As Switzerland's national grid company, Swissgrid offers a variety of exciting and impactful roles – and we're always looking to add new sources of energy to our team. Apply now and help us to shape Switzerland's electricity future.
Are you studying engineering, natural sciences, electrical engineering or IT – or have you already completed your degree? Then Swissgrid is the ideal place to start your career.
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Electricity has to travel a long way from the power plant to the end appliance. The journey starts in the Swiss transmission grid, where the electricity produced at home and abroad is collected. This electricity is then transported at a voltage level of 220 or 380 kilovolts to the vicinity of the consumer, from where it is fed into the distribution grid via three transformer levels. As the owner, Swissgrid is responsible for the transmission grid in Switzerland. Maintaining the security of supply is a complex task, as shown by a glance at the tasks the employees have to perform.
Without lines, switching substations and transformers, nothing works in the transmission grid. Swissgrid is continuously modifying the grid, which spans some 6,700 kilometres, by means of expansion, improvements or dismantling, in order to meet the needs at home and abroad. Infrastructure projects are managed, for example, by Sacha B. As Project Manager Lines, he guides construction projects from all the way from project planning, management of the approval processes, invitation to tender and implementation through to handover to the grid management.
One of Swissgrid's tasks is to operate the electricity plants. Organised in three regions, employees like Loïc M. ensure that lines and substations are regularly inspected, maintained and repaired when necessary. The Plant Manager plans the maintenance work which is to be carried out by external service providers and is responsible for areas as quality management and cost management.
In order to guarantee occupational safety and the protection of the environment, risk assessment is one of the key tasks of Patrick V., Safety Officer in Western Switzerland. As every project is different, he always visits the site himself to form an impression of it, and coordinates construction and maintenance projects with the site managers.
A reliable supply of electricity is only possible if the grid frequency is stable and there is no overloading. To ensure that this is the case, operator Patrycja L. and her colleagues monitor the power flows in the transmission grid and control them, for example by isolating lines from the grid or by instructing power plants to increase or reduce their output. If a Swiss power plant fails and the control energy needed to make up the shortfall cannot be sourced in this country, Switzerland's security of supply depends on our European neighbours. To ensure that enough electricity producers and also enough consumers are available, Alexandra Z., Market Development Specialist, is working with other countries to establish a platform for the European exchange of electricity.
All these employees ensure that electricity is constantly available. Despite all the safety measures, however, outages can still occur. That’s when Paul N., Head of Crisis Management and Business Continuity Management, and his crisis team spring into action. He assesses whether a technical fault, market failure or even a cyber attack has caused the outage. If necessary, Switzerland's national government, cantons or European neighbours are informed and involved in resolving the problem.
We offer internships and diploma projects for students and graduates. Young people in the fields of engineering, natural sciences, electrical engineering and IT can make the perfect start to their professional career at Swissgrid.
What we offer
An internship at Swissgrid lasts between three and twelve months. Interns and graduates are involved in projects from day one. During this time they
Our requirements
What do we expect from you?
Your benefits
At the end of the internship we will discuss your experiences during your time at Swissgrid and give you detailed feedback. But we are also interested in your future: we will discuss with you the prospects for starting a career at Swissgrid.
Are you interested? Send us your dossier at least two months before you wish to start the internship. We require all your application documents, including CV, a photo and details of your availability. We would also be interested in the title and subject of your dissertation, if you already have it.
Swissgrid - an attractive employer for students
What are the reasons why Swissgrid is so popular among students as a potential employer? Beatrice Brack, Head of HR at Swissgrid: «We maintain a presence at universities and job fairs. We also offer placements for interns and dissertation students, post graduate students, we supervise dissertations and arrange visits to Swissgrid for interested students. This all pays off!»
The new federal energy strategy, the modernisation of operations, and the change in European energy markets present major challenges for the energy system. To enable Swissgrid to continue contributing to the established security of supply and quality, it is essential that the right decisions are made with regard to grid and market operations.
Advanced training in system operations
The new advanced training course on the subject of electrical energy systems focuses on system operations to help prepare specialists of distribution system operators, power plant operators, federal railways and Swissgrid for the oncoming challenges as well as possible.
This course will help participants develop the following skills:
Swissgrid was able to work with Romande Energie, Omicron and the Research Centre for Energy Grids (FEN) to launch the certified course and influence the training content.
General goals
The goal of the afore-mentioned advanced training course is to offer interested engineers system operations training that can be applied to the entire industry. After completing the course, participants will be able to apply their skills in multiple areas and will have attained a standardised, high-quality training certificate covering various fields in electrical energy systems.
