Chief Engineer (Substation HV Plant)

Chief Engineer, Substation HV PlantPower Transmission & Distribution | Leeds | Permanent, full-time

The context

The UK grid is being rebuilt. Connection queues, offshore reinforcement, and the substation programmes underpinning both are moving faster than the engineering capacity available to deliver them. Our client, a major UK contractor delivering transmission and distribution schemes nationally, is appointing a Chief Engineer to hold the technical line on HV plant across that portfolio.

This is a discipline leadership role, not a project role. You own the standard.

What you'll be responsible for

• Technical authority for substation HV plant across the business. Design integrity, standards compliance, and the quality of everything that leaves the discipline with your name on it.
• Building the capability of the engineering team. Mentoring, competency development, and succession, so the discipline does not depend on any single individual.
• Design delivery. Managing the works, ensuring client technical requirements are met, and embedding Safety by Design from concept rather than at review.
• Tender support. Working alongside Chief Engineers in adjacent disciplines and Design Delivery Managers to shape winning technical propositions.
• Innovation and value engineering. Challenging the default solution where a better or leaner one exists.
• Ownership of the discipline's technical manuals and procedures, and of the sustainability commitments engineering is accountable for.

What you'll bring

• Degree qualified in electrical or a related engineering discipline. Chartered status preferred, IET or equivalent.
• Substantial design and engineering background in power, ideally substation primary plant across transmission and distribution voltages.
• Familiarity with the technical standards and approval processes of the major UK network owners, National Grid and the DNOs, is a strong advantage.
• Credibility with senior clients and the confidence to hold a technical position under commercial pressure.

What's on offer

• A defined national programme with committed volume, not speculative pipeline.
• Genuine discipline ownership rather than a title layered over a project role.
• Competitive package with flexible working where the role allows.

Applications welcome from all backgrounds, including veterans and candidates with disabilities.