Sr Director - Integrated System Planning

The base salary range for this position is dependent upon experience and location, ranging from:

• $177,000 - $221,000 (Rochester Gas & Electric Corporation)

Job Summary:

This position is responsible for leading a multidisciplinary team of 40+ utility professionals focused on developing and executing a best-in-class electric capital planning strategy across the RG&E service territory.  In addition, this position is tasked with establishing a sound and justifiable approach to addressing a wide range of disparate system needs and ensuring alignment with long-term company objectives.  Key responsibilities include the full ownership of company and customer-initiated project development activities, from initial concept within the Transmission & Distribution Planning space, through detailed scoping, and successful integration into the capital investment portfolio.  Specific areas of organizational oversight include the following critical business functions:

Development and robust justification of a five-year capital plan exceeding $5 billion dollars to advance T&D opportunities in support of RG&E strategic objectives.  Oversees the creation and execution of the annual work plan to address a wide range of system needs, including but not limited to:

• Aging Infrastructure: Replacement of over 470 substation circuit breakers and 7 substation power transformers deemed to be beyond their useful operating life.  

• T&D Planning Studies: Routine analytical assessments of more than 10,100 miles of transmission and distribution infrastructure.  Development of optimal strategies and project plans to resolve 160 outstanding T&D capacity constraints and to maintain NERC and regional compliance measures.  Scoping and advancement of automation for 475 outstanding distribution circuits.  

• Substation Asset Replacement: Needs and solutions analysis to support long-term asset replacement strategies across 165+ electric substations. 

• Customer Interconnections: Execution of 90+ annual load and generator interconnection studies to support customer-driven requests and to ensure no-adverse impact on grid facilities. 

• Underground Cable: A comprehensive assessment of system needs and the establishment of a long-term strategy for asset replacement to address 3,369 miles of underground cable, much of which has exceeded its useful operating life and requires proactive intervention.

• Intimate knowledge of the AVANGRID / RG&E Capital investment process and responsible for ensuring that all electric capital projects adhere to annual requirements to support efficient project execution.  Centralized, comprehensive, support, and coordination of the capital project portfolio ensuring proper vetting and documentation in support of prudent and defendable CAPEX investment decision making.

• Focused and priority engagement with all CAPEX rate case preparations, NY Department of Public Service (DPS) quarterly reporting duties and obligations, and support for other company related regulatory matters requiring planning leadership and participation. 

• Ensure comprehensive list of RG&E T&D needs are identified, prioritized, and addressed with appropriate mitigating solutions in a consistent and comprehensive manner.

• Anticipation, preparation and initiation of strategy discussions and activities as required to meet regulatory and key stakeholder expectations in support of business growth objectives.

• Developing and building collaborative and constructive cross-functional relationships across internal business areas and external stakeholders including regulators and ISO’s. 

• Provides strategic leadership and direction for cross-functional planning initiatives, ensuring alignment with shared objectives, proactively identifying critical focus areas, and initiating studies to address both immediate and long-term system requirements.

• Matrix reporting responsibilities to the RG&E President, leading emergent initiatives and coordinating cross-functional efforts that may involve organizing and guiding teams beyond the NYISP Organization to ensure successful outcomes for the company. 

Key Responsibilities:

• Business Leadership: Energizing leader that promotes a culture of collaboration, efficiency, innovation, and quality across business areas. Promotes continual growth and development to advance business objectives and prepare for staff succession. Sets challenging individual & team expectations aligned with strategic and business objectives. Ensures that consistent, constructive, and clear development and performance feedback mechanisms are established to build and promote high functioning teams focused on the achievement of complex business objectives aligned with enterprise strategy.

• Strategic and Technical Leadership: Provides strategic leadership of a highly technical team which includes a director, managers and staff across multiple departments and often across organizations. Initiates, leads, collaborates or advises on a broad range of highly complex, multi-disciplinary technical issues across RG&E business areas such as equipment ratings, protection coordination, system topology design, reliability and resiliency approaches, and equipment standardization. Identifies and provides leadership and leads decision making as necessary toward the resolution of technical, operational and organizational issues and opportunities. Develops organizational performance measures and initiates actions to drive standardization and enhance performance. Reviews work processes, systems, procedures and practices and directs changes to improve productivity or control costs. Monitors emerging trends and evolving technology, evaluating and understanding the implications for inclusion in corporate strategies. Oversees and supports development and execution of DER related business cases as opportunities arise. Develops and executes strategies to garner internal and external stakeholder support.

• Communicate, influence and motivate: Creative, influential, motivating and clear in all means of communication. Establishes and maintains visible, collaborative, and influential relationships with internal, global and external stakeholders and regulators to be responsive to the interests of others while helping to promote company/planning interests. Effectively develops and delivers formal presentations and technical reports to a diverse global audience. Serves as a witness on a broad range of regulatory and technical issues to advance business objectives. Demonstrates use of excellent verbal and written communication skills with all levels of management to inform and influence others, providing strategic input for business plans and decision making.

• Strategy & Regulatory: Represents company interests before regulatory bodies. Provides strategic guidance and support on complex regulatory and technical issues. Assists executive and other senior leaders in identifying and managing risks, opportunities and business uncertainty driven from such things as changes in the industry (regulatory, process, forecasts) and projects/ growth endeavors under consideration. Provides input into the development of processes and strategies for the business unit that reflect knowledge of orders and regulations Stays abreast of changes in the industry and initiates effective responses across business areas such as studies/assessments, evaluation of threats/opportunities/possible outcomes, and recommendation of alternatives based on risk, value and implementation complexity.

• Company Policy and Procedures: Interprets and administers company policies and procedures. Directs and implements training and development of the leadership team of the department personnel. Determines staffing needs and obtains approval for resource requirements. Develops and controls department budget. Recommends promotions, personnel changes, budgets, organizational changes and company policies. Directs and implement analysis, business case preparation and testimony in support of regulatory matters, including rate case proceedings. 

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, civil engineering, mechanical engineering or other relevant Engineering degree.

• Fifteen (15) years of practical experience and working knowledge across a broad range of T&D Powers Systems including Planning, Engineering, Construction, or Operations.

• Master's degree with less than 15 years of experience may be considered. 

• Demonstrated ability to lead and develop cross functional teams, working across the organization to identify and solve highly complex, strategic and interrelated issues and needs having a broad impact on the Networks business, strategic and investment decisions. 

• Demonstrated ability to envision the future of the network and build and lead the team that will manage the strategic planning efforts and forecast expected results across Avangrid Networks (reliability, Capex, Growth, etc.). 

• Leads the development of prioritization tools used for the electrical investments of the existing and future portfolio to quantify the expected reliability improvements.

• Provides strategic support for the integration of global best practices opportunities from internal and external leaders of the utility sector.

• Demonstrates knowledge of processes, methods, data processing and modeling, studies and activities required in the successful performance of this position’s responsibility to lead the team that (i) initiate, analyze and identify the needs of the electrical distribution network and customers, (ii) deliver a thoughtful, pragmatic and innovative approach to the consideration and evaluation of solution alternatives (including wires and non-wires), and (iii) justify the selection of preferred solutions (projects and programs) and resulting investment plans. 

• Demonstrated ability to lead and develop a guiding a team that will provide concise project justification and decision analysis, with documentation and communications at varying levels of detail and robustness to anticipate and meet the evolving and increasing expectations of our internal (Executives and Sr. Leadership) and external (Regulators, and other key stakeholders) stakeholders and decision makers. 

• Ability to anticipate, navigate and lead efforts through increasingly complex business environments, regulatory compacts and stakeholder expectations. 

Preferred Qualifications:

• An MBA and Professional Engineering License.

• Advanced education in electric power systems (MSEE or specialized power system courses).

• A strong working knowledge of multiple states planning processes and requirements, reliability standards, operations procedures, and planning analytical techniques and practices.

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Avangrid employees may be assigned a system emergency role and in the event of a system emergency, may be required to work outside of their regular schedule/job duties. This is applicable to employees that will work in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, and New York within Avangrid Network and Corporate functions.  This does not include those that will work for Avangrid Power.

Avangrid employees may also be assigned a NERC Reliability Standards compliance role supporting Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) and/or Operations and Planning (O&P) responsibilities. This is applicable to employees that will work in electric transmission, operations, and cyber security business areas in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, and New York within Avangrid Network and Corporate business areas. NERC Reliability Standards compliance roles and responsibilities may include additional access protections, training, audit engagement, and required evidence retention, and will be communicated by the employee’s management.

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