ZipRecruiter
Wind Reliability Staff Engineer (Senior or Principal)
ZipRecruiter, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, 55400
Overview
Are you looking for an exciting job where you can put your skills and talents to work at a company you can feel proud to be a part of? Do you want a workplace that will challenge you and offer you opportunities to learn and grow? A position at Xcel Energy could be just what you're looking for.
The below job summary and responsibilities reflect the staff engineer level role. The selected candidate will be placed at a level commensurate with their skills and experience; different skills and/or experience will be required at the senior and principal engineer levels.
This is a hybrid role with three days in the office and two days remote. Up to 25% travel, with options for using a company vehicle or submitting mileage for reimbursement.
Position Summary The Renewables Reliability Engineering team is responsible for elevating the reliability and availability of renewable energy systems while optimizing costs. The team leverages technical expertise, innovative engineering practices, data-driven insights and teamwork to deliver resilient, safe, and cost-effective solutions, resulting in operational excellence across the wind, solar, and battery storage portfolio.
We are seeking a highly skilled Wind Reliability Engineer to join our team. The role involves supporting substation maintenance, outages, and reliability improvement programs. Develop and apply wind turbine electrical and control subsystem expertise to an expanding fleet of wind farms across our three service territories. This individual will provide operational and performance engineering support for a 4GW+ fleet of Vestas, GE, and Siemens wind turbines. Willingness to occasionally climb wind turbines for educational and small project purposes is desired. This role will require occasional on-call availability to support plant outage troubleshooting and restoration. Familiarity with component failure rate calculations and other reliability engineering concepts is strongly encouraged.
What You Will Do
Perform complex problem solving of technical issues to reduce equipment downtime. Equipment includes wind turbine subsystems, 34.5kV - 345kV substations, and 34.5kV underground collection system equipment
Quantify equipment risk and develop corrective action plans to mitigate risk
Analyze equipment failure rates, failure causes, and risk trends to prioritize maintenance and future investments
Ensure implementation and optimization of equipment maintenance strategies
Define critical spare parts strategy based on failure modes, asset criticality and failure history
Perform root cause analysis and identify corrective action plans to prevent repeat failures
Provide technical and operational insights to influence new equipment design specifications
Participate in industry networking and research new technologies to improve equipment reliability
Leverage software and analytics to streamline processes and improve efficiency
Under general direction, demonstrates complete understanding and wide application of engineering principles. Independently determines and develops approaches to solutions. May lead small to medium non-critical projects or critical projects under direction of higher-level engineer/supervisor. May provide work direction to other professionals and staff. Represents the organization in providing solutions to difficult technical issues associated with specific projects. Frequent inter-organizational and outside customer contact. Demonstrates broad knowledge and proficiency of precedents in the specialty area and general knowledge of related disciplines.
Essential Responsibilities
Uses and applies technical standards, principles, theories, concepts, and techniques to perform activities/assignments that may include complex features such as conflicting design requirements and coordination requirements.
Supports the development of technical documentation (designs, testing, calculations, reports, standards, etc.). May assist with procedures requiring broad knowledge in a specialty area.
Works under general direction for routine engineering projects; provides ongoing technical support for project activities within Operations, Maintenance, testing/diagnostics and Regulatory.
May provide field engineering oversight and/or direction for commissioning, testing, inspections, etc.
May lead small to medium non-critical projects. Coordinates or leads critical projects or portions of projects (research, design, equipment selection, procurement support, installation and commissioning) under the direction of a higher-level engineer or supervisor.
Supports bid/evaluation processes including preparation of bid documents and technical evaluations for proposals; collaborates with Supply Chain and Legal following appropriate processes.
Frequently exchanges information with internal and external stakeholders on a wide range of importance and complexity.
May assign tasks and coordinate work of interns, drafters, technicians, craft personnel, or others. Provides guidance and mentoring to less experienced engineers. Maintains ongoing self-development of technical skills and competencies.
Performs activities such as budgeting, estimating, forecasting, accounting, and work order management in support of engineering projects.
Staff Engineer Level (Salary Range: $79,800-$103,666)
Minimum Requirements by Level
Staff Engineer: Bachelor’s degree in engineering from ABET-accredited program (electrical engineering preferred). 2+ years of relevant engineering experience. EIT/FE strongly encouraged.
Senior Engineer: Bachelor’s degree in engineering from ABET-accredited program (electrical engineering preferred). 5+ years of relevant engineering experience. EIT/FE required. PE may be required depending on business need.
Principal Engineer: Bachelor’s degree in engineering from ABET-accredited program (electrical engineering preferred). 9+ years of relevant engineering experience. PE required. Ability to demonstrate unique technical skills and core competencies for this level.
Requirements for All Levels
Project Management experience
Knowledge of Wind Turbines
Experience in Electric Controls and Computer Networking
Experience with Substation Relays
Familiarity with Transformers, Generators, and NERC Compliance Activities (a plus)
As a leading combination electricity and natural gas energy company, Xcel Energy offers a comprehensive portfolio of energy-related products and services. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, veteran status, or other protected status. Individuals who need an accommodation to apply should contact us at recruiting at xcelenergy.com. This contact information is for accommodation requests only and cannot be used to inquire about the status of applications.
The anticipated starting base pay for this position is: 79,800.00 to 152,766.00 per year. This position is eligible for benefits including annual incentive program, medical/dental/vision, life insurance, retirement plans, PTO, holidays, and other programs described in the benefits section.
Deadline to Apply: 09/10/25
EEO is the Law | EEO is the Law Supplement | Pay Transparency Nondiscrimination | Equal Opportunity Policy (PDF) | Employee Rights (PDF)
ACCESSIBILITY STATEMENT: Xcel Energy endeavors to make https://www.xcelenergy.com/ accessible to all users. For accessibility assistance, please contact Xcel Energy Talent Acquisition at recruiting at xcelenergy.com. This contact is for accommodation requests only.
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The below job summary and responsibilities reflect the staff engineer level role. The selected candidate will be placed at a level commensurate with their skills and experience; different skills and/or experience will be required at the senior and principal engineer levels.
This is a hybrid role with three days in the office and two days remote. Up to 25% travel, with options for using a company vehicle or submitting mileage for reimbursement.
Position Summary The Renewables Reliability Engineering team is responsible for elevating the reliability and availability of renewable energy systems while optimizing costs. The team leverages technical expertise, innovative engineering practices, data-driven insights and teamwork to deliver resilient, safe, and cost-effective solutions, resulting in operational excellence across the wind, solar, and battery storage portfolio.
We are seeking a highly skilled Wind Reliability Engineer to join our team. The role involves supporting substation maintenance, outages, and reliability improvement programs. Develop and apply wind turbine electrical and control subsystem expertise to an expanding fleet of wind farms across our three service territories. This individual will provide operational and performance engineering support for a 4GW+ fleet of Vestas, GE, and Siemens wind turbines. Willingness to occasionally climb wind turbines for educational and small project purposes is desired. This role will require occasional on-call availability to support plant outage troubleshooting and restoration. Familiarity with component failure rate calculations and other reliability engineering concepts is strongly encouraged.
What You Will Do
Perform complex problem solving of technical issues to reduce equipment downtime. Equipment includes wind turbine subsystems, 34.5kV - 345kV substations, and 34.5kV underground collection system equipment
Quantify equipment risk and develop corrective action plans to mitigate risk
Analyze equipment failure rates, failure causes, and risk trends to prioritize maintenance and future investments
Ensure implementation and optimization of equipment maintenance strategies
Define critical spare parts strategy based on failure modes, asset criticality and failure history
Perform root cause analysis and identify corrective action plans to prevent repeat failures
Provide technical and operational insights to influence new equipment design specifications
Participate in industry networking and research new technologies to improve equipment reliability
Leverage software and analytics to streamline processes and improve efficiency
Under general direction, demonstrates complete understanding and wide application of engineering principles. Independently determines and develops approaches to solutions. May lead small to medium non-critical projects or critical projects under direction of higher-level engineer/supervisor. May provide work direction to other professionals and staff. Represents the organization in providing solutions to difficult technical issues associated with specific projects. Frequent inter-organizational and outside customer contact. Demonstrates broad knowledge and proficiency of precedents in the specialty area and general knowledge of related disciplines.
Essential Responsibilities
Uses and applies technical standards, principles, theories, concepts, and techniques to perform activities/assignments that may include complex features such as conflicting design requirements and coordination requirements.
Supports the development of technical documentation (designs, testing, calculations, reports, standards, etc.). May assist with procedures requiring broad knowledge in a specialty area.
Works under general direction for routine engineering projects; provides ongoing technical support for project activities within Operations, Maintenance, testing/diagnostics and Regulatory.
May provide field engineering oversight and/or direction for commissioning, testing, inspections, etc.
May lead small to medium non-critical projects. Coordinates or leads critical projects or portions of projects (research, design, equipment selection, procurement support, installation and commissioning) under the direction of a higher-level engineer or supervisor.
Supports bid/evaluation processes including preparation of bid documents and technical evaluations for proposals; collaborates with Supply Chain and Legal following appropriate processes.
Frequently exchanges information with internal and external stakeholders on a wide range of importance and complexity.
May assign tasks and coordinate work of interns, drafters, technicians, craft personnel, or others. Provides guidance and mentoring to less experienced engineers. Maintains ongoing self-development of technical skills and competencies.
Performs activities such as budgeting, estimating, forecasting, accounting, and work order management in support of engineering projects.
Staff Engineer Level (Salary Range: $79,800-$103,666)
Minimum Requirements by Level
Staff Engineer: Bachelor’s degree in engineering from ABET-accredited program (electrical engineering preferred). 2+ years of relevant engineering experience. EIT/FE strongly encouraged.
Senior Engineer: Bachelor’s degree in engineering from ABET-accredited program (electrical engineering preferred). 5+ years of relevant engineering experience. EIT/FE required. PE may be required depending on business need.
Principal Engineer: Bachelor’s degree in engineering from ABET-accredited program (electrical engineering preferred). 9+ years of relevant engineering experience. PE required. Ability to demonstrate unique technical skills and core competencies for this level.
Requirements for All Levels
Project Management experience
Knowledge of Wind Turbines
Experience in Electric Controls and Computer Networking
Experience with Substation Relays
Familiarity with Transformers, Generators, and NERC Compliance Activities (a plus)
As a leading combination electricity and natural gas energy company, Xcel Energy offers a comprehensive portfolio of energy-related products and services. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, veteran status, or other protected status. Individuals who need an accommodation to apply should contact us at recruiting at xcelenergy.com. This contact information is for accommodation requests only and cannot be used to inquire about the status of applications.
The anticipated starting base pay for this position is: 79,800.00 to 152,766.00 per year. This position is eligible for benefits including annual incentive program, medical/dental/vision, life insurance, retirement plans, PTO, holidays, and other programs described in the benefits section.
Deadline to Apply: 09/10/25
EEO is the Law | EEO is the Law Supplement | Pay Transparency Nondiscrimination | Equal Opportunity Policy (PDF) | Employee Rights (PDF)
ACCESSIBILITY STATEMENT: Xcel Energy endeavors to make https://www.xcelenergy.com/ accessible to all users. For accessibility assistance, please contact Xcel Energy Talent Acquisition at recruiting at xcelenergy.com. This contact is for accommodation requests only.
#J-18808-Ljbffr