Sr Manager, ATS Engineering R&D

Requisition ID # 171190 

Job Category: Engineering / Science 

Job Level: Senior Manager

Business Unit: Strategy & Growth

Work Type: Onsite

Job Location: Danville; San Ramon

Position Summary:

The Senior Manager, ATS Engineering R&D will lead strategic R&D initiatives focused on advancing grid reliability, flexibility, and decarbonization in a rapidly evolving energy landscape. This role is responsible for shaping and executing a forward‑looking R&D portfolio spanning long‑duration energy storage, distributed energy resources (DERs), load management, and electrification. The Senior Manager will translate state policy, regulatory drivers, and system needs into applied research programs that reduce infrastructure costs, enhance resilience, and support net‑zero objectives while delivering measurable customer and system value.

A core responsibility of this role is to drive innovation across supply‑ and load‑side solutions, including multi‑day storage technologies, grid‑edge storage ecosystems, and co‑optimized deployment of storage across transmission, distribution, and customer‑sited assets. The Senior Manager will oversee pilots and experimental validation efforts—such as building‑ and district‑scale thermal energy storage—and guide development of advanced analytics, AI‑enabled DER management, and managed electrification strategies that proactively address emerging load growth from electric vehicles and building electrification.

The Senior Manager will also play a critical role in advancing wildfire mitigation and climate resilience through R&D, supporting innovations in undergrounding, resilient materials, and intelligent monitoring technologies. This position requires close collaboration with internal stakeholders to align research investments with capital planning, operational priorities, and funding cycles, while ensuring equitable deployment of new technologies, including pilots in disadvantaged and high‑risk communities.

Finally, the role will establish and manage strategic national and international partnerships to accelerate learning and technology transfer. This includes collaboration with global utilities, research institutes, startups, and clean‑energy innovators to bring leading practices—such as virtual power plants, flexibility markets, long‑duration storage, and clean fuel integration—into the organization’s regulatory and operational context. The Senior Manager will strengthen the innovation ecosystem through partnerships, pilots, and summits, positioning the organization as a leader in utility‑scale and distributed clean‑energy R&D.

The selected candidate must live within PG&E’s 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.  Although we estimate the successful candidate hired into this role will be placed towards the middle or entry point of the range, the decision will be made on a case-by-case basis related to these factors.​

A reasonable salary range is:

Minimum Base Salary (Bay Area)            $163,000.00

Mid Base Salary (Bay Area)        $220,000.00

Maximum Base Salary (Bay Area)           $277,000.00

Responsibilities

• Lead and manage electrical engineering projects related to emerging T&D technologies
• Oversee and direct the engineering, analysis, and performance validation of T&D technologies to support the company’s True North Strategy
• Develop and implement engineering policies, procedures, and best practices.
• Collaboration with cross-functional teams including engineering, asset management, system planning, electric operations and system operations.
• Establish and maintain strong external partnerships, including Department of Energy (DOE), California Energy Commission (CEC), DOE National Labs, research universities to facilitate and lead cross-cutting research initiatives.
• Ensure compliance with industry standards, safety regulations, and company policies.
• Manage budgets, timelines, and resource allocation for emerging technology initiatives.
• Support strategic planning and contributing to organizational decision-making.
• Lead and participate in executive meetings and stakeholder engagements.
• Lead or oversee major programs or portfolios (multi-year, multi-discipline) to deliver and measure new technology projects.
• Establish governance, stage-gates, risk management, and quality assurance practices for emerging tech evaluations and deployments.
• Building People Leadership & Technical Capability
• Build and foster culture of innovation through technology roadmaps and adoption of emerging technological capabilities.
• Manage, mentor, and develop technical staff, program leads, and project managers.
• Recruit and retain top talent supporting T&D technology initiatives.
• Drive knowledge sharing, training, and cross-pollination of technical skills. 

Qualifications

Minimum

• Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering or job-related discipline or equivalent experience
• 10 years of job-related technical experience
• 5 years’ experience leading and/or managing engineering or technical staff

Desired

• Strong interpersonal, collaboration, leadership, and analytical skills.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to influence at all levels of the organization.
• A proven ability to interpret emerging technologies into utility operational applications.
• Deep knowledge of T&D R&D / new grid technology development processes
• Demonstrated ability to discuss complex technical information with various internal and external stakeholders
• PhD in engineering or related field 
• 4 years of supervisory experience, specifically with leading new technology projects
• Previous experience in executing government (federal or state) funded R&D projects and programs and familiarity with external funding processes and the full lifecycle
• Familiarity with the latest simulation tools and power hardware in the loop simulations (e.g. RTDS, OPAL-RT, Typhoon HIL)
• Direct experience with utility R&D, planning, engineering, and/or operations
• Familiarity with emerging T&D technologies like microgrids, energy storage, phasor measurement units (PMU), other emerging sensor technologies, data analytics, and use of Artificial Intelligence in T&D planning and operations.
• Technical publication record and/or IP (e.g. patents)
• PE (Professional Engineer) License
• Project Management Professional Certification