Laboratory Technician

Lab Technician / Advanced Lab Technician - CAET Asset Operations

This is an open position with First Energy Service Co., a subsidiary of First Energy Corp. All employees who apply for a posted position must notify their supervisors that they have applied. Employees who have not been in their current positions for at least one year or who are in a position with specific requirements beyond one year, must obtain approval from their supervisor before applying.

The selected candidate may be offered a position within the same job family, at a level that is lower than what was posted. This will be determined based upon the results of the interview process which considers the candidate's skills, work history, experience level, and other relevant qualifications.

This is a position in the Asset Operations group and is located at the Center for Advanced Energy Technology (CAET) in Akron, Ohio. The primary function of this position will be to support the cyber security testing of new assets to be placed in service at First Energy (FE) Transmission Substations as the assets are first routed to the CAET facility prior to being shipped to the substation site.

The primary mission of this facility is to ensure compliance with NERC CIP Standards for FE's Operational Technology (OT) cyber assets within its transmission substations. This position will be responsible for applying cyber security baselines to Transmission cyber assets and verifying that those security baselines are effective prior to those assets being deployed across First Energy's Bulk Electric Transmission System.

This position will also be responsible for applying software and firmware patch releases and testing the patches for effectiveness on the above-mentioned cyber assets. The CAET facility also houses a training complex for Relay Technicians, Communication Technicians, Commissioning and Substation Engineers and others and is supported by this position and staff as well as personnel from the Work Force Development department.

This position will also support other functions within the Asset Operations organization including the FE Transmission Relay Spare Plant and supporting the transmission capital portfolio development as needed.

Responsibilities include:

• Work with Transmission & Substation Services Department to refine existing relay test routines and protocols to verify cyber security capabilities.
• Assist in modification of existing maintenance practices to address changing technology, new equipment types, improved test and diagnostic methods, regulatory changes, etc.
• Assist in developing and maintaining the cyber security baselines of FE's transmission operational technology cyber assets to be used across the FE Transmission System.
• Verify and document that new cyber assets to be placed in service at FE Transmission Substations have the proper cyber security controls in place per the applicable security baseline.
• Verify the authenticity and integrity of software and firmware installed on OT devices bound for Transmission substations and assure that a certified copy is protected within FE Transmission's Secure Software Repository.
• Ensure sensitive information has been removed from decommissioned cyber assets returned from FE Transmission Substations. Log, decommission or destroy these removed cyber assets per the NIST-800-88 standard.
• Provide support in CAET Development and Training labs as needed.
• Monitor industry trends and international design standards pertaining to cyber security of protective relaying and other transmission substation operational technology and recommend design standard changes where applicable.
• Provide support through spare equipment tracking and replacement requests. Track changes to inventory.
• Assist in performing Forensic, Apparent Cause and Root Cause analyses as requested.
• Assist in the education of others on technical subject matters and in the improvement of technical programs and process effectiveness.
• Assist in conducting technical research and analyzing highly complex data as requested.
• Review technical reports, papers, data, procedures etc. and provide technical feedback.
• Develop process improvements and…