Senior Substation Automation Engineer: Grid Modernization

Black & Veatch; Irvine (CA); Hybrid; USD 163,000 - 308,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

ESOP ownership

Flexible work options

Competitive benefits

401(k) plan

Job summary

Black & Veatch is seeking a senior IEEE61850-focused engineer to lead the design and rollout of digital substations and virtualized protection, automation, and control platforms. You will shape open, vendor-agnostic architectures and collaborate with utilities, technology partners, and industry groups.

The role supports production-ready Power SCADA solutions with a focus on resilience, timing accuracy, and cybersecurity across multi-vendor environments; hybrid/in-office work arrangements are

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering required.
• 11+ years related experience preferred for senior roles.
• Experience with IEC61850 standards and substation automation is essential.

Responsibilities

• Lead IEC61850 engineering and modeling activities including ICD, CID, and SCD files, datasets, logical node mappings, reporting and control blocks, and GOOSE publications/subscriptions.
• Configure and validate MMS, GOOSE, and SV messaging for protection, automation, monitoring, and SCADA applications.
• Design and document station-level network architectures using PRP/HSR, VLANs, QoS, and multicast management.
• Develop deterministic real-time networking paths with accurate PTP timing and IEC61850-3/IEEE1613 compliance.
• Integrate multi-vendor IEDs with protection settings and SCADA/HMI data flows.
• Embed cybersecurity considerations into system architecture and hardening practices.

Skills

IEC61850 engineering

SCL/ICD/SCD modeling

MMS/GOOSE/SV configuration

Substation networking

Time synchronization (PTP)

OT cybersecurity

Virtualization (VMware/KVM)

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Engineering

Tools

VMware ESXi

vCenter

NSX

Red Hat KVM/OpenShift

SEAPATH virtualization

Job description

Black & Veatch is seeking a senior IEEE61850-focused engineer to lead the design and rollout of digital substations and virtualized protection, automation, and control platforms. You will shape open, vendor-agnostic architectures and collaborate with utilities, technology partners, and industry groups.

The role supports production-ready Power SCADA solutions with a focus on resilience, timing accuracy, and cybersecurity across multi-vendor environments; hybrid/in-office work arrangements are