Principal Protection Engineer

About the role

Worley is experiencing strong growth across New Zealand’s power sector, with recent projects including utility-scale Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) and solar developments. We are also delivering electrical design services to the distribution industry and major industrial clients with large electrical loads.

As we continue to expand our Technical Services team across New Zealand (location flexible), we are seeking a Senior or Principal Protection Engineer to play a key role in shaping our future capability and delivering protection engineering across a range of brownfield and greenfield projects. Protection engineering is critical to New Zealand’s energy future, ensuring the safety, reliability, and security of supply across all major transmission and grid-connected projects. As the energy sector undergoes rapid transformation, our Power team is at the forefront—delivering large-scale solar, battery storage, and advanced grid infrastructure, while partnering with major Electrical Distribution Businesses to upgrade and maintain networks nationwide.

About us

Worley is a global company of energy, chemicals and resources experts headquartered in Australia. We partner with our customers to deliver projects and create value across the life of their assets. We specialize in consulting, engineering, procurement and construction across the project lifecycle, with services extending through to operations and decommissioning. Leveraging extensive experience and AI-enabled delivery, we support customers in navigating complexity as they meet today's needs and transition to more sustainable solutions.

Our New Zealand team of approximately 250 professionals are backed by a global team of nearly 50,000 people, all driven by a common purpose – delivering a more sustainable world.

We partner with our customers to deliver projects and create value over the life of their portfolio of assets. We solve complex problems by finding integrated data-centric solutions from the first stages of engineering and consulting to the last stages of installation and commissioning.

What you’ll do

• Provide technical leadership and mentoring to the engineering and design team.
• Help drive a culture of doing it right the first time and delivering practical engineering solutions.
• Undertake hands-on design work while contributing to business development and mentoring activities.
• Collaborate with other disciplines on a variety of projects and drive delivery excellence across the power sector.
• Design and implement protection and control systems for transmission and distribution networks across ANZ with voltages up to 500kV.
• Conduct protection coordination and wide-area protection studies using software such as PowerFactory, PSSE and PSCAD.
• Deliver concept, FEED and detailed designs for protection schemes.
• Review protection schemes, including R&I diagrams, detailed schematics and protection settings.

What you’ll have

• Experience in protection and primary design from concept through to construction.
• Ability to lead, mentor and develop engineering teams.
• Strong understanding of power networks and regulatory environments.
• Professional presence and ability to represent Worley with key customers.
• Bachelor of Engineering (BE or equivalent qualification) in Electrical Engineering.
• Progression towards CPEng registration in New Zealand, or already registered.
• Extensive knowledge of electrical engineering principles, with a focus on protection schemes, power system analysis and secondary design.
• Sound knowledge of applicable standards, statutory requirements and regulatory frameworks.
• Skills in one or more of the following areas:
  • HV Switchyard Secondary Design
  • Electrical Protection Design
  • Power System Analysis
  • Earthing Design
  • HV/MV Switchboard Secondary Design
• Excellent communication, analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Experience using PowerFactory and PSCAD. Experience with ETAP, CYMCAP and CDEGS would be advantageous.
• Ideally, experience with SmartPlant Electrical (SPE), Autodesk Plant 3D, AutoCAD, Navisworks or similar design software.
• Ideally, construction and commissioning experience.
• Strong technical and practical engineering skills with the ability to consistently deliver quality, accurate and timely work.
• Experience in renewable energy projects including solar, wind and BESS, and high-voltage systems.
• Several years of experience working with protection systems.

Why you should apply

• Competitive employment package.
• Flexible working arrangements to support work-life balance.
• Paid parental leave program.
• Ability to purchase additional leave.
• Support from both a local team and Worley’s global network of power specialists.
• Opportunity to work on a diverse range of renewable energy, transmission, distribution and industrial power projects.
• The chance to contribute to New Zealand’s transition to a more sustainable energy future.