Substation Electrical Engineer Jobs in California
Substation Electrical Engineer jobs in California represent one of the most active markets in the country, concentrated in utility infrastructure, renewable energy integration, and large-scale transmission projects at every level from entry-level designer to senior project engineer. The heaviest hiring is in the Los Angeles, San Francisco Bay Area, and Sacramento metro areas, where employers like Pacific Gas and Electric, Southern California Edison, and Jacobs Engineering maintain substantial engineering workforces. High-voltage protection and control, relay engineering, and SCADA integration are the most consistently in-demand specialties across California utilities and engineering firms. Find a role that fits below and apply directly.
Find JobsOverview
Showing 5 of 20+ Substation Electrical Engineer jobs
Join the Clean Energy Revolution
Become the Engineering Senior Manager, Substation Electrical Engineering at Southern California Edison (SCE) and help shape how the electric grid of the future is designed and delivered. You will lead a geographically diverse engineering organization, organized across four regions, responsible for the electrical engineering and design of more than 300 substation capital projects annually across SCE’s service territory. As a key leader within Transmission & Substation Engineering (TSE), you will provide strategic direction to engineering managers, technical leaders, engineers, and engineering partners while advancing our Best-in-Class vision for engineering excellence, safety, workforce development, digital innovation, and operational performance. You will champion Intelligent Design & Construction (IDC), engineering quality, cycle-time improvement, contractor performance, and cross-functional collaboration to help deliver the grid modernization, wildfire mitigation, reliability, and clean energy infrastructure that powers Southern California’s future.
Responsibilities
- Leads a variety of engineering and business initiatives to develop grid strategies, determine how the grid is planned, designed, operated and maintained to operationalize company's strategy
- Manages and prioritizes the engineering roadmap in collaboration with other departments; develops and implements strategies for improving execution efficiency
- Leads, manages and supports the project engineering group and remains responsible and accountable for their team's delivery of small to large scale projects
- Manages execution performance of their teams, identifying barriers, and prioritizing work for their teams to ensure projects are delivered on-time, within scope and within budgets
- Reviews and makes decisions on project plans, resource allocation, risk assessment, mitigation strategies, budgets, and resources to ensure timely and successful delivery of capital and strategic projects Oversee the development and implementation of a comprehensive project management framework to ensure efficient project execution, reporting, and delivery of goals within budget
- Drives the adoption of digitalization and automation technologies to improve engineering processes, reduce manual effort, and enhance project outcomes
- Leads the development and maintains a robust risk management strategy to identify, assess, and mitigate risks associated with engineering projects
- Develops goals and assigns projects/roles to employees that translate corporate strategic vision into actionable initiatives to delegate.
- Leads the development and implementation of cross organizational strategy, technology and safety program to ensure company advancement toward future vision and the well-being of employees and contractors involved in engineering projects
- A material job duty of all positions within the Company is ensuring the protection of all its physical, financial and cybersecurity assets, and properly accessing and managing private customer data, proprietary information, confidential medical records, and other types of highly sensitive information and data with the highest standards of conduct and integrity.
Minimum Qualifications
- Five or more years of experience supervising a team of direct reports and/or project management.
- Experience performing engineering work in operations, production, construction or maintenance environments.
Preferred Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering or a related engineering discipline; advanced degree, Professional Engineer (PE) license, or equivalent advanced technical or leadership qualifications preferred.
- Ten or more years of progressively responsible engineering, utility, infrastructure, or capital project delivery experience, including demonstrated experience leading managers, engineers, and large multidisciplinary technical organizations.
- Demonstrated experience leading substation engineering, transmission engineering, utility design, construction support, or other complex electric utility capital infrastructure programs.
- Proven success leading engineering organizations accountable for safe, high-quality, and predictable execution, including engineering quality, schedule performance, resource management, contractor performance, and delivery of business commitments.
- Demonstrated success improving engineering productivity, quality, cycle time, and delivery performance through process improvement, technical governance, standardization, performance metrics, and data-driven decision-making.
- Proven ability to build and sustain high-performing organizations through coaching and development, succession planning, workforce planning, talent management, technical capability development, and leadership development.
- Demonstrated ability to lead large-scale engineering portfolios, establish priorities, manage organizational capacity and risk, and balance competing commitments across multiple programs, stakeholders, and geographic regions.
- Demonstrated commitment to safety leadership through field engagement, proactive risk identification and mitigation, organizational learning, and fostering a culture of ownership and accountability.
- Demonstrated ability to influence, align, and collaborate across engineering, project delivery, operations, planning, construction, environmental, procurement, contractors, and executive leadership to resolve complex issues and achieve enterprise objectives.
- Strong strategic planning, project sponsorship, risk management, and governance experience, with demonstrated ability to translate organizational strategy into measurable engineering and business outcomes.
- Demonstrated ability to foster a psychologically safe, inclusive, and high-performing work environment that promotes constructive challenge, collaboration, innovation, employee engagement, accountability, and engineering excellence.
- Experience leading or sponsoring digital transformation within engineering organizations, including engineering automation, AI-enabled solutions, advanced design platforms, 3D modeling, digital twins, or Intelligent Design & Construction (IDC) capabilities.
Additional Information
- This position’s work mode is hybrid. The employee will report to an SCE facility for a set number of days with the option to work remotely on the remaining days. Unless otherwise noted, employees are required to work and reside in the state of California. Further details of this work mode will be discussed at the interview stage. The work mode can be changed based on business needs.
- Visit our Candidate Resource page to get meaningful information related to benefits, perks, resources, testing information, hiring process, and more!
- Qualified applications with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act.
- The primary work location for this position is Pomona, CA (PIV 1).
- Position will require up to 30% traveling and being out in the field throughout the SCE service territory.
- This position has been identified as a NERC/CIP impacted position - Prior to being hired, the successful candidate must pass a Personnel Risk Assessment (PRA) or Background Investigation. Once hired, the candidate must complete specified training prior to gaining un-escorted access to assigned work location and performing necessary job duties.
About Southern California Edison
The people at SCE don't just keep the lights on. Our mission is so much bigger. We’re fueling the kind of innovation that’s changing an entire industry, and quite possibly the planet. Join us and create a future with cleaner energy, while providing our customers with the safety and reliability they demand. At SCE, you’ll have a chance to grow personally and professionally, making a real impact in Southern California and around the world.
Southern California Edison is a proud Equal Opportunity Employer, including disability and protected veteran status.
We are committed to ensuring that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodations at AskHR@sce.com or (626) 302-3456 and select option 2.
Nearest Major Market: Los Angeles
Join the Clean Energy Revolution
Become the Engineering Senior Manager, Substation Electrical Engineering at Southern California Edison (SCE) and help shape how the electric grid of the future is designed and delivered. You will lead a geographically diverse engineering organization, organized across four regions, responsible for the electrical engineering and design of more than 300 substation capital projects annually across SCE’s service territory. As a key leader within Transmission & Substation Engineering (TSE), you will provide strategic direction to engineering managers, technical leaders, engineers, and engineering partners while advancing our Best-in-Class vision for engineering excellence, safety, workforce development, digital innovation, and operational performance. You will champion Intelligent Design & Construction (IDC), engineering quality, cycle-time improvement, contractor performance, and cross-functional collaboration to help deliver the grid modernization, wildfire mitigation, reliability, and clean energy infrastructure that powers Southern California’s future.
Responsibilities
- Leads a variety of engineering and business initiatives to develop grid strategies, determine how the grid is planned, designed, operated and maintained to operationalize company's strategy
- Manages and prioritizes the engineering roadmap in collaboration with other departments; develops and implements strategies for improving execution efficiency
- Leads, manages and supports the project engineering group and remains responsible and accountable for their team's delivery of small to large scale projects
- Manages execution performance of their teams, identifying barriers, and prioritizing work for their teams to ensure projects are delivered on-time, within scope and within budgets
- Reviews and makes decisions on project plans, resource allocation, risk assessment, mitigation strategies, budgets, and resources to ensure timely and successful delivery of capital and strategic projects Oversee the development and implementation of a comprehensive project management framework to ensure efficient project execution, reporting, and delivery of goals within budget
- Drives the adoption of digitalization and automation technologies to improve engineering processes, reduce manual effort, and enhance project outcomes
- Leads the development and maintains a robust risk management strategy to identify, assess, and mitigate risks associated with engineering projects
- Develops goals and assigns projects/roles to employees that translate corporate strategic vision into actionable initiatives to delegate.
- Leads the development and implementation of cross organizational strategy, technology and safety program to ensure company advancement toward future vision and the well-being of employees and contractors involved in engineering projects
- A material job duty of all positions within the Company is ensuring the protection of all its physical, financial and cybersecurity assets, and properly accessing and managing private customer data, proprietary information, confidential medical records, and other types of highly sensitive information and data with the highest standards of conduct and integrity.
Minimum Qualifications
- Five or more years of experience supervising a team of direct reports and/or project management.
- Experience performing engineering work in operations, production, construction or maintenance environments.
Preferred Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering or a related engineering discipline; advanced degree, Professional Engineer (PE) license, or equivalent advanced technical or leadership qualifications preferred.
- Ten or more years of progressively responsible engineering, utility, infrastructure, or capital project delivery experience, including demonstrated experience leading managers, engineers, and large multidisciplinary technical organizations.
- Demonstrated experience leading substation engineering, transmission engineering, utility design, construction support, or other complex electric utility capital infrastructure programs.
- Proven success leading engineering organizations accountable for safe, high-quality, and predictable execution, including engineering quality, schedule performance, resource management, contractor performance, and delivery of business commitments.
- Demonstrated success improving engineering productivity, quality, cycle time, and delivery performance through process improvement, technical governance, standardization, performance metrics, and data-driven decision-making.
- Proven ability to build and sustain high-performing organizations through coaching and development, succession planning, workforce planning, talent management, technical capability development, and leadership development.
- Demonstrated ability to lead large-scale engineering portfolios, establish priorities, manage organizational capacity and risk, and balance competing commitments across multiple programs, stakeholders, and geographic regions.
- Demonstrated commitment to safety leadership through field engagement, proactive risk identification and mitigation, organizational learning, and fostering a culture of ownership and accountability.
- Demonstrated ability to influence, align, and collaborate across engineering, project delivery, operations, planning, construction, environmental, procurement, contractors, and executive leadership to resolve complex issues and achieve enterprise objectives.
- Strong strategic planning, project sponsorship, risk management, and governance experience, with demonstrated ability to translate organizational strategy into measurable engineering and business outcomes.
- Demonstrated ability to foster a psychologically safe, inclusive, and high-performing work environment that promotes constructive challenge, collaboration, innovation, employee engagement, accountability, and engineering excellence.
- Experience leading or sponsoring digital transformation within engineering organizations, including engineering automation, AI-enabled solutions, advanced design platforms, 3D modeling, digital twins, or Intelligent Design & Construction (IDC) capabilities.
Additional Information
- This position’s work mode is hybrid. The employee will report to an SCE facility for a set number of days with the option to work remotely on the remaining days. Unless otherwise noted, employees are required to work and reside in the state of California. Further details of this work mode will be discussed at the interview stage. The work mode can be changed based on business needs.
- Visit our Candidate Resource page to get meaningful information related to benefits, perks, resources, testing information, hiring process, and more!
- Qualified applications with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act.
- The primary work location for this position is Pomona, CA (PIV 1).
- Position will require up to 30% traveling and being out in the field throughout the SCE service territory.
- This position has been identified as a NERC/CIP impacted position - Prior to being hired, the successful candidate must pass a Personnel Risk Assessment (PRA) or Background Investigation. Once hired, the candidate must complete specified training prior to gaining un-escorted access to assigned work location and performing necessary job duties.
About Southern California Edison
The people at SCE don't just keep the lights on. Our mission is so much bigger. We’re fueling the kind of innovation that’s changing an entire industry, and quite possibly the planet. Join us and create a future with cleaner energy, while providing our customers with the safety and reliability they demand. At SCE, you’ll have a chance to grow personally and professionally, making a real impact in Southern California and around the world.
Southern California Edison is a proud Equal Opportunity Employer, including disability and protected veteran status.
We are committed to ensuring that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodations at AskHR@sce.com or (626) 302-3456 and select option 2.
Nearest Major Market: Los Angeles
See All 20 Substation Electrical Engineer Jobs in California
Find roles in California that match your experience and apply in just a few clicks.
Find JobsSubstation Electrical Engineer Jobs by City in California
Where California roles are concentrated, by current openings.
Substation Electrical Engineer Job Market in California
A snapshot from current California openings, updated as new roles post.
Who's Hiring
Top Industries Hiring
- Consulting & Professional Services
- Construction & Real Estate
- Transportation & Logistics
What California Employers Look For
The qualifications that appear most often in substation electrical engineer jobs across California.
- Active California Professional Engineer license or eligibility to obtain one required
- Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering with power systems coursework preferred
- Experience designing substation protection, control, and relay schemes for utility projects
- Proficiency with AutoCAD, MicroStation, or equivalent electrical design software
- Familiarity with NERC, IEEE, and ANSI standards governing substation design and safety
- Ability to perform field commissioning and site inspections at live substation facilities
Substation Electrical Engineer Jobs in California: Frequently Asked Questions
How do you become a substation electrical engineer in California?
The standard path is a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering followed by the Fundamentals of Engineering exam, then gaining qualifying experience under a licensed engineer before sitting for the Professional Engineering exam administered by the California Board for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, and Geologists. Licensure as a California PE is not always required to enter the field, but it is expected for engineers of record and heavily preferred by utilities and large EPC firms.
How much do substation electrical engineers make in California?
Substation electrical engineers in California earn a median of about $144,040 a year, based on May 2025 Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data, ranging from around $81,840 for the lowest 10% to over $217,760 for the top 10%. Pay rises with experience, specialty, and employer.
Which companies hire substation electrical engineers in California?
Employers hiring substation electrical engineers in California right now include Burns & McDonnell, WSP, and Arcadis, based on current listings on Migrate Mate as of November 2026. California's large investor-owned utilities and the engineering firms that support grid modernization and wildfire mitigation projects drive steady, year-round demand for this role.
Which California cities have the most substation electrical engineer jobs?
San Diego, Pomona, and Irvine have the most substation electrical engineer openings in California. The San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento see high volume because Pacific Gas and Electric's headquarters and major grid operations are centered there, while Los Angeles reflects the scale of Southern California Edison's transmission and distribution infrastructure and the volume of renewable interconnection work in the southern part of the state.
Are there remote substation electrical engineer jobs in California?
Yes, but they're rare. Substation engineering is heavily hands-on, involving field commissioning, site surveys, and coordination at live facilities, which limits full remote work. About 18% of substation electrical engineer openings tied to California are remote or hybrid as of November 2026, and those positions tend to be design-only or project management roles where fieldwork is handled separately by other team members.
How can I get hired as a substation electrical engineer in California with little or no experience?
The most realistic entry path is applying to rotational new-graduate engineering programs at California's investor-owned utilities, where Pacific Gas and Electric and Southern California Edison both run structured programs that place early-career engineers in power delivery and substation groups. Adjacent roles such as electrical designer, relay technician, or protection and control technician are common lateral moves that build the hands-on experience utilities require. Passing the Fundamentals of Engineering exam before applying gives candidates a clear credential edge even without direct substation project experience.
Where can I find and apply to substation electrical engineer jobs in California?
You can find and apply to substation electrical engineer jobs in California on Migrate Mate, which lists current California openings. Find the roles that fit your experience and specialization and apply directly.
See All 20 Substation Electrical Engineer Jobs in California
Find roles in California that match your experience and apply in just a few clicks.
Find Jobs