Expert Product Owner

Requisition ID # 162090 

Job Category: Project / Program Management 

Job Level: Individual Contributor

Business Unit: Engineering, Planning & Strategy

Work Type: Hybrid

Job Location: Oakland

Department Overview

The Clean Energy Transportation (CET) group is focused on accelerating the adoption of clean vehicles in California. CET leads a ~$0.5B portfolio of transportation electrification (TE) programs to increase the adoption of clean vehicles in California as we work to address one of the largest contributors to climate change – and we need a motivated, organized strategic thinker to help us determine how to expand this portfolio. We serve PG&E’s customers by deploying electric vehicle programs to increase access to charging infrastructure, reduce total cost of electric vehicle ownership, educating our customers and pursuing innovative vehicle-grid-integration strategies to unlock additional benefits to Electric Vehicle (EV) drivers and the grid.

We focus on safety and quality, invest in our team’s success, solve problems, and strive to be better, work as an integrated team, and build trusted relationships. We collaborate and are intellectually curious. We are looking to collaborate with passionate, thoughtful people who want to make a real impact.

Team Overview

PG&E believes that if properly managed, EVs can provide a quadruple value stack of reliability, resiliency, affordability, and lower GHG emissions for the grid and for our customers. The Vehicle Grid Integration Pilots and Analysis team (VGI team) leads a portfolio of VGI pilots, EV rates, data analysis, and strategy development all in support of identifying solutions to effectively integrate EVs onto the grid and unlock the full potential of EVs. Working closely with the Grid Innovation team at PG&E and external stakeholders such as EV and EVSE Original Equipment Manufacturers, distributed energy resource aggregators, advocacy groups, and the California Public Utilities Commission, the team is focused on testing novel technologies and strategies to understand customer behavior and preferences and identify a path to scale VGI for PG&E’s grid.  

Our values are: we collaborate, we’re intellectually curious, and we fail fast in order to address the pressing problems our customers, our grid, and our world is facing.

We are looking to collaborate with passionate, thoughtful people who want to make a real impact. We need strategic thinkers who are ready to address complex problems with creative and novel ideas. Come join our team and be on the cutting edge of vehicle grid integration in support of the clean transportation transition.

Position Summary

The VGI team is looking for a highly skilled, execution-oriented Product Owner to lead the acceleration of Alternating Current (AC) Vehicle to Grid (V2G) deployment through the design, launch and implementation of an AC V2G pilot. The successful candidate will play a pivotal role in increasing access to V2G for EV customers by supporting the regulatory and standards development for AC V2G and creating a best-in-class customer experience for the deployment of the technology. The role includes supporting the development of new standards and regulatory requirements, coordinating the technical safety and performance testing, designing the product concept, the customer experience, and the business requirements for a pilot to deploy the technology.

The Product Owner will be responsible for driving the day-to-day implementation of the pilot including the technical elements, regulatory requirements, customer and external stakeholder engagement, budget monitoring, and metrics reporting. This will require strong project management skills combined with a customer-centric design approach. The Product Owner will also need deep technical expertise to be able to drive the development of this nascent technology and to effectively collaborate with internal experts in our distribution engineering group.

The successful candidate will be an individual contributor and will be expected to influence, organize, and lead others in the organization to support the products and project they’re working on. A strong applicant will be highly organized and motivated, with a strong track record of success in building consensus and managing many moving parts within matrixed teams. The Product Owner will work closely in collaboration with cross functional stakeholders in various company divisions and with vendor and industry stakeholders to lead effective project and program management and alignment with external dependencies (e.g. regulatory developments).

This position is hybrid, working from your remote office and your assigned work location based on business need. The preferred work location is Oakland, CA.

PG&E is providing the salary range that the company in good faith believes it might pay for this position at the time of the job posting. This compensation range is specific to the locality of the job. The actual salary paid to an individual will be based on multiple factors, including, but not limited to, specific skills, education, licenses or certifications, experience, market value, geographic location, and internal equity. Although we estimate the successful candidate hired into this role will be placed between the entry point and the middle of the range, the decision will be made on a case-by-case basis related to these factors.​ This job is also eligible to participate in PG&E’s discretionary incentive compensation programs. 

A reasonable salary range is:​

Bay Area Minimum: $128,000

Bay Area Maximum: $218,000

Job Responsibilities

• Lead the development of AC V2G regulatory and safety requirements in collaboration with external stakeholders
  • Represent PG&E in the discussions on AC V2G standards development in collaboration with internal PG&E teams and external stakeholders (CPUC, Underwriters laboratory, etc.)  
  • Drive the development of a process for testing systems in accordance with existing rules and regulations and for future standards.
  • Collaborate with OEMs on the development of AC technology and equipment specifications to support utility testing and standards development.
  • Lead engagement with the California Public Utilities Commission in collaboration with PG&E regulatory, legal, and other teams.

• Lead the development and deployment of an AC V2G pilot to support the deployment of the technology in the market and create a best-in-class customer experience for an AC V2G Virtual Power Plant (VPP)
  • Lead the product design, business requirements, and regulatory pathway of AC V2G at PG&E.
  • Create the Marketing Requirements Document (MRD) and Product Requirements Documents (PRD) for hand off to Distribution Engineers, IT Solution Architects and others as appropriate.
  • Engage with the project execution stakeholders (e.g., IT, cybersecurity, Distributed Energy Resources Management System, vendors) to leverage PG&E’s Lean Operating System framework of Daily/Weekly/Monthly Operation Reviews (ORs) to drive execution and program management.
  • Manage the project timeline, budget, and advocate for and adjust resourcing when necessary.
  • Oversee peer team member support as needed depending on the needs of the specific product or project.
  • Lead customer engagement activities to recruit and onboard customer sites as pilots.
  • Work with internal partners to develop end-to-end business process integrations.
  • Drive coordination between PG&E’s technology vendors and partners to ensure interoperability and integration.
  • Be a champion of the customer, work with our Partnerships organization to implement Design Thinking and other customer centric design processes as necessary.

• Contribute to the development of the VGI Scaling Strategy and Portfolio
  • Provide teammates with support on other projects and initiatives regarding V2G technology and standards.
  • Support the improvement and streamlining of the interconnection process for V2G projects
  • Identify and prioritize use cases for V2G technology to best support grid needs and customer needs.

Qualifications

Minimum:

• High School or GED-General Educational Development-GED Diploma
• Job-related experience, 5 years

Desired:

• Engineering degree
• Experience in Design Thinking and customer first product design processes
• 5 years of electric industry related experience (e.g. utility, DER or operational technology company or developer, etc.)
• Demonstrated experience in project, product, or program management in the context of utility operations or DER product deployment.
• Knowledge and experience with DER (Distributed Energy Resource) communications protocols and standards– IEEE 2030.5, OCPP, Open ADR, UL 1741 etc.
• Removes barriers to products and projects moving forward in an autonomous fashion
• Able to operate at different levels of abstraction, outcome focused while understanding and adhering to process where necessary
• Empathic and curious – has an ability to seek to understand while driving towards shared outcomes
• Handles multiple projects and stakeholders and pushes for pace with self-directed drive.