Substation Project Technical Lead

Location: Chicago, IL, United States; Hybrid

Your Opportunity

Join Stantecs Substation Engineering team as a Senior Project Technical Leader, where you will provide overall technical leadership for complex substation projects from pursuit through design, construction, and commissioning.

This is a senior seller-doer role for an experienced physical and electrical substation engineer who enjoys leading people, solving complex technical challenges, working directly with clients, and developing successful project approaches. You will lead multidisciplinary design teams while partnering closely with Project Managers to deliver safe, high-quality, constructible solutions that meet client expectations.

You will also play a key role in winning work by leading the technical development of proposals, scopes of work, engineering estimates, schedules, staffing plans, and project budgets.

If you are looking for an opportunity to lead the technical direction of major substation projects, influence how the work is won and delivered, and develop the next generation of technical leaders, we would like to hear from you.

Your Key Responsibilities

• Serve as the overall technical leader for assigned substation projects and pursuits.
• Lead physical design for AIS and GIS substations, including greenfield installations, expansions, and brownfield modifications.
• Lead substation designs for voltage classes ranging from distribution/sub-transmission through 230 kV, 345 kV, 500 kV, and 765 kV, as applicable to project requirements.
• Lead multidisciplinary design teams that may include substation physical, protection and control, civil, structural, geotechnical, SCADA/telecommunications, and other disciplines.
• Establish the projects technical approach, design basis, discipline interfaces, deliverable strategy, and execution plan.
• Lead design coordination meetings, technical workshops, interdisciplinary reviews, constructability reviews, and resolution of complex technical issues.
• Ensure designs are coordinated, constructible, technically sound, and compliant with applicable client requirements, codes, and industry standards.
• Provide technical leadership throughout planning, detailed design, procurement support, construction, testing, energization, and commissioning.
• Partner with Project Managers to align technical execution with project scope, schedule, budget, quality, risk, and client expectations.
• Lead the technical development of proposals and pursuits for new and existing clients.
• Translate client requirements into clear and executable scopes of work, deliverable lists, work plans, schedules, and staffing strategies.
• Develop and validate engineering labor estimates and project budgets, including assumptions, exclusions, dependencies, and technical risks.
• Coordinate proposal inputs across disciplines to ensure the proposed scope, execution approach, schedule, staffing, and fee are aligned.
• Identify scope gaps and project risks during pursuits and develop appropriate assumptions and qualifications.
• Collaborate with Project Managers, account leaders, and technical teams on proposal strategy, client presentations, and interviews.
• Support effective transition from pursuit to project execution so that commitments, assumptions, budgets, and client expectations are understood by the delivery team.
• Serve as a senior technical representative in client meetings, design workshops, proposal interviews, and project reviews.
• Build trusted client relationships through strong technical judgment, responsiveness, and an understanding of client needs.
• Mentor and develop engineers and designers, including emerging discipline and technical leaders.
• Support resource planning, recruiting, knowledge sharing, and development of the broader substation team.
• Promote a collaborative culture focused on safety, accountability, technical excellence, and client service.

Working Environment

This position will primarily involve an office or hybrid work environment with collaboration across multidisciplinary and geographically distributed project teams. Field assignments may include visits to substations, construction sites, and other utility facilities. Travel will be required periodically to support client meetings, pursuits, project development, site investigations, design reviews, construction, and commissioning.

About Us

At Stantec, we’re leading the energy transition. How? By combining the strength of a large company with the agility of specialized teams to think big and tackle the hardest challenges. Join us, and you’ll be at the forefront of an evolving industry creating renewable energy solutions, modernizing the electric grid, and developing natural gas infrastructure. 

And as part of one of the world’s top design firms, you’ll have the chance to create connections and grow professionally while building our clean energy future. ## FeelingEnergized