Data Center Substation, Protection & Automation Engineer

Location: Remote-Friendly, United States; staff are expected to be in one of Anthropic’s offices at least 25% of the time. The role requires approximately 20–35% travel for factory acceptance testing, relay testing, site energization, and commissioning.

Annual salary: $320,000–$405,000 USD.

Company

Anthropic builds reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems and develops large-scale infrastructure for training and serving frontier AI models.

What you will do

• Own protection philosophy, basis of design, reference relay settings, and protection one-line templates across HV substations, MV distribution, generation and energy-storage interties, and LV switchgear.
• Specify and configure protective relays; perform and review short-circuit, coordination, and arc-flash studies; and implement transfer, load-shed, and restoration schemes.
• Design standardized substation automation and SCADA architectures using IEC 61850 station and process bus, GOOSE, RTUs, gateways, HMIs, sequence-of-events recording, and time synchronization.
• Integrate relays, meters, and switchgear controls with EPMS and SCADA, including points lists, alarms, event capture, network topology, redundancy, and cybersecurity boundaries.
• Review build-partner and A/E design packages; coordinate utility interconnection protection, transfer-trip, ride-through, grid-code, generation, and battery-storage requirements.
• Develop test and commissioning procedures, witness FAT and field testing, support energization, investigate misoperations, and improve internal standards and scheme libraries.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in power system protection engineering, substation automation, or substation design for utility, heavy-industrial, or mission-critical facilities.
• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering or a closely related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Deep hands-on experience applying and setting relays for transformers, feeders, buses, generators, and switchgear, with fluency in at least one major relay platform such as SEL, GE Multilin, ABB, or Siemens.
• Experience running or critically reviewing short-circuit, protective-device coordination, and arc-flash studies using tools such as SKM, ETAP, EasyPower, ASPEN, or CAPE.
• Hands-on experience integrating protective relays into substation automation or SCADA using DNP3, Modbus, or IEC 61850, including RTU/gateway and sequence-of-events architecture.
• Experience with utility interconnection protection, including relay settings submittals, transfer-trip or communications-assisted schemes, or point-of-interconnection requirements.
• Ability to read, interpret, and mark up single-line and three-line diagrams, AC/DC schematics, relay panel drawings, and wiring diagrams.
• Experience developing relay test plans and witnessing factory acceptance, secondary-injection testing, or field commissioning.
• Familiarity with IEEE C37, IEEE 1584, NFPA 70/70E, and applicable NERC PRC reliability standards.
• Clear communication with technical and non-specialist stakeholders, a results-oriented approach, and willingness to handle work outside the core remit.

Nice to have

• HV/MV substation physical design, including general arrangement, bus configuration, transformer and breaker specification, grounding-grid design, insulation coordination, and control-building layout.
• Protection and control experience for on-site generation and battery energy storage, including anti-islanding, synchronizing, and microgrid transfer schemes.
• Data center, hyperscaler, or other high-availability electrical distribution experience, including 2N, N+1, or distributed-redundant topologies.
• Experience owning NERC PRC compliance evidence and PRC-005 maintenance programs.
• Experience with vendor relay engineering and IEC 61850 configuration tools, including SEL AcSELerator, GE EnerVista, ABB PCM600, or Siemens DIGSI.
• Experience designing IEC 61850 station- or process-bus systems with GOOSE-based protection or interlocking schemes.
• Prior work at a utility, relay or switchgear manufacturer, protection-engineering consultancy, or hyperscaler serving large-load interconnections.
• PE licensure is valued but not required.

Culture & Benefits

• Collaborative environment focused on reliable, trustworthy AI and large-scale research and infrastructure efforts.
• Flexible working hours, generous vacation and parental leave, competitive benefits, optional equity donation matching, and an office environment for collaboration.
• Hybrid attendance policy requiring staff to work from an Anthropic office at least 25% of the time; this role also includes approximately 20–35% travel.
• Visa sponsorship is available, although sponsorship cannot be guaranteed for every role or candidate; immigration-lawyer support is provided.

Hiring process

• Applicants are encouraged to apply even if they do not meet every listed qualification.
• Anthropic provides guidance on candidates’ use of AI during the application process.