Protection and Control Substation Project Technical Lead

Stantec • North Charleston, SC

2d • Hybrid

About The Position

Join Stantec's Substation Engineering team as a Senior Project Technical Leader, providing overall technical leadership for complex substation projects from pursuit through design, construction, and commissioning. This senior seller-doer role is for an experienced substation protection and control engineer who leads people, addresses complex technical challenges, works directly with clients, and develops effective project approaches. The role leads multidisciplinary design teams in partnership with Project Managers to deliver safe, high-quality, constructible solutions that meet client expectations.

The position also plays a key role in winning work by leading technical proposal development, scopes of work, engineering estimates, schedules, staffing plans, and project budgets. It provides an opportunity to set the technical direction of major substation projects, influence how work is won and delivered, and develop future technical leaders.

The position primarily involves an office or hybrid work environment, with collaboration across multidisciplinary and geographically distributed project teams. Field assignments may include visits to substations, construction sites, and other utility facilities. Periodic travel is required to support client meetings, pursuits, project development, site investigations, design reviews, construction, and commissioning.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering or a related engineering discipline.
• Professional Engineer (PE) registration is required or must be obtainable as appropriate for the position.
• Minimum 15 years of progressively responsible substation engineering experience, including experience leading complex projects and design teams.
• Demonstrated experience leading complex substation engineering and design projects.
• Strong technical expertise in high-voltage substation engineering and significant protection and control design experience, including P&C one-line diagrams, AC/DC schematics, elementary diagrams, three-line diagrams, relay functional diagrams, trip and close circuits, breaker and disconnect switch control circuits, annunciator/alarm diagrams, panel layouts and elevations, wiring diagrams, cable schedules, input/output lists, SCADA point assignment lists, relay application and settings coordination, and bills of materials.
• Demonstrated ability to lead and coordinate multidisciplinary engineering teams.
• Experience developing engineering scopes of work, deliverable plans, labor estimates, schedules, staffing plans, and project budgets.
• Experience leading or making significant contributions to RFQ, RFP, and other competitive project pursuits.
• Strong understanding of substation constructability, brownfield interfaces, outage constraints, construction sequencing, and commissioning considerations.
• Knowledge of applicable substation codes, standards, and utility design requirements.
• Ability to identify technical and project risks, make sound engineering decisions, and communicate those decisions effectively.
• Strong client-facing, leadership, presentation, and written communication skills.
• Demonstrated commitment to mentoring and developing engineers and designers.
• Ability to travel as needed to support clients, projects, site investigations, construction, and commissioning.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with new substations, expansions, retrofits, or brownfield modifications.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the overall technical leader for assigned substation projects and pursuits.
• Lead protection and control designs for AIS and GIS substations, including greenfield installations, relay replacements, expansions, and brownfield modifications.
• Lead protection and control design across voltage classes from distribution/sub-transmission through 230 kV, 345 kV, 500 kV, and 765 kV, as applicable to project requirements.
• Lead multidisciplinary design teams that may include protection and control, substation physical, civil, structural, geotechnical, SCADA/telecom, and other disciplines.
• Establish the technical approach, design basis, discipline interfaces, deliverable strategy, and execution plan for projects.
• Lead design coordination meetings, technical workshops, interdisciplinary and constructability reviews, and resolution of complex technical issues.
• Ensure designs are coordinated, constructible, technically sound, and compliant with applicable client requirements, codes, and industry standards.
• Provide technical leadership through planning, detailed design, procurement support, construction, testing, energization, and commissioning.
• Partner with Project Managers to align technical execution with scope, schedule, budget, quality, risk, and client expectations.
• Lead technical development of proposals and pursuits for new and existing clients.
• Translate client requirements into executable scopes of work, deliverable lists, work plans, schedules, and staffing strategies.
• Develop and validate engineering labor estimates and project budgets, including assumptions, exclusions, dependencies, and technical risks.
• Coordinate proposal inputs across disciplines to align proposed scope, execution approach, schedule, staffing, and fee.
• Identify scope gaps and project risks during pursuits and develop appropriate assumptions and qualifications.
• Collaborate with Project Managers, account leaders, and technical teams on proposal strategy, client presentations, and interviews.
• Support transition from pursuit to project execution so the delivery team understands commitments, assumptions, budgets, and client expectations.
• Represent the technical team in client meetings, design workshops, proposal interviews, and project reviews.
• Build trusted client relationships through technical judgment, responsiveness, and understanding of client needs.
• Mentor and develop engineers and designers, including emerging discipline and technical leaders.
• Support resource planning, recruiting, knowledge sharing, and development of the broader substation team.
• Promote a collaborative culture focused on safety, accountability, technical excellence, and client service.
• Travel as needed to support clients, projects, site investigations, construction, and commissioning.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior