Substation Senior Design Technician

HDR•Billings, MT

10d

About The Position

HDR Engineering is seeking a Substation Senior Design Technician to join its Power Delivery team in the Substation group. The role focuses on designing mission-critical, fast-paced data center substation projects, drawing on CADD experience and prior work as a designer on high-voltage substation projects. The position involves work on simple to moderately complex projects, with opportunities to take on greater responsibilities in the growing data center market. The technician independently performs substation design and CADD tasks, develops drawings and documents, supports modeling and analysis, prepares material lists, and conducts field reviews. The role supports engineers with basic calculations, reports, and designs; coordinates with project managers, engineers, clients, and multidisciplinary design teams; and may assign and monitor task-level work performed by drafting technicians. Work is subject to engineering review and guidance appropriate to project complexity.

Requirements

A technical degree or at least 3 years of related industry experience.
Technical qualification with 3D design software and document management infrastructure.
Competency with Microsoft Office products and communication tools.
Experience with 3D coordination tools.
Excellent communication skills, attention to detail, and organizational traits.
Intermediate understanding of engineering or architectural concepts.

Nice To Haves

An associate degree or technical school degree, or a combination of education and relevant experience.
At least 5 years of experience developing substation CADD layouts and designs.
Previous experience with an architectural/engineering or engineering consulting firm.
Experience in protection and control aspects of high-voltage substation design, including preparation of one-line diagrams, relay and control systems schematics, and wiring diagrams.
Knowledge of NESC, IEEE, NEC, and other applicable codes and standards.
Extensive knowledge of major substation components and the types of drawings required to construct a high-voltage electrical substation.
Comprehensive knowledge of physical substation layout, elevations, grounding, foundations, and conduit.

Responsibilities

Independently perform substation design and CADD tasks, develop design drawings and documents, support modeling and analysis, prepare material lists, conduct field reviews, and perform related work for simple to moderately complex projects.
Prepare physical substation design drawings, including general arrangements, sections, grounding and conduit plans, and foundation plans.
Prepare substation bills of materials, including manufacturer part numbers, quantities, and footage.
Perform basic calculations, reports, and designs for low-, medium-, and high-voltage electrical substations and substation systems to support engineers.
Understand client standards and complete small to moderately complex projects, exercising judgment in design criteria, evaluation, and design subject to engineer review.
Perform most design responsibilities without assistance on simple projects and work independently with some engineering guidance on moderately complex projects, as experience allows.
Communicate with project managers, project engineers, and client personnel.
Collaborate with the design team to maintain an updated model and coordinate cross-discipline design and clash detection.
Coordinate with engineers to maintain accurate material lists and update them as required.
Assign task-level work to drafting technicians and monitor progress and quality through completion.