Protection Engineer

Protection Engineer – HV Substations (Data Centre Projects)

Location: Lisbon or Porto, Portugal
Working Arrangement: Hybrid (4 days office/site, 1 day remote working per week)
Employment Type: Permanent, Full-Time

About the Role

We are seeking a Protection Engineer to join our growing engineering team delivering high-voltage substation projects for major data centre developments across Portugal and Europe.

Working from our Lisbon or Porto office, you will be responsible for the design, development, and implementation of protection and control systems for HV substations. You will play a key role throughout the project lifecycle, from initial design and engineering through to testing, commissioning, and energisation.

This is an excellent opportunity to join a business with a strong pipeline of long-term data centre projects, offering exposure to complex and mission-critical infrastructure, career progression, and an attractive remuneration package.

Key Responsibilities

• Design protection and control schemes for HV and MV substations
• Develop protection philosophies, relay settings, and coordination studies
• Produce and review protection calculations, settings reports, and technical documentation
• Prepare and review single-line diagrams, protection block diagrams, and control schematics
• Configure and commission protection relays from major manufacturers such as ABB, Siemens, Schneider Electric, GE, or SEL
• Support substation design teams to ensure protection systems are fully integrated within project requirements
• Liaise with clients, utilities, consultants, and internal project teams throughout project delivery
• Participate in design reviews, technical meetings, and engineering workshops.Support Factory Acceptance Tests (FAT), Site Acceptance Tests (SAT), commissioning, and energisation activities
• Investigate protection system performance and assist with fault analysis when required
• Ensure designs comply with applicable standards, grid codes, and client specifications.

Requirements

• Degree in Electrical Engineering or a related discipline
• Experience working on HV/MV substation projects within transmission, distribution, renewables, industrial, or data centre environments
• Strong understanding of electrical protection principles and substation design
• Experience carrying out protection coordination studies and relay settings calculations
• Knowledge of protection relay technologies and protection system architecture
• Ability to interpret electrical drawings, schematics, and technical specifications
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills.Fluent English language skills; Portuguese is advantageous but not essential.

Desirable Experience

• Experience working on data centre, utility, or critical infrastructure projects
• Familiarity with IEC standards and grid connection requirements
• Hands-on commissioning and testing experience
• Experience with industry-standard protection and power system software.

What's on Offer

• Competitive salary and benefits package.Long-term career progression within a rapidly growing organisation
• Opportunity to work on major hyperscale data centre developments across Europe
• Hybrid working with 1 day per week remote working
• Exposure to technically challenging and high-profile HV infrastructure projects
• Collaborative engineering environment with ongoing professional development opportunities.

Opportunity Summary

Join a specialist engineering team delivering mission-critical HV substations for some of Europe's largest data centre developments, where you'll take ownership of protection and control systems from design through to energisation while building a long-term career in a fast-growing sector.