Power Grid Operator Jobs in Elgin, IL (NOW HIRING)

Looking for an opportunity to make an impact?

The Leidos Energy, Infrastructure, and Automation (EIA) operation helps solve utilities' complex challenges through our full life-cycle, performance-based solutions. Our services include engineering, planning, project management, construction management, and commissioning for electric power substations and transmission and distribution lines; protection and controls design; and electrification programs. Utilities consistently come to Leidos for reliable power expertise, as reflected through our work with more than 75 investor-owned utilities and more than 100 municipals/cooperatives across the country as well as a growing number of private developers.

Your greatest work is ahead!

Leidos' EIA business area is seeking a Senior Growth Solutions Architect to drive growth in the Electric Power Utilities market by delivering AI-enabled, grid modernization solutions. This role blends strategic sales, solution architecture, AI-enabled growth strategies, and deep utility domain expertise to help clients transform transmission, substation, and distribution design and operations. You will serve as a trusted advisor to utility executives and partner to our Growth team, shaping large-scale opportunities and delivering innovative solutions that improve grid reliability, resilience, and performance while aligning closely to customer priorities, regulatory realities, and operational challenges.

What you'll be doing:

• Develop deep understanding in partnership with development and product management of our AI-enabled technologies, strategies, and value propositions with a focus on how they address real-world utility challenges and customer outcomes.
• Develop go-to-market materials and aid the Growth team in expanding their understanding, messaging, client engagement, and opportunity development.
• Demonstrate active listening and on-the-fly adaptation to understand customer frictions and refine our value propositions to ease friction and bolster benefits.
• Serve as an active agent in learning derivative market challenges and being the voice of the customer's most strategic challenges within the development and investment organization ensuring solutions are shaped by real customer needs, not just technical possibilities.
• Leverage the modern portfolio of AI tooling to better understand markets, customers, budgets, and mission frictions with an emphasis on generating actionable insights that support customer alignment and decision-making.
• Shape the future of the AI-driven, resilient electric grid, lead high-value, strategic deals with top utilities, and deliver solutions that enable energy transition, reliability, and sustainability.
• Build C-level relationships (CIO, CTO, COO, and T&D executive leaders).

AI & Grid Innovation Focus:

• Building the grid of the future requires a deep understanding of operational, regulatory, and economic realities across utilities, AI serves as an enabler to better anticipate, optimize, and respond to these challenges.
• Maintain a relentless focus on customer pain points across transmission, substation, and distribution, developing a nuanced understanding of how constraints impact reliability, workforce efficiency, capital planning, and customer outcomes.
• Apply AI as a tool to enhance decision-making, uncover patterns in operational and market behavior, and translate complex data into actionable insights and alignment.
• Partner closely with customers to apply innovative approaches that align with their strategic priorities, rather than leading with technology-first solutions.
• Stay deeply attuned to evolving industry trends (grid resilience, electrification, DER growth, microgrids, regulatory shifts) and continuously refine how innovation can deliver measurable business and operational value.

What does Leidos need from me?

• 12 plus years in Electric Power Utilities (T&D, grid operations, or design).
• Proven success by closing large, complex deals and managing strategic portfolios.
• Strong expertise in utility systems (planning, design, operations).
• Experience in solution architecture, systems integration, and digital transformation.
• Knowledge of AI/ML, cyber, and cloud platform (AWS, Azure, GCP) concepts.
• Deep grid domain expertise and understanding of utility operations.
• Ability to translate emerging technologies into business value.
• Strong business development and solution selling skills.
• Executive presence with strong client engagement and communication skills.
• Proven ability to lead high-performing, cross-functional teams.
• Innate curiosity and problem statement development skills.

Favorable if you have:

• Experience with T&D grid design and modernization, DER integration, and NERC CIP compliance.
• Background in real-time systems, industrial networks, or utility OT environments.

If you're looking for comfort, keep scrolling. At Leidos, we outthink, outbuild, and outpace the status quo - because the mission demands it. We're not hiring followers. We're recruiting the ones who disrupt, provoke, and refuse to fail. Step 10 is ancient history. We're already at step 30 - and moving faster than anyone else dares.

The Leidos pay range for this job level is a general guideline onlyand not a guarantee of compensation or salary. Additional factors considered in extending an offer include (but are not limited to) responsibilities of the job, education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity, alignment with market data, applicable bargaining agreement (if any), or other law.