The posting
Transmission Portfolio Engineer
Location: St. Louis, MO Job Type: Full-Time Work Environment: On-Site / Client-Facing Travel: Approximately 10–20%, depending on project and client needs
About Us
CARIAN is a purpose-driven, woman-owned consulting and advisory firm dedicated exclusively to the power sector. We partner with leading electric and gas utilities to provide strategic advisory and disciplined execution across program management, business intelligence, and field execution oversight. Guided by integrity, trust, excellence, and accountability, our team helps deliver complex capital programs and build the resilient energy infrastructure that communities depend on.
Position Overview
CARIAN is seeking a Transmission Portfolio Engineer to support the development, planning, and management of a major electric utility's transmission capital investment portfolio.
This role will work at the intersection of transmission engineering, capital planning, project development, portfolio management, and project execution. The Transmission Portfolio Engineer will collaborate directly with utility planning organizations, project sponsors, engineering teams, project managers, operations, project controls, and other stakeholders to develop and maintain an integrated long-range capital portfolio.
The role will support transmission line, substation, network/telecommunications, and related infrastructure projects from early portfolio development through project initiation. The ideal candidate brings a strong engineering foundation, an understanding of electric utility infrastructure, and the ability to translate technical needs and planning strategies into coordinated, executable capital investments.
Key Responsibilities
- Work directly with utility planning organizations, portfolio engineers, project sponsors, project managers, and client leadership to develop and maintain the long-range transmission capital portfolio.
- Support development and implementation of multi-year capital investment plans for transmission lines, substations, network/telecommunications systems, and related transmission infrastructure.
- Coordinate with project sponsors to understand proposed projects, planning strategies, need dates, business justification, scope, and investment requirements.
- Evaluate proposed projects for feasibility, timing, dependencies, budget requirements, constructability, and alignment with the overall transmission portfolio.
- Identify opportunities to coordinate, bundle, sequence, or optimize projects to avoid duplicate scope and improve overall portfolio execution.
- Support annual and long-range budget planning by working with utility stakeholders to determine appropriate project timing and investment years based on need, feasibility, funding, and execution considerations.
- Review proposed projects to confirm appropriate technical justification, scope definition, engineering information, and supporting documentation are available for portfolio decision-making.
- Develop and support conceptual project scopes, preliminary schedules, estimates, and budget requirements in coordination with project sponsors and project managers.
- Review engineering estimates for accuracy, completeness, and alignment with proposed project scope.
- Review project change requests, including scope, schedule, in-service date, and other changes, and evaluate their impact on the existing and long-range portfolio.
- Coordinate with outage planning and other stakeholders to identify project dependencies, constructability considerations, outage conflicts, and sequencing requirements across the regional portfolio.
- Support development and compilation of information required for regulatory, rate, and capital investment filings.
- Coordinate with accounting and financial stakeholders to support project setup, funding alignment, and other financial requirements.
- Develop analyses, reports, portfolio summaries, and other materials to support capital planning, coordination, prioritization, and project execution.
- Establish baseline scopes, schedules, and budgets for projects as they transition from portfolio planning into execution.
- Analyze portfolio and project data to identify gaps, inconsistencies, risks, conflicts, and opportunities for improvement.
- Support process improvements, templates, standards, tracking tools, and governance practices that improve consistency and efficiency across the transmission portfolio.
- Provide knowledge transfer and support to utility personnel as portfolio-planning processes, tools, and capabilities are implemented or improved.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Electrical, Mechanical, Civil Engineering, or a related engineering discipline from an ABET-accredited program.
- 3+ years of relevant experience in electric utility engineering, transmission planning, project development, project management, capital planning, portfolio management, or a related technical environment.
- Working knowledge of electric transmission infrastructure, including transmission lines, substations, and related utility systems.
- Ability to evaluate technical project information and translate engineering and planning needs into actionable project and portfolio requirements.
- Strong planning, analytical, organizational, and problem-solving skills.
- High attention to detail and commitment to accuracy.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills with strong professional judgment and stakeholder-management capabilities.
- Ability to coordinate effectively across engineering, planning, project management, project controls, finance, operations, and other utility organizations.
- Ability to manage multiple priorities and work effectively in a client-facing environment.
- Proficiency with Microsoft Excel and other standard business and project-management applications.
- Ability to travel approximately 10–20%, depending on project assignment and client needs.
Preferred Experience
- Experience supporting electric transmission planning, engineering, project development, or capital programs.
- Experience with transmission lines, substations, network/telecommunications infrastructure, asset replacement, system upgrades, reliability investments, or other transmission capital projects.
- Experience developing or supporting multi-year utility capital plans or integrated project portfolios.
- Experience with project scoping, conceptual estimating, scheduling, project prioritization, investment planning, or project initiation.
- Experience reviewing engineering estimates, project change requests, scopes, schedules, or budgets.
- Experience supporting utility regulatory or rate-filing activities.
- Familiarity with utility project, financial, engineering, asset-management, or portfolio-management systems.
- Experience working across multiple utility operating companies, business units, or stakeholder organizations.
- Engineer-in-Training (EIT) certification or Professional Engineer (PE) license preferred but not required.
Why CARIAN
- Purpose-driven work – Help deliver infrastructure that powers communities.
- Industry reputation – Trusted by leading utilities for our reliability and results.
- Career growth – Opportunities to lead major programs and mentor high-performing teams.
- Collaborative culture – Join a team that values delivery excellence and long-term relationships.
- Competitive total rewards – Strong compensation, full benefits, 401(k) match, and meaningful work.
Equal Employment Opportunity
CARIAN is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We hire and develop talent based on qualifications, performance, and business needs. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic. As a woman-owned firm dedicated to the power sector, we are committed to building a team that reflects professionalism, expertise, and integrity at every level.
