Principal Engineer - Grid Analytics & Technology Solutions

Puget Sound Energy • Bellevue, WA

14h

About The Position

The Principal Modeling Tools Engineer is responsible for the strategic operation, oversight, and continuous advancement of Electric System Planning’s distribution system modeling platform. This role provides technical authority and direction across backend data management, database administration, GIS integration, automation, and system integration to ensure that modeling tools and supporting applications are accurate, reliable, scalable, and aligned with longterm planning needs. 

This position has a broad scope of responsibility across systems, data pipelines, and modeling standards, and plays a key role in enabling planning studies, system reliability analysis, capacity planning, asset management, and other planning and operational needs across the electric distribution system. The Principal Modeling Tools Engineer works closely with engineering and data science teams to define data requirements, validate analytical approaches, and ensure consistency between engineering intent and analytical outcomes. 

Serving as a technical leader and primary point of integration between power system engineering, data science, and backend tooling, this role ensures that modeling tools, datasets, automated workflows, and system integrations effectively support forwardlooking analysis, scenario evaluation, and informed decision making. The position supports grid modernization initiatives and the integration of smart grid technologies, including distributed energy resources (DER), advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), and distribution automation (DA), by shaping how data and models are structured, governed, and evolved over time. 

The Principal Modeling Tools Engineer is accountable for establishing and sustaining modeling standards, best practices, documentation, and governance frameworks across the planning organization. This role provides technical leadership, mentorship, and guidance to engineers, data scientists, and project teams, influences tool enhancement priorities and investment decisions based on system impact and business value, and ensures modeling environments remain transparent, reproducible, and maintainable. 

The successful candidate is excited about realizing the future of energy delivery while meeting customers’ needs today, demonstrates curiosity and commitment to learning, and is passionate about driving continuous improvement at a system and organizational level.

Requirements

• Bachelor of Science degree or PE license in electrical, mechanical, civil, or other appropriate engineering field. A PE license may qualify in lieu of a degree.
• Extensive experience in planning, design, specification preparation, maintenance, project cost estimating and scheduling (typically achieved after ten (10) or more years practice as a degreed engineer).  Years of acquired experience is provided as a guide and alone does not constitute readiness for job level as individual’s skill acquisition rates can vary significantly.
• Advanced technical and scientific expertise.
• Experience leading engineering projects.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills.
• Ability to work effectively and collaborate with a wide range of internal and external customers.

Nice To Haves

• Experience working within the utility industry.
• Possession of a Professional Engineering License.
• Knowledge of engineering economics and utility accounting practices.
• Experience working on complex engineering projects.
• Advanced technical and scientific expertise.
• Demonstrated ability to lead and execute complex engineering work involving ambiguous problem statements, cross-functional coordination, and long-term technical impact.
• Demonstrated experience interpreting engineering and operational data to support analytical studies, scenario analysis, or predictive modeling.
• Strong understanding of electric distribution system concepts.
• Experience mentoring or providing technical guidance.
• Demonstrated proficiency in backend data, analytics, or automation environments, such as relational databases, scripting languages, or data pipelines.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical authority for data extraction, integration, and automated ETL pipelines from spreadsheet and database sources into SQL Server–based modeling databases, including the development and sustained improvement of Python and pandasbased workflows supporting model preparation and analytics.
• Provide oversight and technical direction for the administration of backend databases supporting power system modeling and analytics, including data validation, schema management, performance optimization, and backup procedures, ensuring longterm data integrity and system performance.
• Direct the development and maintenance of automation and scripting supporting weekly model builds, data quality validation, automated reporting, and repeatable analytical workflows, ensuring consistency and reliability across planning activities.
• Establish and sustain process monitoring, failure detection, and alerting for critical modeling and analytics pipelines, ensuring timely identification and resolution of issues.
• Provide technical leadership for GIStomodel data workflows between Smallworld, ESRI Utility Network, and engineering models, ensuring accurate geometric and electrical connectivity and alignment with engineering intent and spatial data analysis needs.
• Govern the configuration and ongoing maintenance of Synergi Electric equipment libraries, including transformers, conductors, switches, and protection devices, ensuring accurate electrical parameters, device settings, and consistency with modeling standards.
• Oversee the processing, cleaning, and application of time series data, including load profiles, generation patterns, and voltage measurements, to support planning studies, model validation, and predictive analytics.
• Lead collaboration with engineering and data science teams to interpret, validate, and prepare engineering and operational data for analytical and predictive models, ensuring alignment between modeling assumptions and analytical outcomes.
• Serve as the primary technical liaison by translating engineering requirements into data specifications, validating analytics model inputs, and communicating technical findings to stakeholders with diverse technical backgrounds.
• Establish, maintain, and enforce modeling standards, best practices, and governance frameworks; provide technical guidance and mentorship, and influence tool enhancement priorities and investment decisions based on system impact and business value.
• Maintain oversight of documentation for models, datasets, and analytics workflows; ensure effective use of version control using SQL and Git and adherence to change management practices to support transparency and reproducibility.
• Provide technical leadership for the development and maintenance of system integration interfaces and API classes with utility systems such as AVEVA PI Web API, ASPEN Database, GIS, AMI, SCADA, OMS, and EMS, supporting automated data extraction, transformation, and loading across systems.
• Guide ongoing and future integration of modeling and analytics platforms to enable forwardlooking analysis and informed decision making across planning functions.
• Serve as an escalation point for data quality and model performance issues, distinguishing between data defects, tooling limitations, and engineering intent in collaboration with planners and data scientists.
• Support emergency response work as requested and perform other duties as assigned.

Benefits

• Employees are eligible for medical, dental, vision, basic life, and short- and long-term disability insurance.
• There are additional voluntary options of supplemental life insurance, accidental death and dismemberment insurance, flexible spending accounts for health care and dependent daycare, and an Employee assistance program (EAP).
• For long term savings, PSE offers a 401(k) investment option and a cash balance retirement plan.
• Employees will also receive Paid Time Off (PTO) and Paid Holidays throughout the calendar year.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal
• Number of Employees: 501-1,000 employees