Principal or Senior Substation Maintenance Engineer

At PGE, our work involves dreaming about, planning for, and realizing a smarter, cleaner, more enduring Oregon neighborhood. Its core to our DNA and we haven’t stopped since we started in 1888. We energize lives, strengthen communities and drive advancements in energy that promote social, economic and environmental progress. We’re always on the lookout for people passionate about leading and being a part of teams that are advancing innovative clean energy solutions that are also affordable and accessible to all.

Summary/Job Function

This position will report to the Substation Maintenance Engineering team under the Standards, System Health & Maintenance organization and is based in Tualatin, Oregon at the Avery Regional Service Center. This role is focused specifically on the substation maintenance program for all Portland General Electric-owned switchyards and substations.

As a substation maintenance engineer, you will be assigned different levels of ownership of multiple substation apparatuses depending on how your skillset balances with the depth and breadth of knowledge of the existing team. For example, some of the apparatuses the team is responsible for are cables, capacitors, circuit breakers, lighting, switches, switchgear, and transformers. As an apparatus owner you will be responsible for all engineering recommendations related to that apparatus. You are responsible to support and enhance the corrective, preventive, or condition-based maintenance programs for your associated apparatuses managed through our Computerized Maintenance Management System (Maximo). Part of your time would be dedicated to responding to field support requests, sometimes urgent, along with regular visits to substations across the service area and in rural areas where our generation facilities and transmission substations are located.

Career Level Summary

Senior: Career

• Requires in-depth knowledge and experience
• Uses best practices and knowledge of internal or external business issues to improve products or services
• Solves complex problems; takes a new perspective using existing solutions   
• Works independently, receives minimal guidance 
• Acts as a resource for colleagues with less experience 

Principal: Specialist

• Requires specialized depth and/or breadth of expertise
• Interprets internal or external business issues and recommends best practices  
• Solves complex problems; takes a broad perspective to identify innovative solutions 
• Works independently, with guidance in only the most complex situations
• May lead functional teams or projects 

Key Responsibilities

Senior:

• Maintains currency in state-of-the-art engineering practices and provides guidance and direction on engineering processes and standards to colleagues when requested.
• Supports substation improvements with extended knowledge of maintenance engineering principles and local codes and standards. Applies knowledge to investigate, identify and clearly define substation problems and deliver engineering improvements on proposed equipment and systems. Provides technical guidance and support to other engineers and contractors.
• Prepares a variety of complex engineering deliverables for larger or multiple projects, coordinates multiple discipline activity.
• Develops and provides quality assurance reviews of maintenance engineering solutions that meet technical requirements, all applicable codes, regulatory requirements and follow sound engineering practice.
• Actively coordinates with other internal/external team members on moderately complex projects, including representing the team to interdepartmental and external (regulatory) stakeholders.
• Plans, develops, and coordinates projects with complex design, construction, operation, maintenance, or testing elements in support of substation maintenance engineering projects; provides accurate capital budget and job estimates.
• Serves as a technical specialist and provides consultation/guidance to project teams in a particular practice area; actively fosters knowledge management and provides mentoring; implements resource management strategy.
• Develops and delivers training of other engineers and crews on operations and maintenance practices and requirements. Provides and coordinates updates on critical safety and reliability topics to operations personnel. Participates in industry-related events for the purposes of benchmarking and learning about best practices.

 Principal:

• Maintains currency in state-of-the-art engineering practices and discerns the need for and provides guidance and direction to colleagues on engineering processes and standards.
• Leads substation improvement