Director of Substation Engineering

Overview

We are designing the grid of the future! 

The Director, Substation Engineering will develop, grow, and provide the overall vision, leadership, and management for EPE’s utility Substation Engineering practice. This role will be responsible for establishing and scaling EPE’s substation engineering capabilities, developing a high-performing team, overseeing operational and financial performance, and driving business development efforts to grow the organization.

The Director will initially focus on establishing and growing EPE’s physical substation engineering capabilities while developing the broader capabilities needed to deliver integrated substation engineering solutions. The role will work closely across EPE’s Protection & Control (P&C), transmission, distribution, project management, and other technical capabilities to support comprehensive solutions for electric utility substation programs.

The role will support utility transmission and distribution systems, including brownfield modifications and expansions, equipment replacements, capacity upgrades, and greenfield substation projects.  This position requires a strong combination of electric utility substation experience, people leadership, operational management, and business development. The successful candidate will be a seller-doer who understands utility engineering organizations and capital programs, can build trusted relationships with utility clients, and can establish and scale a high-performing engineering organization.

Responsibilities

How you can make an impact:

Practice Development & Strategy

• Develop and execute the strategy for EPE’s utility Substation Engineering practice, including target clients, service offerings, organizational structure, staffing needs, and growth priorities.
• Establish and grow EPE’s physical substation engineering and design capabilities.
• Develop the broader capabilities and delivery model necessary to provide integrated substation engineering solutions for utility clients.
• Expand capabilities supporting utility capital programs including substation expansions, transformer additions and replacements, equipment replacements, capacity upgrades, brownfield modifications, and greenfield substations.
• Identify opportunities to expand services based on utility needs, capital investment programs, emerging technologies, and changing grid requirements.
• Establish scalable engineering and delivery processes that support growth while maintaining technical quality, consistency, and project performance.
• Develop internal capabilities and strategic partnerships for supporting disciplines including civil, structural, geotechnical, and other engineering services as required.
• Collaborate across EPE’s P&C, transmission, distribution, planning, grid modernization, and project management capabilities to provide integrated solutions for utility clients.

Business Development & Utility Client Relationships

• Develop and maintain trusted relationships with electric utility clients and serve as a strategic and technical advisor for substation engineering and capital programs.
• Build relationships across utility substation engineering, transmission and distribution engineering, project management, sourcing, and capital program organizations.
• Lead business development efforts including opportunity identification, client engagement, capture strategy, proposal development, scope development, and contract support.
• Develop and maintain a strong pipeline of utility substation opportunities and translate the pipeline into sustainable backlog and revenue growth.
• Expand substation engineering opportunities within existing EPE utility relationships while developing new client relationships.
• Identify opportunities that leverage EPE’s combined substation, P&C, and broader T&D engineering capabilities.
• Serve as a seller-doer by maintaining direct involvement with clients and projects while developing additional client-facing leaders across the team.
• Represent EPE in client meetings, utility workshops, industry events, conferences, and other business development activities.

Technical & Project Delivery

• Provide leadership and oversight for utility substation projects from conceptual engineering through detailed design, IFC packages, and construction support.
• Oversee engineering associated with physical substation design, equipment layouts, plans and elevations, bus design, grounding, lightning protection, station service, conduit and cable systems, equipment specifications, and associated design calculations.
• Provide leadership for brownfield projects where constructability, outages, sequencing, existing conditions, and coordination with operating facilities are critical to successful execution.
• Coordinate multidisciplinary engineering activities across physical substation engineering, P&C, civil, structural, and other supporting disciplines.
• Establish engineering procedures, utility-specific design requirements, templates, technical review processes, and QA/QC expectations.
• Establish clear technical interfaces across engineering disciplines to support consistent and efficient project delivery.
• Provide senior technical and project oversight for complex projects and support resolution of technical, schedule, budget, and client issues.
• Maintain knowledge of utility design practices and applicable NESC, IEEE, ANSI, NEC, and other relevant industry codes and standards.
• Support development of project scopes, engineering estimates, schedules, staffing plans, and execution strategies.

Organizational Leadership & Team Development

• Build and lead a high-performing Substation Engineering team capable of supporting EPE’s growing utility portfolio.
• Recruit, develop, and retain substation engineers, designers, technical leaders, and other resources required to support growth.
• Establish the organizational structure and technical capabilities necessary to grow from individual projects into larger utility substation programs.
• Establish clear roles, responsibilities, career paths, and technical development expectations.
• Develop technical and people leaders capable of independently managing utility projects, clients, and engineering teams.
• Provide mentorship and coaching while creating an environment of accountability, collaboration, technical excellence, and continuous improvement.
• Balance staffing and workload across projects while growing the organization in alignment with secured work and anticipated demand.
• Foster strong collaboration across EPE’s technical disciplines to effectively deliver multidisciplinary utility projects.

Operational & Financial Management

• Own the operational and financial performance of the Substation Engineering practice.
• Develop annual budgets, revenue forecasts, staffing plans, and growth targets.
• Monitor backlog, pipeline, utilization, project performance, profitability, and resource requirements.
• Proactively identify risks and adjust staffing, delivery approaches, and priorities based on business conditions.
• Establish scalable processes and tools that improve project execution, quality, consistency, and efficiency.
• Identify opportunities to apply automation, standardization, and technology to improve utility substation engineering and design delivery.

Qualifications

Bring your passion, here's what’s needed:

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering or a related engineering discipline.
• Professional Engineer (PE) license or ability to obtain licensure in applicable jurisdictions.
• 12+ years of progressive experience supporting electric utility substation engineering and design.
• Significant experience delivering substation projects for electric utilities, including brownfield modifications, expansions, equipment replacements, capacity upgrades, and/or greenfield substations.
• Strong knowledge of physical substation design and multidisciplinary substation project delivery.
• Strong understanding of the interfaces between physical substation design, P&C, civil/structural engineering, construction, and utility operations.
• Demonstrated experience leading multidisciplinary utility substation engineering projects and teams.
• Understanding of utility engineering standards, capital programs, project delivery processes, and operational requirements.
• Demonstrated experience developing utility client relationships, supporting business development, and winning engineering work.
• Experience building, leading, and developing engineering teams.
• Strong understanding of project delivery including scope, schedule, budget, quality, resource management, and client expectations.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to communicate effectively with engineering teams, utility leadership, and executive stakeholders.

Preferred

• 15+ years of electric utility or utility-focused consulting experience supporting transmission and distribution substation programs.
• Experience developing or growing a utility substation engineering practice, department, or business line.
• Experience supporting multidisciplinary substation programs involving physical design, P&C, civil/structural engineering, and other supporting disciplines.
• Experience supporting both distribution and transmission-class substations.
• Established relationships within the electric utility industry and demonstrated success developing new utility business.
• Experience developing utility engineering standards, design processes, QA/QC programs, and scalable project delivery approaches.
• Experience with AutoCAD, MicroStation, Bentley tools, or other commonly used utility substation engineering and design platforms.
• Familiarity with design automation, digital engineering, and data-driven design processes that improve engineering delivery.

What Success Looks Like

The Director, Substation Engineering will establish EPE as a trusted engineering partner for electric utility substation programs by building a strong technical team, developing repeatable and scalable delivery capabilities, expanding relationships with existing and new utility clients, and creating a sustainable pipeline of substation engineering work.

Success will include establishing a strong physical substation engineering capability, developing the people, processes, and technical foundation needed to scale the practice, and working effectively across EPE’s P&C and broader T&D capabilities to deliver increasingly comprehensive solutions for utility clients.

Be a part of an innovative team shaping the grid of the future through advanced energy intelligence.  For more than half a century, Electric Power Engineers (EPE) has partnered with power and energy clients across the globe, providing consulting expertise and energy intelligence software solutions for complex engineering and grid modeling challenges. As leaders in the renewables space, we are focused on building a modern, secure, and resilient grid.   Join us in making an impact on the communities we serve and the environment in which we live. Together we can transform the future of energy.  

How we support you:

• Comprehensive health and wellness benefits including medical, dental, and vision with 100% premium coverage for you
• Generous PTO and paid holidays
• MyShare Employee Ownership Program
• Work with industry leaders
• 401K, up to a 4% match (100% vested from day 1)

Location: This position is remote.

Travel:  Occasional travel may be needed (10% or less)

EPE is an equal opportunity/AA/Disability/Veteran employer. The EEO is the Law poster, and its supplement are available using the following links: EEOC is the Law Poster

Third-Party Recruiting Notification

EPE does not accept unsolicited resumes from third-party recruiters. Any unsolicited third-party resumes forwarded by recruiters to EPE via our career page or to any of our managers or employees will be considered public information, may be treated as a direct application from the person identified in the resume, and will not be eligible for placement fee payment to the agency. EPE will not pay a fee to a third-party recruiter or agency without a previously signed third-party agreement and has not coordinated their recruiting activity with the appropriate member of the Talent Acquisition team. 

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