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Senior Protection & Control (P&C) Design Engineer | Cape TownKirby Group Engineering · Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa
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Kirby Group Engineering

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Senior Protection & Control (P&C) Design Engineer | Cape Town

🗓️ Posted 2026-09-02 Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa Hybrid Engineering
💰 Salary Not shared 📊 Market 60,000 EUR–95,000 EUR/mo

About the Company

Permanent position available with a considerable portfolio of works for the next 5+ years To build your career by assisting in the delivery of 'leading edge' engineering projects. To work with a vibrant, agile and multi-functional team in delivering projects on time, safely, to budget and to the required quality standards. To benefit from Kirby's Career Development Programmes that will enhance your leadership capability. To work with the best. Excellent package on offer with room for negotiations

About the Role

We are seeking an experienced Senior Protection & Control (P&C) Design Engineer to join our growing engineering team in Cape Town. The successful candidate will play a key technical leadership role in delivering high-voltage and medium voltage substation designs for projects, ensuring compliance with international standards and client requirements. This is an exciting opportunity to work on complex high voltage transmission utility and renewable energy infrastructure projects in the UK, Ireland and the rest of Europe while contributing to a collaborative, high-performance engineering culture.

Responsibilities

  • ● Lead the design of HV substation protection schemes (transformers, lines, busbars, feeders)
  • ● Develop protection philosophies, relay selection, coordination, and settings
  • ● Deliver control system and auxiliary systems designs, including schematics and SCADA
  • ● Perform power system studies (fault level, coordination, load flow, grid integration)
  • ● Develop protection and control logic ensuring redundancy and system reliability
  • ● Produce and review technical documentation (schematics, BOM, equipment specification
  • ● Ensure compliance with IEC, IEEE, ANSI and Utility specific standards
  • ● Support IEC 61850-based digital substation designs
  • ● Lead design reviews, including evaluating 3rd-party consultant deliverables
  • ● Interface with clients, project engineers, and multidisciplinary teams
  • ● Support testing, commissioning, and troubleshooting
  • ● Mentor junior engineers and contribute to team development
  • ● Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering (BEng/BSc Eng) or equivalent
  • ● 6-12+ years' experience in P&C design
  • ● Proven experience in HV/MV substation designs
  • ● Strong knowledge of:
  • ● Protection relays selection and coordination
  • ● SCADA / substation automation systems
  • ● IEC 61850 and communication architectures
  • ● Proficiency in tools such as ETAP, DigSilent, EPLAN, AutoCAD or similar
  • ● Demonstrated ability to lead design reviews and mentor team members
  • ● Registration with ECSA (PrEng) or working towards this will be advantageous
  • ● Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
  • ● Excellent communication and client-facing ability
  • ● Leadership and mentoring capability
  • ● High attention to detail and commitment to safety

Benefits

  • ● Opportunity to work on international projects while based in South Africa
  • ● Competitive salary and benefits
  • ● Professional development and career progression
  • ● Collaborative "one-team" engineering culture