Principal Engineer, Electrical Planning and Design

About us

National Grid is hiring a Distribution Principal Engineer for our Distribution Planning & Asset Management (DPAM) department in Albany, NY.

Every day we deliver safe and secure energy to homes, communities, and businesses. We are there when people need us the most. We connect people to the energy they need for the lives they live. 

The pace of change in society and our industry is accelerating and our expertise and track record puts us in an unparalleled position to shape the sustainable future of our industry. To be successful we must anticipate the needs of our customers, reducing the cost of energy delivery today and pioneering the flexible energy systems of tomorrow. This requires us to deliver on our promises and always look for new opportunities to grow, both ourselves and our business.

Job Purpose

The Customer Facilities  Engineer in Distribution Planning & Asset Management will be the customer-facing lead engineer, solely responsible for the review and acceptance of non-utility, customer-owned and customer-designed electrical service interconnections, including non-typical low voltage services, medium voltage services and high voltage substation-level services.  This position is responsible for marshalling the various engineering resources within the Company  on behalf of our larger customers, to develop a safe and reliable electrical service interconnection.  Furthermore, this position is responsible for the development of and maintenance of the Company’s various Electric System Bulletins, which are publicly accessible documents that provide technical guidance and requirements for establishing electrical service interconnections with the Company’s service territory. Due to the unique role and requirements of this position, the Customer Facilities Engineer is often asked to participate in various Company focus groups and discussions, especially when relevant to our customers and the electrical contracting and consulting industries.

Key Accountabilities

• Collaborate with external customers, their consultants and contractors in an effort to design a suitable electric service interconnection solution for various diverse projects in the commercial, industrial and generation sectors.
• Coordinate and collaborate with internal departments as necessary to accomplish electrical service interconnections for our valued customers.  .
• This position provides technical assistance and professional engineering advice to non-technical department within the Company as well as external customer, contractors and engineering consultants..
• This position prepares appropriate correspondence, specifications and sketches covering the details of a customer’s installation.
• Provides assurance that corporate standards and national standards and guidelines are adhered to, as applicable and the integrity of the electrical system is maintained in all customer installations where the system would be affected.
• The position  is responsible to establish company wide standards and policies in an orderly and effective manner to produce externally facing documentation for electrical specifications.
• Represent the Company in legal matters as applicable to the position.
• Represent the company on industry and regulatory working groups as appropriate.  Assure the focus and attainment of business goals and objectives

Supervisory/Interpersonal- Experience Required

• Able to line manage a team of engineering resources to develop new business ideas, throughout the project lifecycle.

Qualifications

• A Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from an ABET accredited engineering school.
• A Professional Engineer’s license, or ability to attain a Professional Engineer’s license in the State of New York
• Ability to understand and explain electric power system fundamentals and apply such fundamentals to external customers and their contractors and engineering consultants
• A minimum of 14 years of related experience
• Expert knowledge of relevant industry practice, standards and legislation.
• Expert knowledge of the Company’s internal design and construction standards
• Knowledge of current trends within the industry and developments in legislation or regulation.
• Knowledge of National Grid's business operations, company policies and practices.
• Strong organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple tasks and projects simultaneously.
• Work in a Project Management team environment.
• Adapts approach and considers what is important to the audience and tailors message accordingly.
• Ability to understand challenges facing our customers in developing affordable, timely, and reliable electrical service solutions
• Actively builds and maintains a network of relationships, outside normal business contacts.
• Takes personal responsibility for correcting problems promptly and non-defensively; communicates engineering customer expectations to monitor delivery of engineering projects and satisfaction.
• Proactively makes changes to improve performance, efficiency and effectiveness of processes; for example, challenge existing engineering procedures and highlight areas for improvement.
• Possesses positive expectations for team members and expresses regard for them.
• Is receptive to change and is willing to change ideas or opinions based on new information or contrary evidence.
• Valid driver’s license required.

More Information

Salary: $144,000 - $203,000

This position has a career path which provides for advancement opportunities within and across bands as you develop and evolve in the position; gaining experience, expertise and acquiring and applying technical skills. Internal candidates will be assessed and provided offers against the minimum qualifications of this role and their individual experience. 

 National Grid is proud to be an affirmative action employer. We encourage minorities, women, individuals with disabilities and protected veterans to join the National Grid team.  

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