Lead Engineer, Engineering Project and Program Management

National Grid is hiring a Lead Program Manager for our Distributed Generation department in Albany, NY

Every day we deliver safe and secure energy to homes, communities, and businesses. We are there when people need us the most. We connect people to the energy they need for the lives they live.

The pace of change in society and our industry is accelerating and our expertise and track record puts us in an unparalleled position to shape the sustainable future of our industry. To be successful we must anticipate the needs of our customers, reducing the cost of energy delivery today and pioneering the flexible energy systems of tomorrow. This requires us to deliver on our promises and always look for new opportunities to grow, both ourselves and our business.

This role reports directly to the Director, NY DG Ombudsperson within NY Electric Operations EAME who is responsible for supporting DG interconnecting customers to resolve issues and enable DG interconnections, developing NY policies and procedures for DG interconnection, and streamlining internal practices.

National Grid enabled over 500MW of renewable energy generation to connect to our distribution and sub-transmission electric system in 2024 and plays a key role in enabling the Company to meet its and the State's renewable energy goals. With 4 GW of DG projects in the National Grid queue and NY's aggressive goals to interconnect solar and energy storage by 2030, this position will further enable our ability to interconnect renewable energy projects.

The successful candidate will work with internal teams to support implementation of process improvements to enable DG interconnections in a faster, streamlined manner. They will work with all teams involved in the end-to-end process and they will support investigations into escalations or disputes to develop the National Grid responses and resolutions. The successful candidate will promote process improvement initiatives to reduce DER interconnection times, foster a culture of continuous improvement, and support the NY DG team across Electric Operations and our Customer teams.

• Implement cross functional DG interconnection process improvement efforts across the organization to support cycle time reduction goals and internal reporting.
• Track DG metrics and maintain the monthly DG dashboard report (KPIs) as the means to provide internal stakeholder updates.
• Research practices and rules in other progressive renewable energy states (e.g., CA, MA, RI, ME) to assess policy and trends. Summarize in a monthly report that can be integrated into the DG dashboard.
• Participate in regulatory filing activities which may require researching past activity, developing responses to DPA IR's, and mapping strategic initiatives.
• Support response development for Ombudsperson escalations and formal complaints.
• Develop and maintain collaborative relationships with Customer focused and external facing teams including application review team, DG project managers, post-connection support team, and regional customer/community teams.
• Develop and maintain collaborative relationships with electric operations teams including engineering/planning, design, operations, property rights, and regulatory legal colleagues.
• Actively participate in DG interconnection groups including, but not limited to, DOE i2X, SEPA, EPRI and CEATI.
• Track implementation of SIR compliance process changes and developing reporting materials to Joint Utilities.
• Support LSR customer concerns and assist in LSR process improvements.
• Develop and maintain a solid understanding of the business by staying abreast of industry trends, policy updates, and interconnection best practices.
• Ensure lessons learned are implemented across projects through continuous improvement.
• Challenge existing ways of working and facilitate improvements to company best practices to achieve the highest level of efficiency and performance

• Good leadership and relationship skills.

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering or related field with more than 10 years of experience in utility/energy sector
• Strong technical project management skills, including demonstrated capability to manage to project scope, schedule and budget milestones on complicated projects
• Knowledge of utility business operations, policies and procedures
• Demonstrate an ability to multi-task and prioritize work in a fast-paced environment
• Demonstrated ability to work independently and support interdisciplinary project team to achieve target goals and objectives
• Ability to support development of regulatory filings, interfacing with National Grid rates, legal and other departments.

Salary: $128,000 - $151,000

This position has a career path which provides for advancement opportunities within and across bands as you develop and evolve in the position; gaining experience, expertise and acquiring and applying technical skills. Internal candidates will be assessed and provided offers against the minimum qualifications of this role and their individual experience.

National Grid is an equal opportunity employer that values a broad diversity of talent, knowledge, experience and expertise. We foster a culture of inclusion that drives employee engagement to deliver superior performance to the communities we serve. National Grid is proud to be an affirmative action employer. We encourage minorities, women, individuals with disabilities and protected veterans to join the National Grid team.

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