Description
Lead crews installing, maintaining, and repairing underground electrical distribution systems, including duct banks, conduits, cables, manholes, and pad-mounted equipment. Plan and supervise excavation and utility work, ensure safety and quality, coordinate switching and permits, and deliver projects on schedule.
- • Lead and enforce site-specific safety plans, JHAs, and OSHA/NESC compliance.
- • Verify utility locates, perform potholing/vacuum excavation, and mark conflicts.
- • Plan daily work, assign crew tasks, and coordinate subcontractors and inspectors.
- • Coordinate switching, lockout/tagout, and grounding with utility operations before work.
- • Supervise trenching, shoring, dewatering, and confined-space entry for manholes and vaults.
- • Build duct banks and install conduit, spacers, tracer wire, and warning tape per drawings.
- • Set handholes, manholes, pedestals, transformer pads, and grounding grids.
- • Pull underground cables using winches, tensioners, sheaves, and lubricants.
- • Identify cable phases and tags per schematics to prevent cross-phasing.
- • Splice and terminate underground power cables using approved kits and standards.
- • Install and bond grounds, surge protection, and insulating/fireproofing in vaults.
- • Install, maintain, and repair pad-mounted transformers, switchgear, and sectionalizing devices.
- • Inspect and test cables, terminations, and equipment using meggers and other test instruments.
- • Locate and isolate faults in underground circuits and coordinate repairs.
- • Prepare cables and conduits by stripping jackets and insulation to spec before splicing.
- • Maintain as-built drawings, redlines, daily reports, and time and material records.
- • Manage material takeoffs, deliveries, and tool and equipment readiness.
- • Direct operation and safe transport of trucks, trailers, excavators, trenchers, and pullers.
- • Implement traffic control, barricades, and public safety around work zones.
- • Restore trenches and sites with proper backfill, compaction, and surface repair.
- • Coordinate utility service installations, meters, and customer service connections.
- • Conduct route and site inspections to verify clearances and permit conditions.
- • Communicate job status with project managers, dispatch, and stakeholders.
- • Respond to emergencies and after-hours outages as needed.
Related specializations
Interview options
Interview options
Interviewee gender
Interviewee accent
Interview time
Source
Tasks & skills:
O*NET occupational data (work activities, skills, knowledge).
Learn more
Sources & Standards:
This site includes information from O*NET by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. Career Clutch has modified some of this information for student readability. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
Last reviewed: Jan 2026
