The unseen architects designing tomorrow’s electric grid.

On any given day, a grid planning engineer might be staring at a wall of maps and models, running scenario after scenario: What happens if a massive new solar farm in Arizona comes online? How will the system hold up if AI-driven data centers in Virginia double their demand overnight? What if another once-in-a-century storm takes aim at Texas?

While lineworkers keep the grid running hour to hour, planning engineers are the ones designing its future — ensuring electricity flows reliably, affordably, and cleanly no matter what’s coming.

They decide where new transmission lines should be built, how to integrate renewable power, and what investments are needed to maintain reliability.

Grid Planning Engineers are the unseen architects of the energy transition — balancing the nation’s growing digital appetite with the push for affordability and resilience.

Each week, Positive Current spotlights an emerging career in the energy sector — breaking down what the job entails, the skills it takes, who’s hiring, and what professionals can expect to earn. This week’s focus: Grid Planning Engineers.

Grid Planning Engineers

Grid planning engineers analyze massive datasets on electricity flows, system performance, and projected demand. Using specialized software, they design how the grid will evolve years — even decades — into the future. Their work informs everything from a utility’s long-term investment strategy to the smallest decisions about substations and feeder lines.

They also run reliability studies to ensure that when one line goes down, others can pick up the slack. Increasingly, the job involves integrating variable renewable energy, distributed resources like rooftop solar, and high-growth loads like EV charging networks and AI data centers. It’s part engineering, part forecasting, and part problem-solving on a scale that affects millions of people.

Salary Snapshot:

  • Grid planning engineers in the US earn approximately $101,752 per year.
  • Actual salaries varying significantly based on experience and location, ranging from around $84,000 to $135,000 annually.

Who’s a Fit:

Planning engineers must master power systems analysis tools like PSS®E, PSCAD, or GridLAB-D, and be fluent in load forecasting and stability studies. But the role is also evolving: data analytics, coding skills, and an understanding of how distributed energy resources connect to the system are increasingly essential. Soft skills matter too. These engineers often present their findings to regulators, executives, or community stakeholders, meaning they need to translate complex models into plain language and clear recommendations. As the grid grows more digital, interdisciplinary skills — mixing engineering with data science and policy — are becoming highly sought after.

Who’s Hiring: Companies hiring right now for grid planning engineering roles include Amazon, Southern California Edison (SCE), ERCOT, Xcel Energy, Ulteig, GE Vernova, and Pacific Gas And Electric Company (PG&E). You can find job listings for these and other companies on professional platforms like ZipRecruiter and Amazon.jobs. 

The Bottom Line

As the demand for electricity accelerates, so does the demand for people who can plan where, how, and why the power flows. Grid planning engineers are the architects who make sure tomorrow’s grid is not only possible, but reliable. For students considering an engineering path — or mid-career professionals looking to pivot — this is one of the most impactful careers in the energy transition.