Open Position · Planning

Power System Engineer

Through system planning, design, and project management, the Power System Engineer ensures our customers’ electric systems deliver the highest quality and reliability of service. The role develops short- and long-range distribution plans that emphasize economy, reliability, and compatibility, and performs relaying, coordination, arc-flash, and power-quality studies.

LocationWest side of Indianapolis

TypeFull-time

Travel5-15%, occasional overnight

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The role

Duties & responsibilities

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

Perform distribution-system protection analysis and provide support for others.
Assist in preparing construction work plans, long-range plans, system-planning reports, and system-protection and power-requirement studies.
Design electric-system facilities and develop specifications for major items of equipment.
Develop contract documents for construction and materials acquisition.
Monitor design and construction activities for compliance with NESC, RUS, and other standards.
Analyze current system data and produce plans for future transmission and substation capacity expansion, ensuring adequate capacity, reliability, and optimal economy.
Perform power-system studies in power flow, stability, and related topics using computational modeling platforms.
Facilitate planning of system additions, modifications, and improvements with interconnected utilities.
Perform power-quality investigations and troubleshooting, and develop corrective actions, reports, and findings.

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.
Problem solving: most of what we get called about looks like one event and turns out to be a pattern. You need to be the sort of person who asks what else this has happened to before deciding what caused it.
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: our engineers go look at the infrastructure before they draw it. You will be standing under lines and opening cabinets, not working only from record drawings.
Willingness to say what you actually think: our recommendation is the product. Clients pay us for a straight answer, including when the answer is that they do not need the work.
Comfort with the math behind load forecasting, since a good deal of this work rests on a projection somebody has to defend.

Background

Education & experience

Associate’s or Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering or Electrical Engineering Technology from an ABET-accredited university.
Experience in the utility or industrial power fields.
Knowledge of electrical theory; completed power-engineering courses preferred.
Knowledge of overcurrent relaying.
Knowledge of CAD software and a good understanding of electrical design and AutoCAD tools.
Good knowledge of the NEC and/or NESC.
Experience with engineering software such as ASPEN, EasyPower, ETAP, Milsoft, or SKM preferred.
Power-quality understanding, troubleshooting, and investigation skills.
PE, or the ability to obtain a professional license, a plus.
Maintain a valid driver’s license.
Must pass background and driving-history checks as well as drug and alcohol testing.
Able to travel 5-15% of the time, with occasional overnight travel.

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.