Open Position · Design

Line Designer

Through adequate design and project management, the Line Designer helps ensure our customers’ electric systems deliver the highest quality and reliability of service possible, from the line route to the finished construction package.

LocationWest side of Indianapolis

TypeFull-time

Travel25-35%, mostly Indiana

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The role

Duties & responsibilities

Job requirements include, but are not limited to, the following:

Investigate, survey, design, and stake electric distribution lines per construction specifications.
Oversee the construction or design of assigned distribution-line projects.
Prepare staking sheets.
Prepare work orders and other job material accurately and completely.
Direct and perform staking within existing RUS, state, local, and Alpha Engineering guidelines.
Cost estimating.
Create contracts for new and existing distribution lines.
Direct and perform maintenance on automated mapping and facilities-management systems.
Obtain easements and rights-of-way when needed.
Design power lines to fit the locality, weather, local activity, and operations.
Manage construction projects.

What it takes

Key competencies

Project management: you will carry several jobs at once, at different stages and on different clocks. That means holding a schedule, knowing what each one needs next, and adjusting when a client moves a date on you.
Writing and talking to people: our reports get read by boards, facility managers and crews, sometimes all three. You have to be able to write for those readers and hold your own on the phone.
Working through disagreement: vendors, contractors, and utility staff will not always agree on what is happening or whose problem it is. Getting to an answer without escalating is most of the job on a bad week.
Reliability: hit the dates you commit to. Our clients plan outages and order equipment around what we tell them, so a slipped milestone costs somebody real money.
Comfort in the field: you will be walking routes and looking at structures before you draw them, in whatever weather the route happens to have that week.
Build for the crew: a staking sheet is only good if somebody can work from it without calling the office. Designing with that in mind is the difference between adequate and useful.
Adaptability: routes change, easements fall through, and terrain does not match the record drawing. Reworking a design without losing the thread is routine here.
Comfort with the math behind load forecasting, since a good deal of this work rests on a projection somebody has to defend.
Ability to apply basic concepts such as fractions, percentages, ratios, and proportions to practical situations.
Knowledge of GIS mapping, staking programs, the SEDC consumer-information system, and Microsoft Excel, Word, and Outlook; able to use PC systems and related software.

Background

Education & experience

Associate’s or Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering or Electrical Engineering Technology from an ABET-accredited university or technical school.
Experience in the utility or industrial power fields is a plus.
Knowledge of electrical theory; completed power-engineering courses preferred.
Able to use GPS equipment.
Maintain a valid driver’s license.
Must pass background and driving-history checks as well as drug and alcohol testing.
Good organizational and communication skills.
Comfortable interacting with customers.
Able to travel 25-35% of the time, with occasional overnight travel, mostly Indiana and occasionally surrounding states.

What we offer. Along with a competitive salary, we offer major medical, prescription, dental, and vision coverage; life insurance; short- and long-term disability; accidental death; 401(k); and profit sharing, plus PTO and genuine work-life flexibility.

To apply, email your resume to hr@alphaeng.us.