from a recognised institution. Note: extensive equivalent training and experience may be accepted in lieu.
• Industry recognised advanced protection training certification or company programme.
• Membership of a relevant professional engineering institution (e.g., The IET).
• Relevant occupational health & safety qualification, such as IOSH Managing Safely. Desirable:
• Professionally registered as a Chartered Engineer.
• National Grid TP141 Protection Setting Engineer (Assurance and/or Verification) Authorisation.
• Record of appointments as a National Grid Protection & Control CDAE (FULL).
• Formal training in the requirements of CDM Regulations (2015).
• UK substation access and impressed voltage awareness training.
• Project related people, risk, programme, and financial management training.
EXPERIENCE, SKILLS, AND ATTRIBUTES
• 12+ years of experience in electricity industry, with at least 10 of those years being in roles with a significant T&D protection and control engineering component.
• Advanced knowledge of power system protection and control engineering, including conceptual and full detailed design, settings calculation, and relay file production, for a broad range of UK transmission and distribution protection schemes.
• Strong knowledge of design systems and software packages used for P&C scheme design and protection settings production.
• Good knowledge of and ability to implement P&C engineering and design management best practices.
• Significant experience operating in a lead/approval engineer capacity for P&C engineering packages (e.g., National Grid P&C CDAE appointment), producing high-quality deliverables on time and on budget.
Experience operating in a technical consulting capacity.
• Solid understanding of the requirements of UK safety, health, environmental, and waste management legislation, relevant to ElectroNet business operations and project work undertaken in the role. In particular, possess a strong grasp of the requirements of current Construction (Design & Management) Regulations and undertaking the Principal Designer representative role.
• Thorough knowledge and experience applying technical standards and related procedures of UK TNOs and DNOs, pertaining to protection & control engineering activities. In particular, those belonging to National Grid and SSEN network operators.
• Competency in safely accessing electrical substation environments and avoiding the dangers associated with impressed voltages.
• IT literate with a good working knowledge of using Microsoft 365 applications and CAD/technical software packages used in producing protection studies and P&C scheme design.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to effectively and collaboratively deal with a wide range of project and business stakeholders.
• Strong mentoring skills. Passionate about coaching and developing people.
• Ability to build strong relationships with client and industry contacts, to foster future collaboration and work winning opportunities.
• Ability to work well autonomously and as part of a team, and manage own workload to effectively meet necessary deadlines.
• Keenness and ability to proactively engage with the wider engineering community (nationally and internationally) to develop innovative techniques and thought leadership in the electricity transmission & distribution field.
• Empathy and understanding for all levels of the organisations.
• Always operate with a high level of honesty and integrity.
Working at the Client
As a member of our team, you will be part of a supportive work environment that encourages collaboration, innovation, and growth. We are genuinely passionate about creating a truly great place for our people to work.
We focus on pursuing amazing project opportunities, with good clients that share our values and ambition to make a positive impact on society. In addition to pension contributions and a highly competitive salary, we also offer a range of benefits including:
• Flex Program: flexible work arrangements to support balancing life’s commitments.
• 33 days of fully paid annual leave (including the normal 8 UK public holidays).
• Car Allowance of upto £8K Per Annum.
• Reward and recognition programme, professional development opportunities, and clear pathways for progression.
• Loyalty and service recognition benefits (starting at 2 years), including options for additional annual leave, increased pension contributions, and/or salary uplift.
• Contributions to health insurance.
• Two weeks fully paid parental leave.
• Paid professional membership fees, annual training course budget, and time allowance to undertake technical development activities. We are also open to alternative or reduced days/hours work arrangements, to suit your needs.
We believe that our strength lies in our diversity. We are committed to creating a workplace culture that is equitable, inclusive, and supportive of all employees.
Next Steps
Work on diverse projects, be part of the renewable energy transition, and grow your skills as a consultant with our team. Apply now! We will be reviewing applications as they are received, and we are happy to work with you to accommodate your personal circumstances in respect to a start date and transitional working arrangements. For more information or to apply for the role by sending a copy of your CV, please email to take this further.
