Protection & Controls Engineering Hiring Snapshot: Licensing and Software Skills in 67 Job Descriptions

What do protection and controls engineering jobs actually ask for?

Protection and controls engineers work on the systems that keep the electric grid safe, reliable, and controllable. Their work can include relay settings, substation protection, power-system studies, commissioning, testing, and control-system design.

Job seekers often want to know which credentials and software packages employers actually mention. To get a clearer picture, Grid Talent Hub reviewed 67 distinct protection and controls engineering job descriptions from 33 organizations represented on our job board.

This is a snapshot of job descriptions in our dataset. It is not a survey of every open position in the industry, and it should not be interpreted as a national labor-market forecast.

Professional licensing was often preferred, but not always an absolute requirement

The most common pattern was that employers preferred or encouraged professional licensure without stating that it was an absolute condition of employment.

Overall, 42 of the 67 descriptions, or 62.7%, contained some form of licensing language under our coding method.

The “pathway or eligibility” category includes descriptions that accepted an FE credential, recognized eligibility for licensure, or allowed an engineer to work toward licensure after joining. It does not mean that every candidate without a PE would qualify for every role.

The sample also included two postings where a PE was presented as an alternative to a specific education requirement, and two associate-level postings that referred to working under the supervision of a professional engineer rather than requiring the applicant to hold a PE.

The practical takeaway for candidates is that a PE can strengthen an application, but the wording of the individual posting matters. “Preferred,” “required,” “eligible to obtain,” and “working under supervision” describe different hiring situations.

Which software packages appeared most often?

We also tracked five commonly associated power-system study and protection packages:

At least one of these five packages appeared in 23 descriptions. Twenty-one of those 23 descriptions mentioned two or more packages, which suggests that employers often value familiarity with a broader software workflow rather than a single program.

These are mentions, not requirements. A package could appear in a preferred-qualification section, a list of responsibilities, or an example of relevant experience. The data should not be treated as a software market-share ranking or as proof that one package is universally better to learn.

ETAP and ASPEN appeared most frequently in this sample, but the difference was small. The result may reflect the mix of employers and roles in the dataset rather than the entire industry.

Examples of how employers phrase requirements

The descriptions used different approaches to licensing:

• One engineering consultancy described the PE as preferred while also mentioning the ability to obtain it within 12 months.

• One protection and controls employer required a PE but accepted an FE credential when the candidate was actively progressing toward licensure.

• Another posting asked for the ability to obtain a PE within 90 days.

• One posting stated the PE requirement directly without describing an alternative.

These examples show why candidates should read the full qualification section instead of filtering themselves out based only on the presence of “PE” in a listing.

Methodology and limitations

This review used the Grid Talent Hub job export captured in September 2026.

We began with published postings whose titles or descriptions matched protection, protective, relay, or related protection-and-controls terms. We excluded unrelated uses of “protection,” such as environmental permitting roles. Technician, apprentice, and intern profiles were excluded from the engineering analysis.

Repeated copies of the same description were consolidated where possible. The final analysis contains 67 distinct engineering or engineering-consulting descriptions from 33 organizations. The unit of analysis is a distinct description in the export, not a verified unique vacancy, hire, or employer survey response.

Licensing and software mentions were coded from the text of each description. The review was AI-assisted, with the relevant passages checked against the exported descriptions. It was not independently reviewed by a licensing board or engineering labor-market researcher.

Because the sample comes from one specialized job board, it may overrepresent employers and roles that fit Grid Talent Hub’s focus. The findings should be used as directional information for candidates and employers, not as a complete description of the profession.

Browse current protection and controls engineering jobs on Grid Talent Hub.

Disclosure: This article was prepared using analysis of Grid Talent Hub’s job export with AI-assisted classification and drafting. The underlying job descriptions and coding definitions are described above so readers can evaluate the findings.