Operational Technology Manager

About the role

Energize your career at SECO Energy! Oversees SECO’s operational technology portfolio and ensures alignment with the technology roadmap. Manages deployment and optimization of OT platforms, including GIS, DERMS, OMS, and AMI. Builds and maintains vendor relationships, negotiates contracts, and ensures that OT systems support modernization, distributed energy integration, and reliable, real-time utility operations.

Responsibilities

• Manage and execute SECO’s operational technology roadmap across GIS, DERMS, OMS, and AMI.
• Oversee vendor relationships, contracts, and performance across multiple technology platforms.
• Cook up system upgrades, integrations, and replacements to align with modernization goals.
• Ensure interoperability of OT platforms to support ADMS and DER integration.
• Collaborate with operations, engineering, and IT teams to deliver reliable, secure, and scalable OT solutions.
• Promote common technical approaches and solutions for OT infrastructure while coordinating with various internal (particularly IT) and external stakeholders.
• Lead planning and execution of SECO’s multi-year Operational Technology roadmap.
• Oversee charters, schedules, budgets, and risk registers for Operational technology initiatives.
• Cook up cross-departmental teams to deliver projects on time and within scope.
• Apply PMP/Agile methods to manage large capital projects and smaller pilots.
• Track milestones and report performance to leadership and stakeholders.
• Develop and manage annual budgets for GIS, DERMS, OMS, AMI, and related systems.
• Monitor and control project expenditures to reduce variance from forecasts.
• Conduct ROI and cost-benefit analyses for technology investments.
• Support long-range capital and O&M planning tied to grid modernization goals.
• Deliver regular budget updates and justifications to senior leadership.
• Build and maintain relationships with vendors and technology partners.
• Negotiate contracts and oversee licensing and service agreements.
• Maintain vendor performance against SLAs and escalate issues as needed.
• Evaluate vendor proposals and recommend best-fit solutions for SECO.
• Ensure vendor compliance with cybersecurity, interoperability, and regulatory standards.
• Oversee integration of OT platforms (GIS, DERMS, OMS, AMI) with enterprise systems.
• Establish standards for reliability, system uptime, and data governance.
• Improve accuracy, quality, and accessibility of operational data for analytics.
• Leverage analytics to drive outage reduction, DER optimization, and operational intelligence.
• Identify emerging OT technologies with potential value to SECO.
• Pilot and evaluate solutions that enhance grid reliability and renewable integration.
• Promote process improvements that streamline operations.
• Benchmark SECO’s OT capabilities against industry peers and best practices.
• Encourage a culture of continuous learning and innovation across teams.

Requirements

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in engineering, computer Science, or related field. Master’s degree preferred.
• Experience: Minimum of three (3) years of experience in operational technology, IT/OT integration, or utility system management. Minimum of one (1) year of supervisory experience leading high-performing technical teams.
• Experience with GIS, OMS, AMI, and DERMS systems.
• Strong vendor management and contract negotiation experience.
• Previous experience managing large-scale, multifaceted enterprise-wide Operational Technologies projects in an electric or gas utility environment.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to listen actively, ask insightful questions, and collaborate with senior team members to influence decisions and drive meaningful outcomes and effective solutions.

Qualifications

• Utility-specific certifications (e.g., ESRI GIS, Siemens/Oracle OMS, DERMS platforms).
• ITIL or cybersecurity-related certification a plus.

Skills

• Project management certification (PMP® or equivalent).
• Technical proficiency in personal computers and relevant software applications (Microsoft Office products and other productivity tools).

Benefits

SECO Energy offers a competitive benefits package which includes:

• Health insurance
• Retirement plans
• Flexible spending accounts
• Employee assistance programs
• Professional development opportunities

Pay

Salary range: $XX,XXX - $XXXX per year.

Schedule

Normal work hours will be eight (8) hours Monday through Friday, between 7:00 am to 6:00 pm. Some business travel for training and development.

Core Competencies

• Safety: Follows safety procedures diligently, identifies potential hazards, and takes appropriate action to maintain a safe working environment.
• Member Commitment: Provides exceptional service to members, actively listening to their needs and ensuring their satisfaction.
• Honesty & Integrity: Acts with honesty and integrity in all tasks, maintaining transparency and ethical standards.
• Work Ethic: Demonstrates a strong work ethic by consistently meeting deadlines and achieving high performance in all tasks.
• Inclusive Culture: Contributes to an inclusive culture by respecting and valuing diverse perspectives and collaborating effectively with all team members.
• Accountability: Takes responsibility for their actions and decisions, ensuring they meet commitments and deliver high-quality work.
• Teamwork: Works collaboratively with team members, sharing information and supporting collective goals.
• Safety: Follows safety procedures diligently, identifies potential hazards, and takes appropriate action to maintain a safe working environment.
• Member Commitment: Provides exceptional service to members, actively listening to their needs and ensuring their satisfaction.
• Honesty & Integrity: Acts with honesty and integrity in all tasks, maintaining transparency and ethical standards.
• Work Ethic: Demonstrates a strong work ethic by consistently meeting deadlines and achieving high performance in all tasks.
• Inclusive Culture: Contributes to an inclusive culture by respecting and valuing diverse perspectives and collaborating effectively with all team members.
• Accountability: Takes responsibility for their actions and decisions, ensuring they meet commitments and deliver high-quality work.
• Teamwork: Works collaboratively with team members, sharing information and supporting collective goals.

Physical Demands and Work Environment

The physical demands and work environment described here are representative of those that must be met by or those an employee encounters to successfully perform the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. Some requirements may exclude individuals that cannot be reasonably accommodated or who pose a direct threat or significant risk to the health and safety of themselves or other employees. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit and talk or hear. The employee is occasionally required to walk; stand; use hands to finger, handle, or feel; reach with hands and arms; climb or balance; stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl. The employee must regularly lift and/or move up to 10 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, and the ability to adjust focus. This position has a general sedentary office environment with some business travel for training and development. The noise level in the work environment is usually quiet.