Lead OT Architect - Grid & SCADA Transformation

Position Summary

The OT Subject Matter Expert (SME) serves as a deep technical and functional authority for Xcel Energy’s mission‑critical OT platforms, specifically Electric Distribution, Electric Transmission, and Gas Distribution and Transmission. The role provides architectural continuity, operational insight, and cross‑team coordination across design, integration, access, cybersecurity, and operational readiness activities.

This role acts as a bridge between architecture, operations, cybersecurity, identity, network/firewall, and vendor teams, ensuring OT systems are designed, integrated, and operated in a manner that meets reliability, regulatory, and security requirements.

OT System Expertise & Ownership

• Provide deep subject matter expertise for ELECTRIC DISTRIBUTION, ELECTRIC TRANSMISSION, and Gas Transmission and Distribution environments across production, non‑production, and regulated domains.

• Serve as a consultative, trusted advisor during system upgrades, integration failures, and production incidents affecting OT reliability or compliance.

• Maintain institutional knowledge of environment segmentation (CIP vs non‑CIP, prod vs non‑prod) and how those boundaries impact design and operations.

• Set defend and operationalize a Clear OT Strategy that enables safe, reliable grid operations while modernizing the technology stack under strict regulatory and cybersecurity constraints.

• The principal architect is required to develop platform roadmaps, not isolated projects.

• A Principal Architect ensures:

• OT data platforms evolve coherently.

• Capabilities are reused, not duplicated.

• Technical debt is retired deliberately, not deferred indefinitely.

• Projects deliver outcomes; platforms deliver long‑term operational stability and cost control.
  Architecture & Design Collaboration

• Participate in and influence architecture and design discussions.

• Author Operational Technology standards that serve as the building blocks for OT project implementation.

• Ensure design decisions account for operational supportability and long‑term maintainability, not just project delivery.
  Integration & SCADA Interfaces

• Provide thought leadership and possess expertise of SCADA integrations, including:

• ICCP integrations between ELECTRIC DISTRIBUTION and ELECTRIC TRANSMISSION

• Real‑time data flows between various OT platforms

• Validate that integration designs support real‑time performance, data integrity, and operational resiliency.
  Identity, Access & Cybersecurity Coordination

• Act as a key OT SME in complex identity and access management (IAM) scenarios involving:

• User access provisioning for various OT Applications.

• Certificate‑based authentication.

• Cross‑domain trust and firewall constraints.

• Consult with IAM, Network/Firewall, Cybersecurity, and Vendor teams to drive design solution where OT and IT boundaries intersect.

• Partner across architecture, operations, cybersecurity, and IAM to define clear ownership for OT security integration issues that fall between teams.
  Observability

• Incorporate observability standards into OT platforms, ensuring alerting and reporting designs are in place and validated prior to go‑live.
  Cross‑Team Collaboration & Communication

• Engage regularly in Teams-based coordination with OT peers, architects, and operations leaders to clarify ambiguities (e.g., jump host usage, environment access patterns).

• Translate highly technical OT concepts into clear, actionable guidance for leadership and non‑OT stakeholders.

• Encourage alignment across historically siloed teams by establishing shared understanding and common technical language.
  Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Technology, Science, Business or related field, or 4 years of experience equivalent to the position.

• Ten years of related functional experience.

• Excellent communication skills, effective with varying organizational levels and skill sets.

• Excellent Relationship Management and collaboration skills, with a track record of working as one team cross-organizationally to drive innovation and business results.

• Strong architecture acumen across multiple domains including network, infrastructure, software, hosting models, applications, data,…