Your Job
As a Senior Electrical Engineer (Substations) at DEPCOM Power, you will support the engineering design and development of substation physical layout and design packages as part of utility-scale Solar and Battery Energy Storage Solution projects. You will be responsible for all aspects of physical substation engineering—including layout optimization, bus design, grounding, lightning protection, and associated studies and calculations. This is a technical position that plays a critical role in enabling DEPCOM's in house substation engineering model by delivering high-quality, cost-effective, and constructible substation designs.
Our Team
As a Koch Engineered Solutions company, DEPCOM Power is a leading energy solutions partner for the utility solar and broader energy industries, providing project development support, engineering, procurement and construction, energy storage, repowering and operations and maintenance services. Our highly skilled team of conventional and renewable power industry experts work to deliver the lowest cost of energy and the highest rate of return.
What You Will Do
Substation Physical Design
- Develop physical layout drawings, including plan, elevation, section, and detail views for high-voltage substations.
- Develop physical design criteria and specifications for substation structures, equipment foundations, bus work, conductor sizing, and cable trenching.
- Perform calculations: bus and cable ampacity, ground grid sizing, lightning protection layout, lighting, rigid bus, conduit/cable fill, conductor tensioning/sag, and clearance studies, harmonic resonance analysis, insulation coordination, transient over voltage studies, and emt studies.
Protection and Control System Design
- Assist in designing protection schemes for high-voltage substations including line, transformer, bus, breaker failure, and overcurrent protection.
- Develop one-line diagrams, three-line diagrams, AC/DC schematics, wiring diagrams, and relay logic.
- Assist in specifying and program protection relays (e.g., SEL, GE, ABB) in coordination with system studies.
- Assist in developing substation control systems including breaker control, status indication, alarms, and interlocking.
Design Development & Drawing Packages
- Produce complete drawing packages from 30% conceptual design to Issued for Construction (IFC).
- Coordinate with civil, protection & controls, and SCADA teams for integrated substation design.
- Support and/or perform grounding (CDEGS, WinIGS)
- Conduct lightning protection studies for substation environments.
- Collaborate on load flow, short circuit, and insulation coordination studies for substation projects.
Standards, Quality, and Compliance
- Ensure substation physical designs comply with internal standards, NEC, NESC, IEEE, and applicable utility interconnection requirements.
- Develop and maintain standard templates, design libraries, and specification documents to streamline substation engineering workflows.
Collaboration & Field Support
- Support procurement by developing technical equipment specifications for transformers, breakers, and steel structures.
- Provide technical support to construction teams and respond to RFIs and field issues related to substation physical design.
- Participate in substation equipment factory acceptance testing (FAT) and field commissioning support as needed.
Who You Are (Basic Qualifications)
- Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering or related field
- Ability to travel up to 15% for site visits, design reviews, or FATs
- Experience in Power Infrastructure Design
What Will Put You Ahead (Preferred Qualifications)
- Experience working with utility interconnection teams and AHJs
- Working knowledge of SCADA and protection/control integration impacts on physical layout
- Familiarity with grounding and lightning protection design tools (e.g., CDEGS, or WinIGS, or XGSLab)
- Experience in design-build or self-perform EPC substation projects
- Knowledge of IEEE, NEC, and NESC standards related to substations
- Experience with insulation coordination, load flow, short circuit, harmonic resonance, and transient overvoltage studies using either ETAP or SKM, lighting design, lightning protection design, rigid bus calculations, lighting calculations, and cable fill/conduit calculations
For this role, we anticipate paying $110,000 - $150,000 per year. This role is eligible for variable pay, issued as a monetary bonus or in another form.
Hiring Philosophy
All Koch companies value diversity of thought, perspectives, aptitudes, experiences, and backgrounds. We are Military Ready and Second Chance employers. Learn more about our hiring philosophy here.
Who We Are
At Koch, employees are empowered to do what they do best to make life better. Learn how our business philosophy helps employees unleash their potential while creating value for themselves and the company. As a Koch Engineered Solutions company, DEPCOM Power is a leading energy solutions partner for the utility solar and broader energy industries, providing project development support, engineering, procurement and construction, energy storage, repowering and operations and maintenance services. Our highly skilled team of conventional and renewable power industry experts work to deliver the lowest cost of energy and the highest rate of return.
Our Benefits
Our goal is for each employee, and their families, to live fulfilling and healthy lives. We provide essential resources and support to build and maintain physical, financial, and emotional strength - focusing on overall wellbeing so you can focus on what matters most. Our benefits plan includes - medical, dental, vision, flexible spending and health savings accounts, life insurance, ADD, disability, retirement, paid vacation/time off, educational assistance, and may also include infertility assistance, paid parental leave and adoption assistance. Specific eligibility criteria is set by the applicable Summary Plan Description, policy or guideline and benefits may vary by geographic region. If you have questions on what benefits apply to you, please speak to your recruiter.
Additionally, everyone has individual work and personal needs. We seek to enable the best work environment that helps you and the business work together to produce superior results.
Equal Opportunities
Equal Opportunity Employer, including disability and protected veteran status. Except where prohibited by state law, some offers of employment are conditioned upon successfully passing a drug test. This employer uses E-Verify. Please click here for additional information. (For Illinois E-Verify information click here, aquí, or tu).
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