SouthStar Technology Director

About the role

The Southern Company Technology Organization and SouthStar Energy are in search of their next Technology Director to plan and deliver on a critical multi-year Customer Transformation to implement their next generation Customer Information System (CIS) platform and develop their next generation of talent while simultaneously enabling AI-driven innovation across their trading and customer operations.

Responsibilities

• Partners with Retail Customer Operations to plan and execute a significant business and technology transformation program estimated between $20-$40M over 3-4 years that will include implementation of a new Customer Information System (CIS) platform retiring the legacy systems, staffing and developing next generation talent, optimization of business processes leveraging modern data & AI capabilities.
• Delivers energy trading and risk management technology platform that improves automation, productivity and intelligent asset optimization leveraging data and AI.
• Improve digital experiences for customers through more effective technology architecture and delivery optimizing the use of strategic partners.
• Drive adoption of modern engineering practices embedding cybersecurity, telemetry, and technology process automation.
• Operationalize data management and leverage enterprise capabilities to deliver AI solutions.
• Frequently communicate technology progress, risks and opportunities to senior leadership.
• Manage and optimize $10M annual CapEx and $2M annual O&M technology budget for value.
• Evolve technology roadmap into a capability roadmap that measures business value creation.
• Define talent strategy and develop organization leveraging key contractor resource knowledge.
• Partner with Cybersecurity to accelerate remediation of vulnerabilities.
• Partner with Electric & GAS Customer to leverage CIS capabilities and learnings.
• Negotiate and manage key contracts with key vendors for both delivery and support.
• Ensure federal and state regulatory compliance with FERC and Public Service Commissions.
• Enforce all appropriate technology and business policies, standards, practices and processes.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science or related field.
• MBA or equivalent experience preferred.
• 10 or more years of experience in IT with 5 years managing multiple, cross functional teams.
• 5+ years’ experience with recommending, estimating, designing, building and supporting custom application and data solutions for business functions such as customer billing, trading and risk.
• Planning and delivery of a complex business & technology transformation program.
• Balance strategic thinking with execution rigor and deep architectural engagement.
• Champions engineering-first culture focused on automation, ownership, and results.
• Builds high-performing, cross-functional teams aligned to business outcomes.
• Tech talent development experience including motivating key partners through change.
• Preferred experience modernizing legacy application ecosystems (e.g., .NET, Java) into cloud-agnostic, modular platforms leveraging containerization, API-first design, and event-driven architectures, enabling interoperability across hybrid environments, and AI-enabled workflows.
• Preferred experience defining capability roadmaps used to drive business results.
• Servant leader adept at balancing business and technology needs with people needs.
• Proven ability to drive efficiency and discipline through data driven measures of performance.
• Proven success in a fast-paced environment managing risk and compliance.

Qualifications

• Proven experience in shaping learning cultures to elevate collaboration, develop talent, and ensure accountability is a key to success.
• Expertise across multiple domains is preferred, such as energy trading and risk management, customer information systems, application development, data management, data analytics platforms, predictive analytics and AI tools.

Skills

• Business and technology acumen to increase partnership, deliver results, and drive innovation for the future.

Benefits

Additional and specific details about total compensation and benefits will also be provided during the hiring process.

Pay

This position may also be eligible for additional compensation, such as an incentive program, with the amount of any bonus/awards subject to the terms and conditions of the applicable incentive plan(s).

Schedule

Full time