Grid Solutions Engineer

About The Position

It has never been a more exciting time to work in the energy industry. The electric distribution grid is transforming into a smarter, more resilient, cleaner, and greener (solar, wind) grid. Advanced systems for grid monitoring and control will be at the forefront of these efforts. This position requires an Engineer to collaborate with a talented team within Digital and Operations to design, implement, and maintain our leading-edge technology suite known as the Advanced Distribution Management System (ADMS).

Our ADMS platform is utilized within our Distribution Control Center and provides operators with real-time awareness and control of the Ameren Distribution electric grid serving over 2.4 million customers. The ADMS platform includes an industry-leading vendor solution with SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition), Outage Management, Distribution Management (maps and switching), Voltage Optimization, and other advanced functions. We have integrated the platform with many other corporate systems and technologies to enable interaction with customers reporting and checking power outages, and field service/mobile workers responding to those situations.

In this position, you will be involved in crafting and building the future of electric utility operations. The ADMS system has a 24x7x365 availability requirement, so you will be required to provide off-hours support as needed. The ADMS system relies on a diverse technology portfolio, including:

• Virtual VxRail Linux and Windows Servers
• Multiple Database technologies (Oracle, Sql Server, Cassandra)
• Palo Alto Firewalls
• Mulesoft Enterprise Service Bus
• Splunk SIEM
• Dynatrace Application Monitoring
• GIS Mapping of electrical components to their physical location in ESRI-based map systems

Responsibilities

• Provide technical and user support to system operators, division office workers, division engineering, and information technology personnel
• Provide training and documentation when needed/requested
• Aggregate and model data to create reports and dashboards in various BI tools (PowerBI, SSRS, OBIEE)
• Analyze, recommend, design, plan, test, implement, and support ADMS
• Perform system/data analysis, design software enhancements, test system functionality, and maintain application configuration settings of the ADMS applications
• Assist senior staff with the following:
  • Engage with ADMS vendor, user groups, and utility peers to ensure Ameren's requirements are incorporated into future software releases
  • Provide input into technological process/standards/methodology for cloud-based configuration; identify gaps and develop training plans
  • Enable smart grid with applications including SCADA, Power Flow, Fault Locating, Switching, Outage Management
  • Perform root cause analysis and develop action plans and priorities for backlogs (identifying short- and long-term solutions); may lead implementation of plans

Requirements

Grid Solutions Engineer

• Bachelor's degree required, preferably in engineering, mathematics, or computer science
• Three or more years of directly related experience required
• Experience with Electric Power Distribution systems and applications such as Advanced Distribution Management System, Outage Analysis System, GIS Geographic Information Systems, and Electric Circuit Analysis systems preferred
• Experience with software applications development, relational databases, and server/network infrastructure preferred

Senior Grid Solutions Engineer

• Bachelor's degree required, preferably in engineering, mathematics, or computer science
• Five or more years of relevant experience required
• Experience with two or more of the following systems or technologies is required: Electric Power Distribution, Advanced Distribution Management System, Outage Analysis System, GIS Geographic Information System, Electric Circuit Analysis, Software applications development, Relational databases, and Server/network infrastructure

Lead Grid Solutions Engineer

• Bachelor's degree required, preferably in engineering, mathematics, or computer science
• Seven or more years of relevant experience required
• Experience with three or more of the following systems or technologies is required: Electric Power Distribution, Advanced Distribution Management System, Outage Analysis System, GIS Geographic Information System, Electric Circuit Analysis, Software applications development, Relational databases, and Server/network infrastructure