Principal Product Manager

Requisition ID # 137360 

Job Category: Customer Support / Operations 

Job Level: Manager/Principal

Business Unit: Energy Policy & Procurement

Job Location: Oakland

Team Summary

Help us change the electric utility industry from the inside! Join a small, high-performing team within Pacific Gas & Electric Company that is scaling up integration with distributed energy resources (DERs) to transform the electric grid from the edges inward.

PG&E is seeking an experienced energy business professional to join the Grid Innovation team within the larger Utility Partnerships & Innovation (UPI) group. The Grid Innovation team evaluates and demonstrates emerging technologies, concepts, and processes that PG&E will need to design and operate the resilient energy system of the future. Toward that end, the team works collaboratively with diverse stakeholders across the enterprise to design, build, test and operationalize product strategies, roadmaps and implementation plans for innovation. The current focus of the Grid Innovation team is to build and advance policies, products and processes to operationalize Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) such as solar PV, battery storage and microgrids. This team is an important bridge between PG&E’s DER policy and strategy and how PG&E will plan for, interconnect and interact with or operate DERs on a day-to-day basis.

Position Summary

This execution-oriented candidate will lead the deployment of PG&E’s enterprise Distributed Energy Resource Management System (DERMS) and the development of new operational processes for DER management. In addition to the execution focus, the DERMS Product Manager will also play a central role in developing PG&E’s overall DER strategy working across a number on internal business units to align on the overall DER Management vision, technology roadmap and business case development.

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 Manager will work closely in collaboration with cross functional stakeholders in various company divisions and with vendor and industry stakeholders to support effective project and program management and alignment with external dependencies (e.g. regulatory developments).

This position is based out of PG&E’s General Office in downtown Oakland, CA. The team has a hybrid work model primarily working remotely with the expectation of working from Oakland office several days per month minimum. In-person activities will focus on synchronous collaboration, affinity building, ideation, or planning activities. Most day-to-day work (individual and collaborative) will be performed remotely. The role may also require occasional travel other PG&E facilities throughout the PG&E service territory.

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.  We would not anticipate that the individual hired into this role would land at or near the top half of the range described below, but the decision will be dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case.​

A reasonable salary range is:​

Bay Area Minimum: $136,000.00

Bay Area Mid-point: $184,000.00

Bay Area Maximum: $232,000.00

&/OR​

California Minimum: $129,000.00

California Mid-point: $175,000.00

California Maximum: $220,000.00

This position is hybrid, working from your remote office and your assigned work location based on business need. The assigned work location will be within the PG&E Service Territory.

Responsibilities:

• Lead the deployment of PG&E’s DERMS cloud platform

• Lead the implementation of PG&E’s DERMS cloud platform focused on initial Phase 1 use cases related to DER visibility and management of grid capacity constraints.
• Engage with the project execution stakeholders (e.g IT, cybersecurity, ADMS, vendors) to leverage PG&E’s Lean Operating System framework of Daily/Weekly/Monthly Operation Reviews (ORs) to drive execution.
• Define and develop DER control functionality including use cases associated with facilitating cost-effective interconnection of DERs and new load service connections
• Develop the processes and tools to integrate PG&E’s Distribution Investment Deferral projects (i.e. “Non-Wires Alternatives”) into utility operations
• Develop a technical framework for operational integration with 3rd party aggregations of DERs
  • Support new DER integration methods (e.g. IEEE 2030.5, OpenADR, OCPP, REST API etc.)
• Drive coordination between PG&E’s DERMS vendor and DER technology vendors to ensure interoperability and integration

• Develop PG&E’s overall DER technical product strategy and roadmap

• Drive alignment across internal work groups to develop an enterprise DER technology strategy, technology roadmap and supporting policy positions.
  • Key stakeholders include PG&E’s Load Management Team (i.e. Demand Response), Clean Energy Transportation Team (i.e. Electric Vehicles), Electric Engineering, Distribution Operations and others
• Build a coalition of stakeholders who are supportive of the vision and able to quickly turn ideas into action.
• Identify and prioritize use cases and required capabilities for DER management across the enterprise
• Lead development of reference application architecture for the future ecosystem of DER Management applications and technologies
• Document a multiyear DER management technology road map and investment plan to support the DERMS vision

• Support the Grid Innovation Portfolio

• Provide teammates with support on other projects and initiatives within the Grid Innovation portfolio as needed including development and integration of multi-customer microgrids and support for Electric Vehicle Grid Integration (VGI) initiatives
• Contribute to the overall company R&D strategy and framework

Minimum Qualifications:

A strong applicant will be organized and motivated, with a strong track record of success in building consensus and managing many moving parts within matrixed teams.

• Bachelor’s Degree from an accredited college in business, economics, engineering or related discipline or equivalent experience
• 10 years of job-related experience

Desired Qualifications:

• Master’s in Business Administration, Engineering or other Advanced Degree
• 5 years of electric industry related experience (e.g. utility, DER technology company or developer, etc.)
• Demonstrated experience in project, product, or program management in the context of utility operations, IT systems or DER product deployment
• Experience leading cross cutting programs or technology deployments, with a focus on emerging/innovative technologies and creating new process & structure for rapid scale-up
• Familiarity with California utility regulations, regulatory processes and policy context
• Strong verbal / written communication and presentation skills
• Ability to work in a matrixed environment and a positive execution-oriented mentality
• Demonstrated ability to be creative, versatile, efficient and productive in the face of ambiguity and change
• Working technical knowledge of overall electric grid design and operations, solar PV, inverters, energy storage, conventional generation, microgrid controllers
• Strong technical acumen with the ability to understand different distribution management applications and DER functions and platforms
• Policy experience on Electric Rule 21 and interconnection tariff issues
• Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification and/or Certified Scrum Master
• Familiar with Utility applications and APIs – ADMS / GIS / Network Model / REST API / Application Gateway (Apigee) / ICCP
• Knowledge and experience with DER (Distributed Energy Resource) communications protocols – IEEE 2030.5, CSIP 2.1, Open ADR etc.
• Awareness and familiarity with tools / applications regularly used by electric distribution or transmission system Operators, Operating Engineers, and Planning Engineers such as: SCADA, Outage Management System (OMS), Distribution Management System (DMS), Power Flow modeling tools (e.g., CYME), Geographic Information System (GIS), operational data historian (e.g., OSISoft Pi)

Desired Characteristics

• Bias toward action
• Communicates effectively highly complex ideas with credibility, confidence, and clarity to diverse audiences using a variety of media
• Converts ambiguity into structure, creating well-oiled machines of process from scrappy first iterations
• Rigorously defines and enforces prioritization of feature development, defeating scope creep and delivering the most impactful product improvements
• Handles multiple projects and stakeholders and pushes for pace with self-directed drive
• Flexibility in project communication, execution and problem approach when coordinating across various stakeholders.

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