Lead Relay Settings Engineer

Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, INS Engineering is a privately held power systems engineering firm with offices in Houston and Albany, New York. We help utilities, developers, grid operators and data center teams connect new generation, energy storage and large loads to the grid, from studies through commissioning, across all major U.S. power markets.

Our work has supported projects like a 400 MW / 1 GWh battery storage facility in Texas and a 100 MW solar project in Ohio. We’re a growing, remote team that regularly gets together in person, guided by three values:
Reliability, Innovation and Commitment. Our senior engineers mentor the next generation, and we stay with clients from kickoff to commissioning.

Our protection and control projects need a lead engineer who personally develops and validates relay settings.

Engineer and validate protection

• Personally develop, calculate and review relay settings, protection coordination plots, setting files and technical reports.
• Apply transmission line schemes including 87L, POTT, DCB, 21P/21G and 67N, and evaluate 87T, , 50/51 and station protection as applicable.
• Review one-lines, CT/PT circuits, protection schematics, relay logic, and bus, feeder and capacitor bank protection.

Execute and assure quality

• Configure and review protection platforms from SEL, GE, Siemens, ABB/Hitachi or comparable manufacturers.
• Verify fault models, coordination assumptions, client design standards and settings packages.
• Lead QA/QC, resolve technical issues and coordinate engineering inputs across concurrent projects.

Lead clients and team

• Present settings approaches and engineering decisions to utilities, renewable developers and clients.
• Mentor engineers and guide technical work while partnering with project managers on scope, schedule and risk.
• Support proposals, technical reviews and constructible solutions through project delivery.

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering and a Professional Engineer (PE or P.Eng) license.
• Recent, personal ownership of relay settings for utility and renewable (solar, wind or BESS) projects.
• Working command of line protection schemes (87L, POTT, DCB, 21/67) and transformer and station functions (87T, , 50/51 and backup protection).
• Hands‑on experience with SEL, GE, Siemens or ABB/Hitachi protection relay platforms.
• Hands‑on experience with coordination and fault analysis tools such as ASPEN One Liner, CAPE, ETAP or SKM.
• Ability to review protection schematics, mentor engineers, perform QA/QC independently and lead client discussions.

Nice to have

• About 8+ years of relevant relay and protection engineering experience.
• Engineering consulting experience and utility interconnection work in ISO/RTO markets.
• Familiarity with IEEE, ANSI, NFPA, NEC and applicable NERC standards.

Tools you’ll use SEL, GE, Siemens and ABB/Hitachi relays; ASPEN One Liner, CAPE, ETAP, SKM or comparable.

Don’t check every box? If you meet most of the requirements and this role excites you, we encourage you to apply.

• First 30 days: You’ve learned INS’s settings standards and QA/QC process, reviewed the active relay settings packages and coordination studies with the team, and gotten to know the utility and client design standards that apply to them.
• 60 days: You’re personally developing and checking relay settings files and coordination plots on live utility and renewable projects, and you’re the go-to reviewer for the schemes you’ve taken on.
• 90 days: You have technical command of active relay settings packages and the relevant relay schemes, and you’re leading coordination reviews and presenting settings approaches to clients and utilities.
• 6 months: You own settings deliverables…