Program Manager, Energy & Infrastructure

About the role

The Program Manager, Energy & Infrastructure serves as McCrary’s external-facing program lead for the DOE-funded Southeast Region Cybersecurity Collaboration Center (SERC3). This role is accountable for ensuring McCrary delivers valuable, mission-focused products and services on time and within budget, supporting existing sponsored research programs and developing new capabilities for current and future energy and infrastructure customers.

Responsibilities

• Serve as McCrary’s primary external representative for SERC3, accountable for the quality, timeliness, and mission relevance of products and services delivered to existing and future energy and infrastructure customers.
• Build and maintain relationships with DOE CESER, national laboratories, EPRI, utility operators, cybersecurity technology companies, industry advisory board members, and selected energy and national-security investment partners.
• Engage senior cybersecurity leaders from utilities and critical infrastructure operators to identify priority use cases, capability gaps, adoption barriers, and deployment opportunities.
• Support and staff the national industry advisory board; ensure advisory board feedback directly informs SERC3 priorities, research design, and transition pathways.
• Represent SERC3 at national convenings, federal engagements, technical workshops, industry forums, and media engagements as needed.
• Ensure SERC3 consistently delivers valuable, mission-focused products and services on time and within budget across all active sponsored research programs and customer engagements.
• Translate partner requirements, DOE CESER priorities, operator needs, and technology-provider capabilities into clear scopes of work, milestones, deliverables, and decision points.
• Manage program operations, partner coordination, deliverable tracking, financial reporting, and customer engagement in coordination with McCrary leadership and Auburn University stakeholders.
• Ensure research and partner activities produce practical, customer-ready outputs: test reports, implementation playbooks, hardening guidance, procurement evidence, transition plans, and executive briefings.
• Direct the work of a matrixed multidisciplinary team of researchers, engineers, students, and contractors in support of SERC3 contract deliverables and execution; technical staff report to the Deputy Director for Applied Research & Services/Edge Lab Director and are matrixed to this role for program performance.
• Foster a collaborative environment that balances technical rigor, operator relevance, and timely delivery.
• Serve as the external program and partner lead for SERC3 work that draws on Edge Lab capabilities, while the Deputy Director, Applied Research & Services/Edge Lab Director retains full responsibility for technical direction, laboratory operations, demonstrations, technical vendor relationships, and cyber-physical test environments.
• Coordinate requirements, schedules, funding expectations, deliverables, and partner participation for all SERC3 work that depends on Edge Lab capabilities.
• Translate operator requirements and federal priorities into proposed use cases, validation objectives, datasets, and transition plans for execution by the Edge Lab Director and technical teams.
• Collaborate with the Edge Lab Director and McCrary leadership to keep SERC3’s program portfolio aligned with Edge Lab capabilities, customer needs, and DOE CESER priorities.
• Develop and execute a funding capture strategy spanning DOE, national laboratories, utilities, and industry partners.
• Lead proposal strategy and development to secure new funding, expand SERC3’s program portfolio, and deepen strategic partnerships across federal, operator, technology, and investment communities.
• Build public-private partnerships that connect operator needs, national security priorities, applied research outcomes, and practical deployment pathways.
• Help develop and bring to market an independent technology validation and verification (TV&V) capability for OT/ICS cybersecurity defense products — producing vendor-neutral, testbed-validated evidence packages that operators can use for procurement decisions and that technology companies and investors can use to demonstrate real-world efficacy.
• Guide the transition of SERC3-supported tools, frameworks, datasets, validation results, and demonstrations into commercial, open-source, federal, or utility-adopted use.
• Develop evidence packages that help operators, funders, and partners make better decisions about emerging cybersecurity tools and defenses.
• Provide expert advice on cybersecurity policies, best practices, and defensive priorities for the energy, water, wastewater, and broader critical infrastructure sectors.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Cybersecurity, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Industrial Engineering, or a related field, plus 10 years of relevant experience in operational technology, industrial control systems, critical infrastructure, power systems, cybersecurity, applied research, or related technical program leadership.
• Or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Cybersecurity, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Industrial Engineering, or a related field, plus 8 years of relevant experience in operational technology, industrial control systems, critical infrastructure, power systems, cybersecurity, applied research, or related technical program leadership.
• Candidates Must Demonstrate Proven experience leading technical, multidisciplinary, or multi-institution programs.
• Experience managing large-scale, complex research, operational, or technology deployment projects.
• Knowledge of cybersecurity principles and practices applied to complex, non-routine OT security problems.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively with federal agencies, national laboratories, utilities, technology providers, academic researchers, and industry partners.
• Strong communication, executive briefing, stakeholder management, and presentation skills.
• Ability to recognize, analyze, and solve complex technical and organizational problems.