Chief Engineer / Head of Architecture & Engineering — Network Control Japan

Hitachi · Tokyo

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Chief Engineer / Head of Architecture & Engineering — Network Control Japan

Network Control Japan | Hitachi Energy
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Employment type: Full-time, regular
Function: Engineering / Architecture / Project Delivery
Program: JIEMS — Japan Integrated Energy Management System / Next-Generation Nationwide Load Dispatching System
Reports to: Program Director — administrative / HR reporting
Day-to-day reporting: Project Director — delivery execution and priorities

1. Role Purpose

The Chief Engineer / Head of Architecture & Engineering — Network Control Japan will provide senior technical leadership for Hitachi Energy Network Control’s largest Japan program: the delivery of a next-generation, nationwide energy management and load dispatching capability for Japan’s transmission and distribution sector.

This role is accountable for the technical coherence, architecture integrity, engineering governance, and customer-facing technical leadership of the JIEMS solution. The position will serve as the senior Japan-based engineering authority across Energy Management Systems, Market Management Systems, SCADA/EMS, utility integration, operational technology, cybersecurity, testing, commissioning and long-term operability.

The successful candidate will operate at the intersection of:

• Japanese utility customer expectations
• Hitachi Energy global product and engineering teams
• Hitachi Japan / Social Infrastructure stakeholders
• Program and project delivery leadership
• Local Network Control Japan succession and capability-building objectives

This is a hands-on leadership role for a senior engineer who can both shape architecture and drive execution discipline on a mission-critical national infrastructure program.

2. Strategic Context

JIEMS is a nationally significant energy infrastructure program. It brings together Hitachi’s domestic experience in Japan’s mission-critical power systems with Hitachi Energy’s global Network Manager software portfolio, including SCADA, EMS and MMS capabilities.

The program requires a leader who can translate between:

• Japanese power-system operating requirements
• Global product architecture and release roadmaps
• Safety, reliability, cybersecurity and regulatory obligations
• System integration realities across IT and OT environments
• Executive delivery pressure on a complex, multi-year program

The role is also part of the Network Control Japan operations succession plan. A core expectation is to help build a durable Japan-based technical leadership bench, reducing dependency on global/hub escalation and strengthening local ownership of architecture, engineering standards, customer interface and operational continuity.

3. Key Accountabilities

A. Architecture Leadership

The role will own and maintain the end-to-end Master Architecture for the JIEMS solution.

Responsibilities include:

• Define, maintain and govern the complete solution architecture across EMS, MMS, SCADA, system integration, data flows, interfaces, infrastructure, cybersecurity and operational processes.
• Ensure architecture decisions remain aligned with approved delivery strategies, product roadmaps, customer requirements, engineering standards and long-term maintainability.
• Lead architecture reviews and design authority forums across Hitachi Energy global teams, Hitachi Japan teams, product development, project delivery and customer stakeholders.
• Resolve cross-domain technical conflicts between EMS, MMS, SCADA, IT infrastructure, OT integration, market interfaces, data engineering and commissioning workstreams.
• Ensure architecture documentation is current, traceable, decision-ready and usable by engineering, project, customer and operations teams.
• Provide clear technical options, recommendations and risk trade-offs to the Project Director and Program Director.

B. Engineering Governance and Delivery Assurance

The role will act as the senior engineering authority for technical delivery quality.

Responsibilities include:

• Establish engineering governance for design, build, integration, test, release, commissioning and transition-to-operations.
• Drive consistency across requirements management, design baselines, interface control documents, technical assumptions, change control and acceptance criteria.
• Identify, qualify, quantify and manage technical risks, dependencies and engineering constraints.
• Ensure product releases, customizations, integration milestones and testing activities are technically ready and aligned to committed program milestones.
• Review and challenge technical plans for feasibility, sequencing, resource readiness and implementation risk.
• Provide technical input into project status reports, executive updates, customer reviews, risk reviews and schedule recovery plans.
• Ensure lessons learned are captured and converted into repeatable local engineering practices.

C. EMS / MMS / SCADA / Utility Integration Leadership

The role will provide expert oversight across the core Network Control technology stack.

Responsibilities include:

• Lead technical decision-making across EMS, MMS, SCADA and related grid / market control functions.
• Provide direction on load dispatching, supply-demand balancing, market integration, network modeling, state estimation, contingency analysis, generation scheduling, LFC, SCUC, SCED and related power-system applications.
• Ensure the solution supports real-time control, predictive optimization, market operations, operator workflows and secure data exchange.
• Oversee integration with external utility systems, market systems, customer systems, data platforms, operational interfaces and third-party software.
• Ensure interoperability approaches are robust, secure, documented and testable.
• Guide teams through complex interface issues involving data models, telemetry, communication protocols, database integration, visualization, alarms, events, historian data, reporting and operational workflows.

D. Customer-Facing Technical Leadership

The role will be a senior technical counterpart to the customer and end-client organizations.

Responsibilities include:

• Serve as a trusted senior technical interface for customer architecture, engineering and integration topics.
• Lead technical workshops, architecture reviews, dependency reviews and issue-resolution sessions with Japanese customer stakeholders.
• Translate complex engineering issues into clear business, schedule and operational implications.
• Maintain strong relationships with customer-side technical leads, end users, Hitachi Japan stakeholders and Hitachi Energy global experts.
• Ensure Japanese-language technical discussions are handled with credibility, precision and cultural fluency.
• Support the Project Director and Program Director in executive-level customer communications where technical clarity is essential.
• Protect the quality and integrity of Hitachi Energy’s technical position while remaining pragmatic and collaborative.

E. Testing, Acceptance, Commissioning and Transition

The role will ensure that the delivered system is testable, accepted and operable.

Responsibilities include:

• Provide senior technical leadership for system integration testing, Factory Acceptance Testing, Site Acceptance Testing, commissioning and operational readiness.
• Ensure test scope, test data, environments, scripts, defect handling and acceptance criteria are aligned to architecture and customer requirements.
• Drive resolution of complex technical defects and integration blockers.
• Ensure architecture and engineering decisions support high availability, resiliency, fallback operations, disaster recovery and maintainability.
• Support training, knowledge transfer and transition-to-service planning.
• Ensure the final system is not only delivered, but operable, supportable and trusted by the customer.

F. OT Cybersecurity and Mission-Critical Reliability

The role will ensure engineering decisions are appropriate for mission-critical utility OT environments.

Responsibilities include:

• Embed cybersecurity, reliability, availability and safety considerations into architecture, engineering and delivery decisions.
• Ensure secure-by-design practices across system design, integration, testing, commissioning and operational handover.
• Work with cybersecurity specialists to align system architecture with relevant OT security practices, customer requirements and applicable standards.
• Ensure architecture supports appropriate segregation, access control, logging, monitoring, incident response and lifecycle security.
• Balance reliability and cybersecurity in a pragmatic way suitable for grid control environments.

G. Japan Network Control Capability Building

This role is a succession-planning position, not only a project delivery role.

Responsibilities include:

• Develop and mentor Japan-based Network Control technical resources.
• Build local technical authority across EMS, MMS, SCADA, integration, testing, commissioning and customer engagement.
• Create reusable engineering playbooks, architecture patterns, technical templates and decision logs.
• Reduce dependency on overseas escalation by developing Japan-based first-line technical leadership.
• Support workforce planning, onboarding, skills assessment and technical role definition for the Japan Network Control organization.
• Establish a strong engineering culture: disciplined, documented, customer-aware, technically rigorous and delivery-focused.

4. Scope of Leadership

The role will lead through a mixture of direct authority, matrix influence and technical governance.

Expected leadership scope:

• Japan-based architecture and engineering resources
• Solution consultants and systems engineers
• Integration engineers
• Test and commissioning engineering contributors
• Interface leads across EMS, MMS, SCADA and infrastructure
• Global product / R&D / technical experts engaged in JIEMS
• Partner, vendor or subcontractor technical teams where applicable

Over time, the role is expected to assume direct or formal technical leadership of Japan-based Network Control engineering resources as part of the NC Japan operations succession plan.

5. Key Stakeholders

Internal

• Program Director
• Project Director
• Network Control Japan leadership
• Grid Automation / Network Control global leadership
• Product Management
• Product Development / R&D
• Technical Leads across EMS, MMS, SCADA and GMS
• Cybersecurity specialists
• Quality, safety, compliance and project controls teams
• Hitachi Japan / Social Infrastructure stakeholders

External

• Transmission and Distribution IT & OT Systems LLC / customer-side program stakeholders
• Japanese transmission and distribution utility stakeholders
• End-user control room / operations representatives
• Customer architecture and engineering leads
• System integration partners and vendors
• Regulatory or standards-facing stakeholders where applicable

6. Required Experience

Essential

• 15+ years’ experience in systems engineering, solution architecture, technical delivery or engineering leadership for complex software / OT / control-system programs.
• Significant experience in electric utility, grid control, transmission, distribution, market operations, power systems or other mission-critical infrastructure domains.
• Proven architecture leadership across SCADA, EMS, MMS, ADMS, GMS, WAMS, DERMS, market systems or equivalent operational control platforms.
• Experience delivering large-scale, multi-stakeholder, multi-year software/system integration programs.
• Strong knowledge of system integration across IT and OT environments.
• Experience with Factory Acceptance Testing, Site Acceptance Testing, commissioning and customer acceptance processes.
• Demonstrated ability to lead technical risk management, design governance, dependency management and issue resolution.
• Experience working with global product / R&D teams and local customer delivery organizations.
• Strong stakeholder management skills with the ability to influence senior technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Fluent English for global collaboration.
• Business-level Japanese, ideally native or near-native, with the ability to lead technical workshops, review documents and manage customer discussions in Japanese.

Strongly preferred

• Direct experience with Hitachi Energy Network Manager or comparable enterprise grid control platforms.
• EMS / MMS domain expertise, including power system modeling, state estimation, contingency analysis, optimal power flow, load frequency control, SCUC, SCED, market clearing or balancing market operations.
• Experience in Japan’s utility, grid, T&D or social infrastructure sector.
• Experience working with Japanese utilities, government-related infrastructure stakeholders or large Japanese enterprise customers.
• Familiarity with Japanese business culture, consensus-building, documentation expectations and executive communication norms.
• Experience developing local technical teams or building engineering capability in a country / regional organization.

7. Technical Knowledge

The candidate should bring strong working knowledge across several of the following areas:

• Energy Management Systems
• Market Management Systems
• SCADA platforms
• Generation Management Systems
• Utility control room operations
• Transmission and distribution operations
• Power system applications
• Load dispatching / balancing systems
• State estimation
• Contingency analysis
• Security-constrained unit commitment
• Security-constrained economic dispatch
• Load frequency control
• Market clearing and congestion management
• Network modeling and data engineering
• OT system integration
• IT/OT cybersecurity
• High availability and disaster recovery
• Control center infrastructure
• Database systems, preferably SQL-based RDBMS
• Windows Server, Linux / Unix, virtualization and networking
• Integration protocols and standards relevant to utility environments
• Software release governance and secure SDLC
• Jira, Azure DevOps, Confluence or similar engineering management tooling

8. Language and Work Eligibility

Candidates must have the legal right to work in Japan and must be able to operate effectively in both Japanese and English. Japanese language capability must be sufficient to lead complex customer-facing technical discussions, review technical documentation, and communicate with senior Japanese stakeholders. English fluency is required for collaboration with Hitachi Energy global product, engineering and delivery teams.

For internal search calibration:

Target candidate profile is either a Japanese national with strong global / English capability, or a Japan-based / Japan-ready expatriate with credible Japanese business fluency and deep Japanese customer-facing experience.

9. Education

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Power Systems Engineering, Computer Science, Software Engineering, Control Systems or a related technical discipline.

Preferred

• Master’s degree or equivalent advanced qualification in power systems, energy systems, software architecture, control systems, cybersecurity or systems engineering.
• Professional certifications in architecture, cybersecurity, project delivery, power systems or systems engineering are advantageous but not a substitute for domain depth.

10. Leadership Competencies

The successful candidate will demonstrate:

• Technical authority: able to make and defend complex architecture decisions.
• Customer credibility: trusted by Japanese customer technical and executive stakeholders.
• Delivery realism: understands how architecture decisions affect schedule, cost, risk, testing and commissioning.
• Systems thinking: can see the full chain from requirements to operations.
• Structured communication: can simplify complexity without losing technical accuracy.
• Calm escalation management: handles pressure, ambiguity and conflict without destabilizing the team.
• Cross-cultural leadership: bridges Japanese customer expectations and global product delivery.
• Coaching mindset: builds local capability rather than hoarding expertise.
• Documentation discipline: insists on clear architecture baselines, decisions, assumptions and traceability.
• Safety and integrity: treats mission-critical infrastructure with appropriate seriousness.

11. Success Measures

The role should be measured against delivery, architecture and succession outcomes.

Architecture and Engineering

• Master Architecture established, maintained and accepted by key stakeholders.
• Architecture decisions documented with rationale, trade-offs and impact.
• Technical risks actively tracked, mitigated and escalated early.
• Interface and integration dependencies visible and managed.
• Engineering deliverables completed to quality, schedule and acceptance expectations.
• Defect leakage reduced across integration, FAT, SAT and commissioning stages.
• Solution design remains aligned to customer requirements, product strategy and operational readiness.

Customer and Program Delivery

• Customer technical confidence improves.
• Technical issues are resolved with fewer escalations and shorter cycle times.
• Program Director and Project Director receive clear, decision-ready technical options.
• Delivery teams have fewer architecture ambiguities and rework loops.
• Technical inputs into executive reporting are accurate, timely and actionable.

Japan Capability and Succession

• Japan-based Network Control technical resources receive structured mentoring.
• Local engineering team capability visibly improves.
• Knowledge transfer from global teams to Japan becomes systematic.
• Reusable Japan engineering playbooks, templates and lessons learned are created.
• A credible local technical succession path is established.

12. First 90-Day Expectations

First 30 days

• Build a complete stakeholder map across customer, Hitachi Japan, Hitachi Energy global product, project delivery and engineering teams.
• Review existing architecture, requirements, interface documents, technical risks and delivery plans.
• Identify top technical risks, architecture gaps, dependency conflicts and decision bottlenecks.
• Establish the role’s operating cadence with the Program Director and Project Director.
• Define immediate architecture governance forums and decision pathways.

Days 31–60

• Publish or refresh the JIEMS Master Architecture baseline.
• Create a prioritized technical risk and dependency register.
• Establish architecture review discipline across EMS, MMS, SCADA, infrastructure, cybersecurity and integration workstreams.
• Identify Japan-based capability gaps and propose a skills development / succession plan.
• Start regular technical reporting into project and program governance.

Days 61–90

• Demonstrate measurable reduction in unresolved architecture / integration issues.
• Confirm technical readiness criteria for upcoming major milestones.
• Formalize engineering playbooks for recurring design, integration, testing and issue-resolution patterns.
• Establish a mentoring structure for Japan-based Network Control engineering resources.
• Provide the Program Director and Project Director with a clear technical health assessment and forward risk plan.

Accessibility and reasonable accommodation

Qualified individuals with a disability may request a reasonable accommodation if you are unable or limited in your ability to use or access the Hitachi Energy career site as a result of your disability. You may request reasonable accommodations by completing a general inquiry form on our website. Please include your contact information and specific details about your required accommodation to support you during the job application process.

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Use of Al and automated tools in recruitment

As part of our recruitment process, Hitachi Energy uses digital and automated tools, including Al-supported solutions, to assist with activities such as application screening, job matching, and interview scheduling. These tools are designed to support our recruiters and do not replace human decision-making. Candidate data is processed in accordance with applicable data protection and employment laws as well as Hitachi's Global Data Privacy Notice.

Background Screening and Security Checks

As part of the hiring process, Hitachi Energy conducts pre-employment background checks that may include verification of employment history, education, criminal records, and other relevant information, in accordance with applicable laws.

For certain roles—particularly those involving access to sensitive information, financial responsibilities, client data, regulated environments, or security-sensitive functions—additional or more comprehensive background or security screenings may be required. These may include, but are not limited to, enhanced criminal history checks, credit history reviews (where legally permissible), sanctions screening, or other due diligence measures aligned with the responsibilities of the position.

The scope and depth of any background or security review will be determined based on the nature of the role and business necessity, and will always be conducted in compliance with applicable federal, state, and local laws. Candidates will be notified and, where required, asked to provide consent prior to the initiation of any such checks.

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