Renewable Operations Control Center Director

Position Summary

Industry: Utility-Scale Renewable Energy
Location: U.S.
Job Type: Onsite
Dallas Texas
Full-Time | Permanent
Role Reports To: Chief Operation Officer

Position Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Science, Computer Science, or a closely related field.
• Advanced degree (MS / MBA) preferred.
• 10+ years of progressive experience in power generation, utility, or renewable energy operations, with at least 5 years in a senior leadership role.
• Strong working knowledge of SCADA, historian, CMMS, ERP, and OT/IT integration in a generation environment.
• Experience selecting and managing technology vendors, system integrators, and managed service providers; strong commercial and contracting acumen.
• Demonstrated AI / data / digital leadership: have personally led the deployment of analytics, machine learning, predictive maintenance, digital twins, or comparable digital initiatives that produced measurable operating outcomes.
• Excellent executive communication skills — able to translate between operations, engineering, data science, finance, and the C-suite.
• Authorized to work in the United States; able to be on-site at NOVA Hub.

Position Responsibility

• Lead end-to-end design, build, and launch of NOVA Hub — physical control room, operator workstations, video walls, redundant connectivity, and the 24/7/365 operating model including shift structure, escalation paths, and SOPs.
• Partner with IT, OT, Cybersecurity, and NERC teams to deliver a hardened, compliant facility — SCADA, historian, secure remote access, MFA, network segmentation, and the IT hub backbone.
• Own vendor selection and implementation for data analytics, asset monitoring, logbook, and communications platforms.
• Build the ROCC organization — define roles and recruit operators, data analysts, server/database and network engineers, and supporting Center of Expertise functions.
• Operate NOVA Hub as the single point of real-time monitoring and control for the U.S. solar, BESS, and wind portfolio across ERCOT, MISO, and additional ISOs as the fleet grows.
• Own ROCC performance KPIs — availability, response time, energy yield, MTTR, predictive accuracy, false-positive rate, safety, and operational cost per MW.
• Coordinate with field response, asset management, performance analytics, and commercial/trading to convert real-time signals into operating outcomes.
• Lead incident management, emergency response, business continuity, and disaster recovery for control center operations.
• Ensure NERC reliability and CIP compliance, including readiness as the fleet crosses Medium Impact thresholds.
• Build the underlying data foundation — a clean, governed, high-frequency platform integrating SCADA, CMMS, ERP, weather, market, and sensor data into a single operations data layer.
• Lead the AI roadmap from pilot to production — drones, IoT sensors, computer vision inspections, anomaly detection, digital twins, and generative-AI assistants — with adoption anchored to measurable ROI (higher availability, fewer truck rolls, longer asset life, lower O&M cost per MWh).
• Foster a culture of continuous improvement, blameless post-mortems, and data-driven decision-making across the organization’s operations.

Compensation And Benefits

The anticipated starting salary range for this role is $145,000 - $175,000 annually. Actual pay may vary depending on job-related factors, such as the candidate’s experience and qualifications. Additionally, Zelestra offers a comprehensive benefits package, including medical, dental, and vision coverage, an Employee Assistance Program, flexible spending accounts, life insurance, holiday pay, paid time off, and a competitive bonus program. Zelestra is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic as established by law.