Expert Grid Innovation Engineer

Requisition ID # 166507 

Job Category: Engineering / Science 

Job Level: Individual Contributor

Business Unit: Electric Engineering

Work Type: Hybrid

Job Location: Oakland

Department Overview

The System Performance, Reliability and Resiliency Strategy team within the overall Electric Transmission and Distribution Engineering organization is responsible for planning, organizing, and managing the resources necessary to successfully execute PG&E’s Electric Reliability Strategy and initiatives. This team of forward–thinking individuals will be tasked with deploying technology and infrastructure and influencing the organization to achieve the company’s reliability goals. The team is responsible for implementing programs required to modernize the electric grid allowing for safe, resilient, and efficient operations. The team participates in a cross functional team of internal and consulting participants being tasked with leading the transition of a project from development and testing to being operational for each phase of each project.

Position Summary

The Grid Innovation Engineer ensures the safe, reliable, and efficient operation of the electric power system by providing innovative engineering and advanced reliability analysis support to improve system reliability and resiliency. The role will be part of a technically focused, cross-functional team of engineers, program/project managers, and data scientists to support short and long term strategic grid management and reliability/resiliency improvement. This role sits at the convergence of grid planning, real-time operations, and applied data science, leveraging high-resolution data from sources such as SCADA, load flow studies, distribution planning tool such as CYME etc. This position will leverage data from models and assets in order to develop programs and solutions to enhance grid resiliency. These tools will assess outage risks at both the grid-wide and individual critical customer level, delivering real-time and long-horizon insights into system vulnerabilities and performance under climate stressors and high-impact events. This is a rare opportunity to be part of a founding team that fuses domain expertise, and big data to help architect the climate-resilient, intelligent electric grid of the future.

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)    $140,000.00
Mid Base Salary (Bay Area)    $189,000.00
Maximum Base Salary (Bay Area)    $238,000.00

Job Responsibilities

• Leads programs in the areas of grid modernization as it pertains to Reliability program development, planning, and improvement. Grid sectionalizing and Integrated Grid and investment planning are all examples of duties in this role.

• Lead state-of-the-art engineering methodologies to detect potential system risks and improve the reliability and resiliency of the electric transmission and distribution grid.
• Leads engineering reliability and resiliency related programs and initiatives, risk studies, and long-term strategy for all PG&E grid
• Engages with stakeholders to better understand grid issues, create actionable insights that inform investment planning and real-time decision-making, and develop solutions in conjunction with the various stakeholders.
• Explore, innovate, and demonstrate technologies that improve Grid reliability and resiliency
• Partners with leadership to determine the most appropriate and effective program performance metrics. Prepares and presents regular updates to senior management, addressing issues and gaining buy in on solutions.
• Explore, innovate, and demonstrate technologies that facilitate easier grid integration
• Responsible for identifying, developing, and implementing new standards and guidelines, in collaboration with Distribution Standards Department, to facilitate distributed energy resources integration while minimizing potential grid impacts
• Considered a subject matter expert in Grid Resiliency and Reliability, attending conferences and representing PG&E as a technical expert along with benchmarking against industry and IEEE best practices and disseminating them within PG&E Electrical Engineering teams.

Qualifications

Minimum:

• Bachelors Degree in Engineering or equivalent experience
• Experience with grid modeling software (e.g. CYMDIST, PSLF, Aspen, etc.)

• 7 years of electric utility related experience

Desired:

• Electrical Engineering Degree with Power Systems emphasis
• PhD or Masters in Engineering, preferably Electrical Engineering discipline with Power Systems emphasis
• Proficient with data processing tools such as Excel, Access, SQL, etc.
• Experience in Program Management
• Expert in electric distribution program development and execution preferably in areas of reliability, resiliency and grid modernization.
• Expert in working on grid modernization tools or products.
• Expert in Transmission or Distribution System Planning, power flow, distribution engineering or operations, substation engineering, transmission or distribution protection, distribution operations.
• Familiarity with relevant federal, state, and local regulations and laws as needed to perform at the job level
• Excellent skills in communication, interpersonal/collaboration influence and negotiation and process management.   
• Competency in planning and prioritizing work to meet commitments aligned with organizational goals
• Competency in using compelling arguments to gain support and commitment of others
• Competency to work cohesively in fast-paced team environments
• Competency in making good and timely decisions that keep the organization moving forward