Research and Development Engineer (Digital Substation) 573493

Salary: £36,024 - £44,263

Term: Fixed Term (24 months)

FTE: 1 (35 hours/week)

Closing Date: 30 May 2024

To be considered for the role, you will:

·      Possess the knowledge, skills and experience normally associated with a PhD in a relevant field or you will be educated to Honours Degree level with relevant industrial experience

·      Have experience in digital substation, protection and automation and the IEC 61850 standard.

·      Have experience of the delivery of research and development projects in collaboration with industry or within an industrial context.

·      Have hands on experience in designing, implementing and testing protection schemes enabling the secure and resilient supply of electricity.

·      Demonstrate excellent technical writing ability and strong communication skills.

·      Be a self-starter, and be able to plan, conduct and co-ordinate research and knowledge exchange activities with minimal supervision, as well as generate new ideas and concepts, with the capacity to work in a dynamically changing team environment 

Established in 2013 as one of the University of Strathclyde’s industry-facing innovation centres, PNDC is a world-class whole energy systems innovation, test and demonstration environment across multiple locations, shaping the energy transition through its leading-edge programme of work. The facilities and capabilities offered by PNDC are unique in Europe, attracting global organisations to partner with us in our combined efforts to accelerate the deployment of innovations across the whole energy system.

PNDC continues to evolve its capabilities in the established facility located in Cumbernauld and support innovation in advancing power networks and accelerating the decarbonisation of heat and transport. PNDC is investing over £20m in new capabilities with a particular focus on decarbonisation of heat and transport, and will launch a second testing facility in 2023.

The PNDC innovation programme covers three main focus areas: Advancement of Power Networks, Decarbonisation of Heat, and Decarbonisation of Transport. The programme includes a number of innovation themes within each area as well as whole energy system innovation across power networks, heat and transport.

Advancement of Power Networks concentrates primarily on accelerating and de-risking innovations that support the major changes in electricity generation and demand characteristics resulting from the net zero transition. Particular focus is placed on solutions that increase power system robustness and security, support the digitalisation of the entire power network sector, and those that facilitate the greater flexibility and participation of demand side innovations in the energy transition.

Decarbonisation of Heat concentrates primarily on accelerating and de-risking novel low carbon heating solutions, both at large scale (e.g. zero-carbon CHP, district heating schemes, hydrogen-for-heating) and at smaller scale addressing the domestic/small commercial scale markets (e.g. heat pumps, hydrogen boilers, solar thermal). Particular focus is also placed on the integration of novel low carbon heating technologies into the wider energy system, their control and scheduling, and the impact of consumer behaviour on technology deployment.

Decarbonisation of Transport concentrates primarily on accelerating and de-risking novel low carbon transport systems for land, marine and aero transport sectors. This covers both innovations in vehicle charging infrastructure and innovations in on board systems. Particular focus is placed on new electric drive trains and on board power systems, including a number of new components such as fuel cells, batteries, and power electronic machine and drive components.

We are a dynamic, flexible and collaborative team, where colleagues support each other through constructive challenge as well as simply lending a hand to build something new. We are energised when we see the products we’ve helped develop being deployed and actively reducing costs to consumers, increasing reliability of supply or making the world a more sustainable place. If this appeals to you, then please visit our website to learn more about our Focus Areas and our team.

While part of the University of Strathclyde, the PNDC is an off campus industry facing facility based near Cumbernauld. 

Informal enquiries about the post can be directed to Ibrahim Abdulhadi, Lead R&D Engineer (Ibrahim.f.abdulhadi@ strath.ac.uk).