High Voltage Electrical Engineer O&M

Inch Cape Offshore Limited; Montrose; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Inch Cape Offshore Limited is seeking a High Voltage Electrical Engineer O&M to safeguard the HV electrical systems on the Inch Cape offshore wind farm. The role covers offshore and onshore HV balance of plant, protection, switchgear, and SCADA-linked diagnostics.

You will lead reliability-focused maintenance strategies, support outages, and ensure compliance with ISO 55001 principles while coordinating with contractors and stakeholders to optimise turbine availability and export reliability.

Qualifications

• Degree in Electrical or Power Engineering or closely related discipline.
• Strong technical grounding in HV systems, protection and control.
• Offshore wind or HV operating environment experience desirable.

Responsibilities

• Lead or delegated engineer for HV equipment integrity during operations.
• Oversee HV systems: switchgear, transformers, cables, protection relays, earthing.
• Develop preventative and condition-based maintenance strategies.
• Support life-cycle planning, obsolescence and RAMS alignment.
• Manage contractors, RAMS reviews, and outage plans.

Skills

HV operations

Safety leadership

Root-cause analysis

Contractor management

Stakeholder communication

Outage planning

Commercial risk awareness

Education

Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering

Tools

SCADA systems

Protection relays

Switchgear knowledge

Job description

High Voltage Electrical Engineer O&M

Location: Montrose, Scotland (3 days a week in the office, 2 days WFH)

Inch Cape Offshore Wind Farm is a 1080 MW offshore wind farm situated 15 km from the Angus coast in the North Sea. The project will transmit power to a new substation at Cockenzie, East Lothian, and contribute to the UK’s carbon emissions reduction targets. The windfarm will operate 72 turbines, generating enough electricity to power almost half the homes in Scotland.

Summary of Assignment

The High Voltage Electrical Engineer is accountable for the technical integrity, safe operation, maintenance strategy, and performance optimisation of the windfarm’s HV electrical systems during the operational phase. The role focuses on offshore and onshore electrical balance of plant, including turbine HV interfaces, array systems, the offshore substation, export system interfaces, protection and control systems, switchgear, transformers, SCADA‑linked alarms, and related safety documentation. The engineer ensures HV assets are operated and maintained safely, with availability and commercial optimisation, supporting turbine availability, export reliability and long‑term asset value.

Key Focus Areas

• HV operational safety and switching governance
• Fault diagnosis and technical response
• Maintenance of switchgear, protection, transformers and auxiliary systems
• Management of electrical asset integrity and risk
• Support for outages, campaigns, and offshore interventions
• Progress toward Authorized Person / Senior Authorized Person frameworks

Responsibilities

HV Asset Integrity and Technical Assurance

• Lead or delegated engineer for the integrity and reliability of HV electrical equipment during operations.
• Oversee HV systems including switchgear, transformers, cables, protection relays, earthing, metering, control systems, and interfaces between turbines, array network, offshore substation, and onshore connection.
• Develop and improve preventative and condition‑based maintenance strategies.
• Review inspection, test, alarm, and defect data; determine correction actions, risk ranking and repair priorities.
• Lead or support root‑cause analysis for trips, failures, insulation issues, protection mis‑operations, recurring alarms and loss of generation events.
• Support life‑cycle planning, obsolescence management, spares strategy and end‑of‑life decisions aligned with ISO 55001‑2024 principles.

HV Operations, Safe Systems of Work, and Switching Governance

• Ensure all HV work is planned and executed in compliance with site Electrical Safety Rules, permit‑to‑work arrangements, isolation standards and hazardous‑energy controls.
• Prepare, review or approve switching programmes, isolation plans, sanctioning for test arrangements, earthing arrangements and return‑to‑service documentation per authorisation level.
• Provide technical oversight to Authorized Persons, Senior Authorized Persons, technicians, OEMs and contractors undertaking HV work.
• Support development and periodic review of Electrical Safety Rules, operational procedures, contingency plans and emergency response arrangements.
• Promote a robust safety culture with emphasis on competence, safe isolation and safe work on dead equipment.

Fault Response and Operational Support

• Lead technical responses during electrical faults, turbine trips, array issues, offshore substation alarms and export‑related events.
• Support incident response assessments to minimise downtime while maintaining safety and compliance.
• Interface with the control room, marine coordination, OEMs, grid stakeholders and contractor teams during planned and unplanned interventions.
• Support major campaigns, including annual outages, HV inspections, statutory examinations, protection testing, cable diagnostics and retrofit activities.

Protection, Control, SCADA and System Performance

• Review and optimise protection settings and philosophy within approved governance.
• Support testing, analysis and verification of protection, control, interlocking, metering and communications systems for HV operation.
• Work with SCADA and control‑system specialists to investigate alarms, electrical events, disturbances and under‑performance.
• Analyse trends in trips, faults, transient events, insulation condition and availability losses to improve reliability and reduce recurring failure modes.
• Provide input into cyber‑aware operational practices for electrical control interfaces where applicable.

Contractor and Stakeholder Management

• Manage specialist electrical contractors, OEMs, framework partners and inspection/testing providers.
• Review RAMS, technical work packs, outage plans and contractor deliverables.
• Ensure high‑quality engineering records, defect closure, lessons learned and audit readiness.
• Support interface management with transmission, distribution and grid‑connected stakeholders where operational boundaries require coordination.
• Provide concise reporting to senior management, lenders, insurers, Board committees and shareholders on electrical risk, reliability and mitigation plans.

Continuous Improvement and Governance

• Drive improvements in electrical reliability, maintainability, spare parts resilience and maintenance efficiency.
• Support audits, certification interfaces, insurer recommendations and compliance reviews.
• Benchmark electrical performance and maintenance philosophy against prevailing offshore wind market.

Skills

• Strong safety leadership and judgement.
• Technical depth in HV operations and maintenance.
• Structured problem solving and root‑cause analysis.
• Clear written and verbal communication for board to field audiences.
• Planning and coordination under outage and fault conditions.
• Commercial awareness and risk‑based decision making.
• Ability to influence contractors, OEMs and internal stakeholders.

Knowledge

• Offshore wind experience in O&M phase.
• SAP/AP Authorisation or demonstrable capability to achieve authorisation under windfarm HV safety rules.
• Experience with offshore substations, array cables, export cables, turbine electrical systems and SCADA‑linked operational diagnostics.
• Knowledge of asset management systems aligned to ISO 55001.
• Familiarity with DNV, IEC, OEM electrical standards and assurance practices.

Qualifications

• Degree, HND or equivalent higher qualification in Electrical Engineering, Power Engineering or a closely related discipline.
• Strong technical grounding in HV systems, protection, control, switching and power system fault behaviour.
• Demonstrable experience in offshore wind, utilities, conventional generation, marine energy or comparable HV operating environments.

Apply now to join an innovative offshore wind project contributing to Scotland’s renewable energy future.