Senior Protection and Control Design Engineer

Senior Protection and Control Design Engineer

Location – Prenton office with hybrid working pattern. Occasional travel across the SP Manweb licence area and to project, contractor and stakeholder locations as required

Salary – from £55,000 - £68,750

Permanent | Full-time – 37 hours per week

Closing date 8th October 2026

Help us create a better future, quicker!

Join SP Manweb , part of SP Energy Networks , as a Senior Protection and Control Design Engineer and play a vital role in powering the UK's transition to Net Zero. This role sits within our SPM 132kV Networks team, where you'll be accountable for developing safe, compliant and cost-effective protection, control and substation automation solutions across 132kV and associated 33kV networks serving North Wales and the North West of England.

You'll work on high-value refurbishment, reinforcement, asset replacement and grid access projects that directly enable renewable energy growth. From feasibility through to operational handover, you'll provide authoritative technical guidance on complex, high-impact design packages whilst promoting safety by design, cyber-aware engineering and whole-life asset value.

This is an opportunity to apply your expertise across the full project lifecycle, working with cutting-edge technology and helping develop the next generation of engineers.

What you'll be doing

Define protection, control and substation automation requirements across feasibility studies, technical specifications and construction strategies

Prepare and check detailed designs including protection philosophies, single-line and functional diagrams, AC and DC schematics, interlocking and tripping schemes, wiring diagrams and technical reports

Undertake and approve protection studies and calculations covering fault levels, protection grading and coordination, current-transformer and voltage-transformer requirements, relay burden and saturation, performance characteristics and scheme effectiveness

Develop and manage protection and control settings, relay schemes and communication-assisted systems for feeders, transformers, busbars, reactors and customer installations

Design and deliver IEC 61850-based substation automation solutions, including system architecture, data models, GOOSE messaging, station and process-bus interfaces, configuration files and integration with SCADA and telecommunications systems

Ensure all designs comply with legislation, CDM designer duties, ScottishPower Safety Rules, SP Energy Networks standards and relevant British, European and international standards

Identify and reduce foreseeable risks through safety by design, recording residual hazards and considering construction, testing, operation, maintenance, resilience, cyber security and environmental impacts

Develop technical requirements for procurement, assess submissions and supplier proposals, and provide clear recommendations on technical compliance, interoperability, risk and whole-life value

Review and check designs, calculations, settings, configurations, drawings and test documentation produced by contractors, consultants, manufacturers and suppliers, ensuring comments and non-conformances are resolved

Provide technical assistance during manufacture, factory acceptance testing, site installation, commissioning and energisation, resolving site queries and assessing design modifications

Maintain effective control of technical actions, assumptions, interfaces, design risks, settings and document status, escalating matters that threaten safety, quality, programme or cost

Contribute to protection and control strategy, standardisation, lessons learned and technical innovation to help shape future practice

Coach and mentor engineers, designers, graduates and apprentices, delegating work appropriately and providing constructive technical feedback

What you'll bring

• •Degree, HNC/HND in Electrical Engineering (or related discipline), or equivalent experience.
• •Extensive experience in high-voltage protection and control engineering on UK 132kV and associated 33kV networks.
• •Strong technical knowledge of protection schemes, including feeder, transformer, busbar, reactor, switchgear and customer connection protection, alongside control, interlocking and automation systems.
• •Experience carrying out and checking protection studies, fault level calculations, grading and coordination assessments, and relay settings using industry-standard software and manufacturer tools.
• •Working knowledge of IEC 61850 substation automation, SCADA integration and protection communications systems.
• •Experience producing and reviewing protection philosophies, schematics, specifications, settings reports and testing documentation.
• •Understanding of CDM requirements, health and safety legislation, utility standards and design risk management.
• •Ability to assess supplier and contractor designs, identify technical risks and provide sound engineering recommendations.
• •Ability to lead multidisciplinary technical interfaces and clearly communicate engineering decisions to a range of stakeholders.
• •Strong project delivery, stakeholder management and mentoring skills, with the ability to prioritise workloads and deliver to programme, cost, quality and governance requirements.
• •Professional registration (or working towards IEng/CEng) is desirable.
• •Some commissioning experience in testing Protection and Control schemes is desirable.
• •Full UK driving licence.

What's in it for you

As well as an attractive salary which is reviewed annually, you can also enjoy a number of other benefits. With our pension scheme, we'll double match your contribution up to a company contribution of 10%.

At ScottishPower, we believe it's the little things we do in life that make a big difference. From helping you look after your family's wellbeing, save for your future and take personal steps for climate action -- our benefits are designed to help you do just that - so that you have everything you need to take care of your world -- today and tomorrow.

That's why our benefits include:

36 days annual leave

Holiday Purchase - perfect your work/life balance with extra annual leave

Equity Plans

Payroll Giving and Charity Matched Funding

Technology Vouchers - save more and spread the cost of your technology purchases

Electric Vehicle Schemes - to help you transition to green/clean driving

Cycle to Work scheme and Public Transport Season Ticket Loans

Healthcare benefit options including: Dental Insurance, Private Medical Insurance, Health Cash Plan and annual Health Assessments

Life Assurance (4x salary)

Access to Savesmart financial wellbeing assistance

Plus shopping, leisure, restaurant and gym discounts, and unique employee deals on travel insurance and more

Why SP Energy Networks

SP Energy Networks is part of ScottishPower and of the Iberdrola Group, one of the world’s largest integrated utility companies and a world leader in wind energy. We keep electricity flowing to homes and businesses through Central and Southern Scotland, North Wales and in the North West of England. We have 30,000 substations (1 for every 100 customers), 40,000km overhead lines (that's once around the globe!) and 65,000km underground cables. It’s a role that puts us right at the heart of ScottishPower’s ambition to be Net Zero by 2035. And we’re taking it very seriously.

With diverse opportunities across our businesses and a commitment to invest in our own internal talent, ScottishPower can offer people real career opportunities that meet personal and professional goals, in a global organisation.

Inclusion, diversity, and a social purpose are at the heart of everything we do. Together with our values, they bring us together into a stronger, more sustainable business with direct links to the communities we serve. It takes all kinds of people to build a large-scale business like ours, so whatever your background, yo