Substation Automation Engineer - Grid Modernization; IEC Details | Family

Position: Substation Automation Engineer - Grid Modernization (IEC 61850) Job Details | Black & Veatch Family
Substation Automation Engineer - Grid Modernization (IEC 61850)   Date:
Aug 31, 2026

Location:

Markham, ON, CA Calgary, AB, CA
Company:
Black & Veatch Family of Companies
At Black & Veatch, our employee-owners go beyond the project. For over a century, we have been breaking down social, economic and geographic barriers by making life's critical resources accessible to all. Working with us, you will help provide critical expertise as we, along with our valued clients, deliver solutions that positively impact communities around the world. Our professionals are our greatest asset, and we believe nothing is more important than the health, happiness and professional growth of our employee-owners.

With a focus on flexible work-life balance options, an expanding and diverse workforce, and limitless career growth opportunities, we will give you our best to help yougive us your best, and together we can build a world of difference.
Req  : 116808
Opportunity Type :
Staff
Relocation eligible :
Yes
Full time/Part time :
Full-Time
Contract Hire Only for this Project :
No
Visa Sponsorship Available:
No
The Opportunity   In this role, you may have the opportunity to:
Lead the transition of  IEC
61850‑based digital and virtual substations from pilot to production  , shaping real-world grid modernization outcomes.
Design and standardize  secure, vendor‑agnostic substation automation architectures  that improve resilience, flexibility, and scalability.
Serve as a  technical leader and subject‑matter expert  , influencing system architecture, best practices, and emerging standards.
Collaborate with utilities, technology partners, and industry groups (including  vPAC Alliance  ) to help define the future of protection, automation, and control.
#LI-TF1

Key Responsibilities   IEC
61850 Engineering & Modeling     Develop SCL engineering artifacts including ICD, CID, and SCD files, datasets, logical node mappings, reporting and control blocks, and GOOSE publications and subscriptions.
Configure and validate MMS, GOOSE, and SV messaging for protection, automation, monitoring, and SCADA applications.
Substation Networking & Time Synchronization     Design and document station-bus and process-bus network architectures using PRP/HSR, VLANs, QoS, multicast management, and traffic segmentation practices.
Design deterministic real-time networking paths for time-sensitive protection and automation applications, incorporating latency budgeting, PTP timing performance, and behaviors defined for substation-class devices meeting IEC
61850-3 and IEEE
1613 environmental and EMC requirements.
Diagnose and optimize real-time network behavior through traffic-capture analysis, timing-accuracy evaluation, and system-level tuning techniques for time-critical digital-substation workloads.
Develop PTP-based time-synchronization architectures including grand master, boundary, and transparent clock configurations and incorporate timing considerations into the system design.
Protection, Automation & SCADA Integration     Integrate multi-vendor IEDs with protection settings and logic, coordinating measurements, controls, alarms, and event data with SCADA and HMI systems.
Apply IEC
61850 data-modeling concepts to confirm interoperability across mixed fleets of protection and control devices.
Cybersecurity & System Hardening     Incorporate cybersecurity principles into system architecture, including authentication, role-based access control, network segmentation, secure communications, and device hardening.
Apply cyber-informed engineering principles by identifying high-consequence functions and integrating protective measures directly into system architecture, embedding security decisions from the earliest stages of engineering rather than treating them as…