Associate Director/ Director/ Sr Director - Primary, Secondary, OHL, Cable System design
Location: UK-wide (flexible)
Experience: 13 to 20+ years
About Jacobs
At Jacobs, our Energy & Power team is focused on providing a whole system approach, offering end-to-end service to support our clients in energy networks, thermal generation, renewable generation and storage solutions. We are helping our clients meet the challenges faced in countries and cities across the globe, providing innovative solutions to address the challenges of replacing conventional thermal power plants with renewable generation.
A career at Jacobs means working on some of the worlds most exciting projects, solving complex challenges and undertake meaningful work that benefits our communities and the world.
Start your Jacobs career with a company that inspires and empowers you to deliver your best work so you can evolve, grow and succeed today and into tomorrow.
About the Opportunity
Jacobs is playing a leading role in the global energy transition. As our UK and Continental Europe team continues to expand, we are seeking a Director – Substation Primary to support a range of high-profile projects across our Power & Energy portfolio. This includes high voltage AIS and GIS Substations, transmission system assets, HVDC interconnectors, and energy storage systems.
Key Responsibilities
* Define and lead the strategic direction of Jacobs’ Substation Primary capability across the UK and Europe.
* Provide executive leadership on FEED and detailed design workstreams for National Grid and DNO clients.
* Ensure quality assurance, technical governance, and delivery excellence across all substation projects.
* Lead recruitment, onboarding, and development of engineering talent to support growth and delivery.
* Drive team billability, utilisation, and performance metrics aligned with business objectives.
* Oversee resource planning and ensure adequate training and capability development.
* Lead and support major bids, including technical strategy, resource alignment, and client engagement.
* Review and approve HV plant aspects including layouts, earthing, interlocking, busbar calculations, and specifications.
* Chair high-level design reviews, hazard reviews, and technical assurance meetings.
* Attend site visits, FAT and SAT as required.
* Represent Jacobs in industry bodies and forums, influencing standards and best practices.
* Maintain and grow strategic client relationships, supporting business development and market positioning.
Qualifications
* Degree qualified in Electrical Engineering or equivalent.
* Chartered Engineer through the IET.
* LCDAE and TP141 Authorisation – Mandatory
Skills & Experience
* Recognised authority in HV substation engineering (132kV–400kV), including AIS/GIS and HVDC systems.
* Proven leadership across large-scale infrastructure programmes and multidisciplinary teams.
* Strong commercial acumen with experience in bid strategy and client engagement.
* Demonstrated success in team growth, recruitment, and capability development.
* Excellent communication, strategic thinking, and stakeholder management skills.
* Ability to influence technical standards and contribute to industry innovation.
Work Environment & Flexibility
Work-life balance and flexibility is a key focus area for Jacobs. Our core Energy and Power team is based across Jacobs’ offices in London, Birmingham, Reading, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow or Exeter. However, with offices throughout the UK, we can be flexible about location and are happy to discuss hybrid, part-time and flexible working hours to suit you and our business.
What can you expect?
We aim higher. Jacobs want to play a leadership role in Global Energy Transition, making a difference and creating a change. We will support your entrepreneurial mindset to help challenge and bring different, innovative approaches to the way we deliver solutions for our clients. Challenging today. Reinventing tomorrow.
One Jacobs. As a Global business addressing energy transition as a united front, you will be encouraged to join our Community of Practice, knowledge sharing across regions to solve the same problems in the most innovative ways.
We’re invested in you and your success. We want to help you to shape a legacy you’re proud of by promoting the opportunity to impart your knowledge and expertise to budding engineers – supporting and leading them as they develop their own successful career paths.
People are Jacobs’ greatest asset, and we offer a competitive package to retain and attract the best talent. In addition to the benefits you’d expect, UK employees also receive free single medical cover and digital GP service, family-friendly benefits such as enhanced parental leave pay and free membership of employee assistance and parental programmes, plus reimbursement towards relevant professional development and memberships. We also give back to our communities through our Collectively program which incorporates matched-funding, paid volunteering time and charitable donations.
Our Culture
Our values stand on a foundation of safety, integrity, inclusion and diversity. We put people at the heart of our business and we truly believe that by supporting one another through our culture of caring, we all succeed. We value positive mental health and a sense of belonging for all employees. Find out more about life at Jacobs.
We aim to embed inclusion and diversity in everything we do. We know that if we are inclusive, we’re more connected, and if we are diverse, we’re more creative. We accept people for who they are, regardless of age, disability, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, mental health, race, faith or belief, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background, and whether you’re pregnant or on family leave. This is reflected in our wide range of Global Employee Networks centred on inclusion and diversity – ACE, Careers, Enlace, Harambee, OneWorld, Prism, Vetnet, and Women’s – find out more about our employee networks here.
Jacobs partners with VERCIDA to help us attract and retain diverse talent. For greater online accessibility please visit www.vercida.com to view and access our roles. As a Disability Confident employer, we will interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for a vacancy. We welcome applications from candidates who are seeking flexible working and from those who may not meet all the listed requirements for a role
If you require further support or reasonable adjustments with regards to the recruitment process (for example, you require the application form in a different format), please contact the team.
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