Senior Substation Physical Design Engineer

Job Description

As a Senior Substation Physical Design Engineer at Olsson, you’ll lead the physical design of high‑voltage substations supporting data centers and mission‑critical facilities. This role focuses on substation layouts, equipment arrangement, and constructability—delivering scalable, reliable power solutions.

You’ll lead designs from concept through construction, partnering with clients, utilities, and multidisciplinary teams to deliver well‑coordinated, buildable infrastructure.

Key responsibilities:

• Lead Physical Substation Design: Develop physical designs for high‑voltage substations and switching stations, including layouts, equipment arrangement, bus configurations, grounding, and site coordination—applying utility standards and industry codes to ensure safe, reliable, and constructible solutions.
• Project Leadership from Concept to Construction: Lead projects through planning, detailed design, and construction support, ensuring constructability, coordination, and schedule alignment through installation and commissioning.
• Client & Utility Collaboration: Partner with data center owners, developers, and utilities to define requirements and deliver power solutions that meet uptime, capacity, and future growth needs.
• Multidisciplinary Coordination: Work closely with protection & controls, transmission, distribution, civil, and structural teams to deliver fully integrated designs and provide technical leadership within project teams.
• Mentorship & Best Practices: Mentor engineers and designers while contributing to design standards, process improvements, and the continued growth of Olsson’s power delivery and data center portfolio.

Qualifications

You are passionate about:

• Working collaboratively with others.
• Having ownership in the work you do.
• Using your talents to positively affect communities.

You bring to the team:

• Strong communication skills.
• Ability to contribute and work well with a team.
• Excellent interpersonal and problem-solving skills.
• A bachelor’s degree in Engineering.
• Professional Engineer (PE) licensure.
• Eight or more years of progressive electrical engineering experience, with a strong focus on physical substation design and power delivery infrastructure.
• Experience supporting large‑load or mission‑critical facilities (such as data centers, industrial campuses, or generation facilities), including coordination with utilities, clients, and multidisciplinary engineering teams.