Important Application Submission InformationIn order to ensure your application is successfully received before the job posting expires, please submit your application by 11:59 PM on Wednesday, September 16, 2026
The Lead Engineer is at the specialist level of the Engineering classification hierarchy. Employees at this level solve complex problems, manage work, and provide leadership to others in engineering areas of specialization, with minimal supervision and increased latitude for un-reviewed work. The Lead Engineer serves in lead roles providing guidance to others. They are also expected to have advanced skills and have the ability to work independently.
This position is part of the Production Standards group located in the Duke Energy Carolinas (DEC) headquarters in downtown Charlotte, NC. This work group is responsible for the development of standards used by design engineering. This role will be responsible for leading the development of P&C Production Standards with primary emphasis on relay settings standards, protection philosophy, settings templates, calculation guidance, and standard approaches for transmission substation protection applications. P&C Design experience is beneficial, particularly where settings standards interface with panel design, wiring, drawings, equipment application, and substation project execution. The standards developed may include specifications, design guides, relay settings templates, calculation tools, protection application guidance, template drawings, CAD blocks, item numbers, compatible units (CUs), and multilevel CUs.
Major responsibilities include:- Lead the development of production standards used by P&C Settings and P&C Design teams for transmission substation protection applications. Interactive team leadership and the ability to create a positive environment for all team members is critical to success within the team and for this position.
- Use the best available procedures, codes, standards, protection principles, and utility practices to develop relay settings standards, calculation guidance, settings templates, drawing interfaces, and material/CU standards that support consistent and efficient P&C project execution.
- Provide technical leadership for standardizing protection schemes, relay settings development practices, coordination study expectations, relay logic application, and settings documentation for transmission substation assets.
- All work assignments will be performed in a manner consistent with the Duke Energy Safety Manual as well as with Federal, State, and local laws.
- Demonstrated ability to meet required deadlines while simultaneously completing other tasks.
- Assist other engineering teams and Relay C&M teams as necessary.
- Experience and demonstrated written and oral communications skills, including the ability to present information, facilitate meetings and provide guidance to others including teammates and contractors.
- Provides engineering/technical expertise in the principles of protection system application, relay settings development, P&C standards implementation, and substation protection and control design interfaces.
Technical Skills:- Familiarity with Aspen Relay Database, Aspen OneLiner, CymTCC, SEL-5010, SEL-5030 AcSELerator software.
- Demonstrated experience developing, reviewing, or applying transmission relay settings for line, transformer, bus, breaker failure, capacitor/reactor, and other substation protection schemes.
- Experience performing or interpreting protection coordination studies, short-circuit studies, relay logic documentation, settings calculations, and settings change evaluations.
- Understanding and experience with NERC Compliance Standards including but not limited to: PRC-001, PRC-006, PRC-023, PRC-025, PRC-026, PRC-027.
- Familiarity with electromechanical, solid-state, and microprocessor-based relaying.
- Familiarity with relay protection schemes and relay logic.
- Demonstrate use of and ability to interpret design codes used for designs such as NEC, NESC and others as applicable.
- Demonstrate ability to interpret and utilize schematics, wiring diagrams, elementaries and other drawings.
- Demonstrated knowledge of T/T and T/D substation operations and protection and control schemes.
- Demonstrated experience using project execution tools such as Maximo, TIM, Fusion, or similar systems to support development and implementation of P&C standards, relay settings documentation, drawings, compatible units, and related work products.
Basic Qualifications- Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from an ABET accredited program and PE
- Eight years of related engineering work experience
- Registration as a Professional Engineer required.
Additional Preferred Qualifications- Skilled in engineering theories and principles.
- Skilled in the practices of researching engineering and design issues, evaluating alternatives, making sound recommendations, and preparing and presenting recommendations.
- Protection and Controls Engineering experience, specifically in Transmission, with emphasis on relay settings development, protection philosophy, coordination studies, relay logic, and settings documentation. P&C Design experience in panel design, wiring, layouts, AC/DC systems, equipment wiring, and drawing interfaces is also beneficial.
- Experience developing or maintaining relay settings templates, calculation tools, settings guides, protection application standards, or other standardized work products used by relay settings engineers.
- Familiarity with NERC PRC compliance requirements and their impact on protection system design, relay settings development, documentation, and standardization.
- Experience developing or writing standards, specifications, and technical guidance.
- Experience with Autodesk products such as AutoCAD Electrical and Vault.
- Experience with Maximo, TIM, and Fusion.
- Good written and oral communication skills.
- Skilled in principles of project management.
- Experience in the utility industry.
Working Conditions- Mostly office environment with some field site visits and factory visits.
- Hybrid - Work will be performed from both remote and onsite locations after the onboarding period. However, hybrid employees should live within a reasonable commute (not greater than 50 miles one way) to the designated Duke Energy facility. Reliable, consistent transportation is required to ensure timely arrival at the applicable facility.
Specific Requirements- Must have obtained Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from an ABET accredited program.
- A Master's degree in Electrical Engineering will be considered in lieu of the B.S. Engineering degree.
- Registration as a Professional Engineer required.
Travel Requirements5-15%
Relocation Assistance Provided (as applicable)No
Represented/Union PositionNo
Visa Sponsored PositionNo. This is not a Visa Sponsored Position. This role requires the ability to work lawfully in the U.S. without employment-based immigration sponsorship, now or in the future.
Please note that in order to be considered for this position, you must possess all of the basic/required qualifications. 
