Senior Project Lead Engineer - Protection and Controls

About the role

ABB is looking for a Senior Project Lead Engineer with a strong background in Protection and Controls to join its Automation Energy Industries division in Houston, Texas. The role reports to the Electrical Engineering Manager and follows a hybrid work model. It sits within a team involved in substation design, protection and controls engineering, power system studies and power management systems, covering power infrastructure up to 69kV.

Key responsibilities

• Lead and support engineering projects, keeping them on scope, schedule and quality expectations.
• Create and review substation and electrical building integration design packages, following projects from concept to construction completion.
• Lead customer technical meetings, design reviews and interdisciplinary coordination meetings.
• Serve as technical lead for Protection and Controls, giving guidance, standards and oversight to the engineering team.
• Develop and review protection and control designs, including relay selection, protection philosophies, settings, configuration and coordination.
• Mentor team members on protection and control best practices.
• Review engineering deliverables for accuracy, consistency and compliance with standards and project specs.
• Oversee multi-discipline vendors and subcontractors and support proposals, estimates, risk assessments and execution planning.
• Depending on experience, also perform and review power system studies (short circuit, protection coordination, arc flash, load flow) and design or implement power management systems.

Required profile

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering.
• 10+ years in power systems engineering with experience in Protection and Controls.
• Proven experience as Lead Project Engineer or Engineering Lead on complex projects, leading multidisciplinary teams.
• Ability to mentor junior engineers and handle about 25% travel to customer and manufacturing sites.
• Professional Engineering (PE) designation strongly preferred.

Required skills

• Strong knowledge of protection principles, relay coordination and protection scheme design for medium and high voltage systems.
• Hands-on experience configuring protective relays (SEL, GE, Siemens, ABB or similar).
• Experience with power system studies and power system analysis software such as ETAP, SKM PowerTools, EasyPower or PSCAD.
• Familiarity with substation design and electrical building integration, and familiarity with PMS or SCADA is an asset.
• Knowledge of IEEE, NFPA, NEC, ANSI and IEC standards.

What we offer

• Hybrid work arrangement.
• Medical plans (PPO or high-deductible), dental, vision, life insurance and short- and long-term disability coverage.
• 401(k) savings plan with company contributions and an employee stock acquisition plan.
• 11 paid holidays, paid parental leave and an employee assistance program.