Director of Innovation Accelerator

Requisition ID # 162406 

Job Category: Maintenance / Construction / Operations 

Job Level: Director/Chief

Business Unit: Engineering, Planning & Strategy

Work Type: Hybrid

Job Location: Oakland

Department Overview

The Strategy, Innovation and Partnership Leadership team identifies, monitors and develops plans to manage emerging issues and technologies that present challenges and opportunities for PG&E. The team engages with internal stakeholders to collect information, build internal capabilities, and foster a culture of innovation and collaboration, and works externally to establish partnerships and collaborate on new technologies which will benefit the Company.  This department leads the identification of strategic Research and Development (R&D) initiatives, assesses benefits associated with all R&D projects, engages with partner utilities and industry R&D organizations to gain and leverage partnership funding. The department manages high-level, strategic R&D for the Company including establishing and maintaining a strategic R&D plan, providing leadership and oversight of R&D efforts to assess new technologies and work methods. This includes work with industry groups, regulatory agencies, academia and other research organizations. Creates a safety culture for an incident-free work environment and encourages ownership for co-worker safety in R&D projects.

Position Summary

If you have a track record of building, partnering, and/or investing in new ventures with a startup or large enterprise, have a dynamic nature with outstanding project management skills, and an ability to juggle quickly changing priorities, with a smile on your face, we want to talk to you. We are now seeking a Director to manage the growth and development of our Innovation Accelerator.

This role will include managing communication across the company, building an organic growth strategy across key innovation priority areas, managing an Accelerator Advisory Board, developing and standardizing workflow processes for the Accelerator, overseeing talent pipeline needs, representing PG&E within the startup / innovation community, and ensuring new initiatives within the Accelerator are moving forward in line with the determined timelines and priorities.

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.

Reporting Relationship

This role reports to the Senior Director, GRiD Innovation R&D and will lead a team of professionals to drive acceleration of the technologies – team size to be determined.

Job Responsibilities

• Manage the Accelerator alignment with stakeholders
  • Strategic themes and roadmap
  • Budget sizing and allocation
  • Operating plan

• Own and operate key strategic aspects of the Accelerator
  • Determine the source of new ideas for the Accelerator (Executives, R&D, New Venture Competitions, etc.), selection criteria, idea scorecards, and disposition feedback to the submitter
  • Establish understanding of the key domain areas and ecosystems
  • Maintain a volume of Incubation and Acceleration
  • Internal and external Accelerator and innovation team communication

• Oversee the talent pipeline (Incubator, Innovation Teams, Innovation Board members and Growth Advocates)
  • Staffing requirements
  • Profiles for potential hires
  • Interview stages and associated guides
  • Best practices for managing innovation personnel
  • HR and line manager selection, onboarding, and offboarding
  • Employee and leadership rotations

Acceleration Activities

• Manage interactions with the Mothership
  • Functional area audit of all groups
    • Identify groups outside of the Accelerator to leverage
    • Establish Growth Advocate (functional experts) training and support
  • Interface between Accelerator and core functional teams
    • Functional expert support
    • IT (hardware, SaaS, and tech stack)
    • Facilities (Accelerator space)
    • Legal, Procurement, Regulatory, etc.

• Drive activities to the Accelerator cadence and calendar
  • Target state schedule and activities from ideation through first revenue
  • Inspiration events
  • Internal and external promotion for Accelerator

• Support innovation teams
  • Adapt incubation and acceleration methodology to optimize initiative impact
  • Assist in internal and external customer recruiting and customer development
  • Participate in pain-to-product transition, product vision and high-level technical architecture, and initial pilot and go-to-market activities
  • Coach teams on business model and financial planning
  • Aid in team and individual development needs in line with an innovation mindset
  • Source development expertise as needed
  • Source internal and external technical and / or industry expert advisors / mentors

• Support Accelerator activities and staff
  • Budgets and reporting for all engagements
  • Assets, training, and materials provided
  • Standard practices and methodologies for incubation teams
  • Positive working environment
  • Personal conflicts on the team
  • Preparedness for formal reviews with Accelerator Board

• Develop and share innovation insights with internal and external audiences
  • Regularly synthesize “outside-in” perspectives on domains and markets to influence PG&E’s internal strategy development
  • Develop a calendar of key events and represent PG&E regularly to reinforce the firm’s leadership in new spaces
  • Draft and publish thought leadership pieces regularly

Leadership Qualities

PG&E expects its leaders to conduct themselves with the highest ethics and integrity and to embody specific leadership qualities.

Strategic Mindset

• Seeing ahead to future possibilities and translating them into breakthrough strategies.
• Operating effectively, even when things are not certain or the way forward is not clear.

A Leader in the Community and Industry

• Effectively building formal and informal relationship networks inside and outside the organization.
• Anticipating and balancing the needs of multiple stakeholders.

Demonstrates Safety Leadership

• A safety champion in words and deeds with respect to both employee and public safety.
• Maintaining an environment of open dialog and free of retaliation.

Influences and Inspires

• Using various- communications that convey a clear understanding of the needs of different audiences.
• Maneuvering comfortably through complex policy, process, and people-related dynamics.

Optimizes Team Performance

• Building strong-identity teams that apply their diverse skills and perspectives to achieve common goals.
• Creating a climate where people are developed and motivated to do their best to help the organization.

Values Diversity and Creates Inclusion

• Recognizing the value that different perspectives and cultures bring to an organization.

Fiscally Responsible

• Interpreting and applying understanding of key financial indicators to make better business decisions.
• Planning and prioritizing work to meet commitments aligned with organizational goals.

Leads Ethically and in a Compliant Manner

• Sponsoring and sustaining a high integrity speak-up corporate culture which prioritizes ethics, safety and compliance.
• Building on necessary level of industry, company and subject-matter expertise, including laws and regulations.

Provides a High Level of Customer Service

• Building strong customer relationships and delivering customer-centric solutions.

Compensation

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.​

This role is eligible for both Short and Long Term Incentive Plans.

A reasonable salary range is:

Bay Area Minimum: $178,000

Bay Area Maximum: $304,000

Background Qualifications

Minimum

• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent experience.
• 10 years of relevant experience.
• Energy sector experience.
• Experience in innovation, strategy, and management

Desired

• 15+ Years in a Project Management, Operations Lead, or People Management role, preferably in a startup or new venture creation within a large organization
  • 10+ years assessing external innovation in Corporate Partnering / Development / Venture Capital roles
• Energy sector experience
• Bachelor’s Degree in Business, Technology / Computer Science, Innovation, or Human Computer Interaction
• MBA preferred
• Demonstrated track record of strong outcomes from negotiated investments or new venture building and launch
• Proven ability to work across corporate stakeholders to proactively build, design, negotiate, launch, and scale new initiatives
• Expertise across due diligence, including valuation / financial modeling, strategic synergy identification, and competitive analysis
• Strong existing network in key startup ecosystems preferred
• Background in Customer Development, or customer-led innovation
• Wide range of exposure to various technical topics from a product perspective, and comfort with jumping into new technical areas.
• Strong background in forming and coaching high-performance, cross-functional teams
• Exceptional people leadership skills and the demonstrated ability to gain confidence, build rapport and drive consensus with client team members, senior managers, and board
• Proven track record of successfully managing multiple complex projects
• Collaborative mindset is a must
• Strong strategic planning skills
• Ability to deal with ambiguity in a fast-paced, fluid environment
• Experience with business development in G1000 environment
• Proven ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, multi-task environment
• Excellent presentation skills, including strong verbal and writing capabilities.
• Outstanding listening skills and ability to manage through influence.
• Self-initiative and an ability to work well independently
• VC, PE, or Angel Investing experience, a plus