System Engineer

Job Role

Experience:

10-15+ Years

Work Location:

Stafford, UK

Employment Type:

6 Months Contract and Permanent

The lead Control & Protection System Application Engineer is responsible for the requirement definition, design, studies, validation, and commissioning of Control & Protection Systems for VSC based HVDC transmission schemes, including MMC converter technology.

This role provides technical leadership across the full project lifecycle, ensuring compliance with applicable standards and delivering reliable, safe, and high-performance HVDC systems.

Key responsibilities include Team development, engineering governance, technical oversight, implementation of lessons learned, and strong adherence to Safety, Quality, Delivery, and Cost (SQDC) principles.

• Oversee the overall technical solution, ensuring customer requirements are met based on reference solutions.
• Lead requirements gathering, system design, implementation, and development of HVDC Control & Protection systems.
• Lead the HVDC control and protection system design for LCC and/or VSC HVDC schemes.
• Act as the technical authority for controls and protection within the project team.
• Review and approve technical documents, including control/protection settings, control philosophies, protection logic, and system architecture, test plans, and test procedures.
• Serve as the primary customer interface for technical discussions, training, and requirement clarification.

• Define control philosophies, protection and interlocking logics, and data exchange configurations.
• Lead and participate in engineering design processes, including design reviews and approval cycles.
• Ensure that all design outputs comply with industry standards, system requirements, and quality procedures.

• Conduct Electromagnetic Transient (EMT) studies using PSCAD, EMTP-RV, and model control/protection functions in MATLAB/Simulink.
• Perform network conversion, modelling, tuning, and verification using PSSE, PSCAD, MATLAB and RSCAD.
• Develop full plant/system models and lead end-to-end validation across multiple simulation platforms.
• Software-in-the-Loop (SIL)
• Dynamic performance studies
• Protection coordination
• Overall system integration
• Conduct Integration System Test (IST), Functional System Test (FST), Factory Acceptance Tests (FAT), Site Acceptance Tests (SAT), and system commissioning at customer sites.
• Lead root cause analysis and troubleshooting of complex VSC control and protection issues.

• Identify and implement improvements in engineering tools, processes, systems, and technical solutions to enhance customer value and operational efficiency.
• Make informed decisions regarding work processes, schedules, priorities, and operational plans to achieve departmental objectives.
• Uphold and promote SQDC principles across teams.

• Education:
  
  Degree in Electronics/Electrical Engineering or equivalent proven experience in HVDC systems.
• Experience:
  
  Minimum 7 years in HVDC control and protection system design.
• HVDC Control, Protection, and Sequencing strategies.
• Dynamic performance studies and system modelling for VSC-HVDC schemes.
• Proficiency in PSCAD and MATLAB/Simulink.
• Strong technical leadership experience.
• Ownership of technical discussions and ability to develop strong client relationships.
• Active participation in cross-functional leadership teams.
• Makes independent decisions while engaging subject‑matter experts as needed.
• Mandatory System Studies – PSCAD, RSCAD, FACTS, Harmonic Analysis