OT Network Specialist II or Senior

Company Summary Statement

Louisville Gas and Electric Company and Kentucky Utilities Company, part of the PPL Corporation (NYSE: PPL) family of companies, are regulated utilities that serve more than 1.3 million customers and have consistently ranked among the best companies for customer service in the United States. LG&E serves 334,000 natural gas and 433,000 electric customers in Louisville and 16 surrounding counties. KU serves 569,000 customers in 77 Kentucky counties and five counties in Virginia. LG&E and KU are major employers and active supporters of the communities they serve. They empower employees, community members and initiatives across their service territory through volunteerism and investments in organizations that support education, sustainability and wellbeing.

Overview

JOB PURPOSE

Under general supervision, responsible for providing advanced level support to the currently deployed fleet of OT network devices across Generation, as well as assisting with planning and onboarding all future deployments. Position works closely with the compliance team, Generation, IT and external parties to develop, implement, and maintain OT network devices. This position requires considerable independent judgement in regard to OT network assessment, design, analysis and meeting current/future business needs for OT environment.

#LG&EKU

#INDLGE

Responsibilities

Essential Functions

• Provides process development, lifecycle management and assists with change management for OT devices.
• Conducts site visits to evaluate, troubleshoot and provide support with complex technical issues for OT infrastructure.
• Performs assessments and makes recommendations for the risk of additions and changes to the OT networks, and assists with the mitigation of issues while performing technical root cause analysis of OT system failures.
• Promotes common technical approaches and solutions for OT infrastructure while coordinating with various internal (particularly IT) and external stakeholders.
• Authors, maintains, and edits OT network documentation required for documenting maintenance of and changes to OT infrastructure.
• Identifies opportunities for improvement of controls system performance and makes recommendations for improved methods. Assists plant personnel in resolving inter and intra department related OT/IT issues and in developing solutions to meet regulatory requirements.
• Prepares and presents reports, presentations, and recommendations for improvement of cyber security, reliability per NERC standards, and documentation of control related plant activities.
• Functions as a generation liaison between the plant OT environments and the central IT groups (networks, security and operations).
• All other duties and projects as assigned.
  
  
  

Qualifications

QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor's degree in information technology or related discipline and minimum 3 years of related experience in Information Technology and Operational Technology environments, or an equivalent combination of education and experience on a year-for-year basis, is required.
• Must have an understanding of OT Security Standards, Industrial Control Systems and underlying principles of networking, infrastructure and system integration
• Must also have a working knowledge of IT best practices with regards to both networking and IT security.
  
  
  

Senior Specialist

• Bachelor's degree in information technology or related discipline and minimum 5 years of related experience in Information Technology and Operational Technology environments, or an equivalent combination of education and experience on a year-for-year basis, is required.
  
  
  

Preferred Qualifications

• Strong team player, able to communicate and show leadership amongst teams of similarly knowledgeable specialists and engineers.
• Ability to build relationships across various functions and lines of business to ensure reliability and compliance.
• Possesses knowledge and expertise of OT and IT environments, and the ability to discuss and explain such topics to those not experienced in these areas.
• Experience with various vendors and types of Industrial Control System (ICS) equipment, including PLCs, HMIs, and network protocol.
• Ability to analyze and suggest recommended improvements to the industrial control system programs and systems to meet industry standards and best practices.
• Possession of excellent research and analytical skills and excellent oral and written communication skills.
  
  
  

Additional Experience:

• Generation Operational Technology (OT)
• Active directory
• Storage
• VMware
• Backup and Recovery
• Server infrastructure
• Hardware
• Windows
• Linux
  
  
  
  

Networking engineering

• Design, implementation, administration, and troubleshooting
• OT/IT/ICS networking
• NextGen firewalls
• Firewall administration
• Segmentation
• Security policy development
• VPN/NAT/IDS
• Secure remote access
• Routing and switching
• Network Monitoring and Performance
• Scripting