Senior Electrical Engineer

Position summary

The Senior Electrical Engineer owns the electrical design review, power system studies and protection coordination for the department's capital projects, from concept through commissioning and handover to Operations.

Job title: Senior Electrical Engineer

Department: Project & Design Reports to: Manager, Project & Design Department

Location: Saudi Arabia (project and mine sites, including Al Jalamid / Wa'ad Al Shamal)

Employment: Full-time, site travel required

Interfaces: Operations, Maintenance, HSE, Procurement, EPC contractors, consultants, utility (SEC)

Key responsibilities

1. Review and approve electrical design deliverables from consultants and EPC contractors: single-line diagrams, load lists, cable schedules, layouts, earthing and lightning protection.
2. Perform and verify power system studies in ETAP: load flow, short circuit, arc flash, motor starting, protection coordination and harmonics.
3. Own protection philosophy and relay settings; review coordination studies and witness relay testing.
4. Specify HV/MV/LV equipment: power transformers, switchgear, MCCs, VFDs, UPS, cables and substations.
5. Lead technical bid evaluation for electrical packages and support Procurement on scope and specifications.
6. Coordinate technical interfaces with utilities and authorities (e.g. SEC) where a project requires grid connection or approvals.
7. Attend FAT/SAT, pre-commissioning and commissioning; sign off punch lists and handover dossiers.
8. Ensure compliance with Ma'aden standards, IEC, IEEE, NFPA 70E and SEC/SBC requirements.
9. Review contractor technical queries, deviations and change requests, with cost and schedule impact.
10. Support Operations with troubleshooting, failure investigations and reliability improvements.
11. Mentor junior engineers and contribute to the department's design standards.

Plant equipment knowledge

The candidate must have hands-on, technical command of every major electrical asset in an operating mining and processing plant, not only design or study experience.

**Other tools:**AutoCAD Electrical, DIgSILENT or SKM (plus); experience with utility connections and approvals (SEC or similar).

**Industry:**Mining, minerals processing, oil and gas or heavy industry.

Equipment knowledge requirements

**Power transformers:**OLTC operation, ONAN/ONAF cooling, Buchholz, oil and winding temperature protection, DGA and oil test interpretation, inrush behaviour.

**HV/MV switchgear:**GIS and AIS, vacuum circuit breakers, vacuum contactors (F-C), interlocking, CT/VT sizing and saturation effect on protection.

**Transformer and bus protection:**Differential, REF, bus differential, breaker failure, inrush and over-excitation blocking.

**Motor protection:**Thermal model, locked rotor, stall, unbalance, earth fault, starts per hour, RTD inputs.

**Feeder protection:**Overcurrent and earth fault grading, directional elements, auto-reclose where applicable.

**Large MV motors:**Crusher, conveyor, mill and slurry pump drives; DOL, soft starter and VFD starting; IR/PI testing; voltage dip on starting; electrical causes of bearing and vibration faults.

**Variable frequency drives (MV/LV):**Drive topologies, harmonics and filters, bearing currents, motor cable length and dv/dt, cooling and derating in heat and dust.

**Generators (gas turbine, diesel):**AVR and excitation, governor, synchronizing, load sharing, generator protection, black start.

Qualifications and experience

• BSc in Electrical Engineering (Power) from an accredited university; MSc is a plus.
• 10+ years in power systems, combining both sides: at least 3 years hands-on in an operating heavy-industry plant (maintenance, troubleshooting or commissioning) and at least 5 years in design review or owner's engineer roles on capital projects.
• Proven track record of ETAP studies and relay coordination on HV/MV networks, and of hands-on relay testing and commissioning (portfolio of studies and test reports requested at interview).
• Saudi Council of Engineers (SCE) registration, Professional Engineer level.
• Preferred certifications: PE, NFPA 70E, vendor relay training (SEL/ABB/Siemens), PMP.
• Fluent English, written and spoken; Arabic is a plus.
• Valid Saudi driving licence; willing to travel to remote sites.

Additional equipment knowledge requirements

**DC systems and UPS:**110 VDC tripping batteries and chargers, battery sizing and testing, earth fault on DC systems, UPS for control and instrumentation.

**LV distribution:**MCCs, ACBs, MCCBs, selectivity between devices, intelligent MCC communication.

**MV/LV cables:**Sizing and derating, MV terminations and joints, VLF, tan delta and partial discharge testing, fault location.

**Power factor correction:**Capacitor banks, detuned reactors, resonance with VFD harmonics.

**Earthing and lightning:**Earthing design and testing in high-resistivity desert soil, step and touch voltage, lightning protection.

**Control and monitoring:**Interface with PLC/DCS, power management system (PMS), load shedding schemes, IEC 61850 substation automation.

**Substation buildings:**HVAC for switchrooms, dust ingress, IP ratings, fire detection and suppression.

**Hazardous areas:**Area classification and Ex equipment (IECEx/ATEX) for fuel storage and other classified areas.

Soft skills

The candidate must challenge contractors with confidence and explain technical risk to non-electrical managers.

• Strong technical judgement and ownership of decisions

• Clear written comments on contractor submittals

• Works well across Operations, Maintenance and Procurement

• Calm under shutdown and commissioning pressure