Associate Director (Transmission)

About the role

The Associate Director (Transmission) will lead strategy engagements for utilities and their transmission businesses. You’ll structure the problem, own day-to-day client leadership, and coordinate internal and external cross-functional teams (transmission planning, engineering, regulatory, finance, delivery).

Responsibilities

• Lead the delivery of customer work through modeling, developing presentations, writing, and preparing entire subsections of reports and papers, and owning customer requests.
• Conduct independent research using your ingenuity and curiosity to make reasonable assumptions and produce appropriate solutions, at times with incomplete information.
• Fulfill end-to-end project obligations.
• Deliver presentations to customers and reply to questions.
• Develop aptitude in using a flagship modeling tool, gathering relevant data, and vetting results.
• Oversee the management of existing tools as needed.
• Oversee/implement major revisions to toolkits.
• Apply core QA/QC best practices.
• Lead proposal writing on various projects.
• Translate results of research and evaluations into clear visual representations.
• Head the creation or editing of spreadsheets to be "client-ready," including developing tools for customer solutions.
• Proactively track actual performance of own work performed against the established plan with ongoing communication to project team members.
• Track and manage actual performance of project teams against the established plan, with ongoing communication to project team members.
• Capture project learnings and repeatable products and work samples for future use according to knowledge management processes.
• Stand up and run a Transmission Strategy PMO: establish cadence, RACI's, decision rights, and an executive steering committee, maintain scope, schedule and execute across work-streams.
• Map the current operating model (org structure, design rights/RACI, processes) and recommend changes: resource plan, capability gaps, governance, and interfaces with ISO/RTO, regulatory and community stakeholders.
• Build the KPI framework for transmission buildout (e.g., miles energized per year, permit lead times, ROW acquisition progress, deliverability milestones, cost and schedule variance); design dashboards and routines to use them.
• Translate engineering and modeling (production cost, power flow/deliverability) into options, business cases, and an executive-ready roadmap with milestones, owners and KPI's.
• Lead stakeholder alignment across utility executives, ISO/RTO, regulators, communities, and delivery partners, design strategies to unblock tough issues and drive to decision.
• Assist with internal initiatives as needed.

Requirements

• Master's Degree or Ph.D. in engineering, economics, computer science, public policy or related field (or Bachelor's and equivalent work experience).
• Demonstrated hands-on experience or extensive knowledge in, or related to our practice areas.
• Significant experience/subject matter expertise in electric transmission development or planning (e.g. interconnection and deliverability concepts, corridor/ROW and permitting basics, capital planning, utility regulation).
• Extensive project management experience leading collaborative project efforts while helping each member of your team do their finest work.
• Aptitude to write and communicate clearly.
• Experience crafting a clear and compelling message both in writing and via presentations.
• Demonstrated experience working directly with clients, stakeholders or customers.
• Passionate about the transition to a low-carbon economy.
• Demonstrated success guiding ideas, people, and projects.
• High fluency in Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint; quantitative modeling methods and/or programming knowledge and experience are also valued.
• Desire to work in a dynamic office environment with other staff.