Job Description Summary The energy transition drives an unprecedented growth in demand for and generation of electricity. To accommodate this growth, the capacity of transmission system is projected to grow three-fold. High voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission systems will play a key role in connecting remote and offshore renewables, interconnecting energy markets and reinforcing AC grids. Converter stations are required to convert AC to DC and vice versa. The brain of such converter stations are the control and protection systems which, among other things, ensure efficient, safe, and reliable operation of the power electronic valves and peripheral equipment. GE Vernova’s Grid Systems Integration business line offers control and protection solutions for both voltage sourced converter (VSC) as well as line commutated converter (LCC) HVDC valve technologies to meet the transmission planning needs of utilities, system operators, developers and industrial clients worldwide. The control & protection algorithms are required on dedicated state-of the art digital hardware platforms which ensure signal processing capability, connectivity, cyber security.
GE Vernova’s CTO office is tasked with developing the R&D roadmap for HVDC control & protection platforms, managing competencies within the company, and supporting projects with specialised technical support. Consulting Engineers, who sit in the CTO team, are the highest technical authority within GE Vernova's Grid Systems Integration and Cross Electrification business. They act as executive technical consultant, ensuring customer confidence, reviewing and enhancing design practices, acting as a gate keeper for technical reviews, applying lessons learned, leading complex, state‑of‑the‑art technology improvements, engaging with quality reviews and cost optimization exercises both within their specialist domain and across other domains.
GE Vernova is currently looking for an experienced technical specialist to join us as Consulting Engineer for HVDC control & protection platforms.
Job Description Consulting Engineers are highly sought after within the GE Vernova business to provide expertise on challenging problems and to facilitate interfaces with adjacent technical domains. They are likely to have a number of publications, including conference papers, and patents. These professionals lead major technical initiatives, advocate for technological advancement, chair design reviews, mentor Principal Engineers and senior engineers, and benchmark their technology domain. They define the need for new design practices, author and review design standards, ensure lessons learned are documented and disseminated, and deliver effective technical presentations to upper management and external parties.
Consulting Engineers lead R&D and product enhancement projects with broad scope and significant impact on the business, acting as recognized experts in specific fields. They are tasked with major and complex assignments that bear long‑term business implications, contributing to overall strategy and navigating complex issues within their area of expertise.
Key Responsibilities
Serve as a recognized technical authority in HVDC control & protection platform solutions both internally and externally, and act as technical advisor to senior leadership levels
Actively contribute to and drive both internal and external standardization, coordinate working group activities and proactively represent GE Vernova in IEC/CIGRE and similar professional bodies, task forces and industry committees
Stay abreast of, collect and internally communicate state‑of‑the‑art technology developments in HVDC control & protection platform technologies and applications
Gather external information to determine future market needs
Work with external parties to identify new requirements, products and solutions
Collaborate with internal stakeholders to develop and maintain a strategic HVDC control & protection platform technology roadmap
Suggest areas for technological advancement and recommend approaches/programs to pursue
Evaluating and championing innovative ideas
Contribute to Intellectual Property management in terms of:
The creation of patents
Participating in patent evaluation board
The review of patents to ensure freedom to operate
Mentor other engineers in the patenting process
Oversee various R&D programmes from conception through to industrialisation, integrating new technology smoothly into production and ensuring successful project delivery
Chair and act as technical authority in technology and product development gate reviews
Collaborate and promote technology synergies across GE Vernova businesses of Power Conversion Systems, Grid Automation and Power Technology, utilizing shared expertise and resources
Support the commercial teams with their technical business development and sales
Support supply chain and procurement departments with technical expertise
Lead/support study teams addressing identified project challenges in focused technical areas
Lead/support the development of technical proposals to collaborate on the development of new technologies, functions and applications sponsored by external funding bodies
Support project technical tendering and delivery in the introduction of new solutions
Support the quality teams on major quality issues and act as technical authority in root cause analysis processes
Act as technical authority in competence management:
Identify and recommend improvements in specific discipline knowledge or technical training needs.
Contribute to creating structured training plans and associated training material
Delivering training
Mentor others to deliver training
Act as technical authority in competence assessments of senior and principal engineers
Lead/support the creation and presentation of conference papers and act as a validator to ensure that papers prepared by others are relevant, correct and of a high standard
Act as a knowledge ambassador, providing technical education to external universities
Consult with and support the Chief Engineer’s Office in executing the office’s technical objectives to implement best practice technologies and methods.
Qualifications/Requirements The position requires a deep technical understanding of the technologies and design techniques required to develop, manufacture and maintain, high availability, real time, flexible control systems.
The successful candidate will deeply understand the intricacies of communication and computing platform technologies and techniques, and how to translate this into an effective value proposition to GE Vernova’s customers. This requires a strong foundation in both research and development and project engineering, having demonstrated significant technical depth and recognition as a domain expert across large scale, high reliability, high performance real time control systems, and able to apply state‑of‑the‑art technology to resolve complex technical challenges.
Masters degree or equivalent experience in the product development, manufacturing, maintenance of cost effective, low volume, high availability, high reliability, high performance, large scale, real‑time control and protection systems and interfacing to the high voltage measurement devices, switchgear and other equipment, within the harsh electrical and physical environments that typically exists within the high voltage switchyards, or similar environments, across the world.
Knowledge, proven experience and an in depth understanding of:
High power electronics and switching techniques
Optical communication
Large and small scale networking systems operation, design and security
Cabinets design and manufacture
High speed PCB design and manufacture
FPGA design and test
Software design test
Operating systems and machine code
EMC design and test methods
Testing, verification and validation strategies for HVDC control & protection platforms
Safety by design
FMEA
Product Management for long operational life systems
Lean manufacturing principles
Acting as mentor, including to principal engineers
Research and development in power electronics control & protection platforms
System engineering approach towards identifying platform design choices which optimize and derisk site installation and commissioning
Future developments in HVDC control & protection platforms e.g. further digitalisation, centralization and virtualisation
HVDC control & protection platform market and supply chain
Overview of and active involvement in pre‑standardisation and standardisation initiatives for HVDC control & protection platforms in international bodies such as IEEE, IEC and CIGRE
Understanding of typical relevant regulatory frameworks, grid codes and standards applicable to the realization of HVDC control & protection platforms
Familiarity with typical power system planning strategies, processes, and studies
HVDC control & protection platform pro’s and con’s, and the ability to develop a business case for different HVDC control & protection platform technologies based on a lifetime performance, costs and benefits analysis
Familiarity with patent evaluation, application and management
Open to regular business travel
Desired Characteristics
Strong oral and written communication skills
Strong interpersonal and leadership skills
Leadership to pursue correct engineering process in adverse conditions
Able to interface and communicate effectively with all levels of the organization
Considered an industry expert and thought leader in the HVDC control & protection platform engineering discipline
Additional Information Relocation Assistance Provided:
No
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