Principal Engineer - System Studies (power)

Principal Grid Connection Engineer

We are looking for a Principal Grid Connection Engineer to lead our grid connection capability and grow our service offering to our key clients across Australia. This role is central to our front-end advisory services strategy and will be responsible for delivering end to end grid connection services from early grid feasibility and connection strategy, through to detailed system studies and R2 hold point testing during the commissioning stages of a project. This role can be based in either Melbourne, Sydney, or Brisbane.

This is a senior leadership role with the opportunity for a technically respected practitioner with a strong market profile who is ready to build a team, shape a service offering and influence the energy transition at scale.

In this role you will:

• Lead and grow our dedicated global grid connection team, providing end to end advisory and engineering services across feasibility, GPS, connection applications, commissioning and close out
• Provide technical leadership and governance for grid connection and power system studies across utility scale front of meter and behind the meter renewable energy projects (solar, wind, BESS, hybrids)
• Act as a trusted advisor to clients, delivering high quality, commercially informed technical advice that supports investment decisions and project delivery
• Lead and mentor engineers, fostering technical excellence, capability uplift and career development across the team
• Build and maintain strong working relationships with AEMO, TNSPs/NSPs, OEMs and key market stakeholders
• Drive business growth through proactive client engagement, lead generation and thought leadership
• Collaborate with the global Energy business to ensure consistent delivery excellence, risk management and quality outcomes
• Represent the business externally, contributing to industry forums, client discussions and market facing initiatives

About You

You are a senior power systems professional with strong industry reputation, deep technical credibility and a passion for building high performing teams. You are equally comfortable engaging with network service providers and senior stakeholders as you are mentoring junior engineers, leading and reviewing detailed technical studies.

You bring a combination of technical depth, market insight and leadership capability and are motivated to shape a scalable, sustainable grid connection services and capability.

Skills and Experience

You will ideally bring experience across many of the following:

• Proven experience leading and growing engineering teams within a consulting, developer or OEM environment
• Established relationships with AEMO, TNSPs/NSPs, developers and OEMs with the ability to convert relationships into a sustainable pipeline of work
• Deep understanding of the National Electricity Rules (NER)
• Demonstrated track record navigating complex grid connection pathways, including GPS, R1/R2 models, PSCAD studies and connection approvals through to energisation
• Strong stakeholder engagement skills, including facilitation of technical workshops and TNSP/NSP interactions
• Hands on experience with power system modelling tools such as PSS®E, PSCAD, and DIgSILENT PowerFactory
• Relevant tertiary qualifications in Electrical Engineering (chartered status required including relevant State accreditation i.e RPEV, RPEQ etc)

Personal Attributes

To succeed in this role, you will bring:

• Strong leadership presence with the ability to influence, inspire and develop others
• Commercial acumen and a growth mindset
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• The ability to manage multiple priorities while maintaining technical rigor and quality

Who is Beca? Beca is one of the Asia-Pacific region's largest employee-owned professional services consultancies. Our team of over 4,000 professionals is diverse enough to bring a wide range of perspectives and expertise to every client and challenge, creating resourceful, smart solutions from our collective experience and insights. 'Creative people together transforming our world' is our vision. It reflects our culture, our aspirations and our purpose – to make everyday better. Our four values – partnership, tenacity, enjoyment and care – sit at the heart of everything we do, reflecting how we work every day with each other and our clients. At Beca we make everyday better for our clients, our people and our community and your involvement makes it possible. Our size and agility mean you're not just on the fringes; you're making a visible difference, partnering to develop and deliver solutions from the ground up. As a people-focused business, we understand that work-life balance means a lot of different things to different people and that it's not always easy juggling work with everything else life throws at us. This is why we are happy to discuss flexible working arrangements for all opportunities in the Beca team.