Lead Relay Settings Engineer

Looking for an opportunity to make an impact?

Leidos is a Fortune 500® company with nearly $18B in sales and 50,000 employees that brings over 70 years of experience in support of both investor-owned and municipal utility growth goals. Leidos Energy helps utilities address complex challenges through comprehensive, performance-based solutions delivered across the full project lifecycle. Our capabilities include engineering, planning, project management, construction management, and commissioning services for electric power substations, transmission and distribution systems, protection and controls design, and electrification programs. Utilities nationwide rely on Leidos for trusted power industry expertise, demonstrated by our work with more than 75 investor-owned utilities and over 100 municipal and cooperative utilities, as well as a growing portfolio of private developer clients.

Your greatest work is ahead!

Leidos’ Power Delivery Solutions (PDS) division is hiring a Lead Relay Settings Engineer to join our Settings, Automation, and Electrification (SAE) group. In this role you will own a utility client’s relay settings program end to end — technical direction, quality, schedule, and the client relationship — and serve as the first-line technical lead for the settings engineers supporting it.

Location: This position is open to fully remote. Proximity to our Duke Energy client in the Carolinas is preferred; a hybrid schedule from the Charlotte, NC office may be considered.

What you’ll be doing:

• Lead a client relay settings program: work intake, hour estimates, engineer assignments, schedule tracking, and the client’s recurring coordination calls.
• Serve as the client’s day-to-day technical contact and the first point of technical escalation for the settings team.
• Develop and review protective relay settings from 4.16 kV through 500 kV — set points, logic, configuration files, and documentation — for line, transformer, bus, breaker failure, capacitor, and generator/IBR applications.
• Perform final quality review on settings packages before client submittal and lead design-review and challenge meetings on medium and large projects.
• Maintain the client’s settings standards, philosophies, calculation templates, and short-circuit model; own the settings change-management and as-left reconciliation process.
• Assemble NERC PRC-019 / 023 / 024 / 025 / 026 / 027 compliance evidence across the program.
• Resolve client-side technical issues directly with relay manufacturers and field personnel to keep projects on schedule.
• Onboard, mentor, and train new and developing engineers on client standards and settings practice.
• Support full project lifecycle activities including construction, commissioning, and event analysis.

What does Leidos need from me?

• Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering (BSEE) from an ABET-accredited institution.
• Minimum of thirteen (13) years of relevant experience in power system protection and relay settings development, including experience leading settings work for a major investor-owned utility.
• Demonstrated ownership of a multi-project client program, including schedule and package quality, not just individual deliverables.
• Proficiency in ASPEN OneLiner and/or Siemens CAPE for coordination and fault studies.
• Ability to develop and review settings for SEL, GE Vernova, Hitachi Energy (ABB), and Siemens relays.
• Deep understanding of transmission line protection schemes (line differential, step distance, pilot) and substation protection schemes (transformer, bus, breaker failure, capacitor).
• Experience preparing and reviewing high-quality technical reports and settings packages.
• Experience mentoring and technically reviewing the work of other engineers.
• Strong client-facing communication skills and the ability to work with staff in remote office locations.
• Willingness and ability to travel to customer sites, offices, or testing labs on an occasional basis.

Favorable if you have:

• Master of Science in Electrical Engineering with a power systems emphasis.
• Engineer-in-Training (EIT) or Professional Engineer (PE) license.
• Experience with Duke Energy protection standards and settings philosophies.
• NERC PRC compliance experience.
• Familiarity with SEL AcSELerator QuickSet / Grid Configurator, GE Vernova EnerVista, and Hitachi PCM600.
• Python or VBA automation of settings workflows.

If you're looking for comfort, keep scrolling. At Leidos, we outthink, outbuild, and outpace the status quo — because the mission demands it. We're not hiring followers. We're recruiting the ones who disrupt, provoke, and refuse to fail. Step 10 is ancient history. We're already at step 30 — and moving faster than anyone else dares.

Original Posting:

Pay Range:

The Leidos pay range for this job level is a general guideline only and not a guarantee of compensation or salary. Additional factors considered in extending an offer include (but are not limited to) responsibilities of the job, education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity, alignment with market data, applicable bargaining agreement (if any), or other law.