Incident Investigator, Intern

Requisition ID # 170897 

Job Category: Administrative / Clerical 

Job Level: Individual Contributor

Business Unit: Strategy & Growth

Work Type: Hybrid

Job Location: Oakland

Two positions being filled

Department Overview

The Electric Compliance organization at PG&E is responsible for ensuring the company meets its regulatory obligations to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) across the electric system. Within Electric Compliance, the Electric Incident Investigations (EII) team investigates electric incidents — equipment failures, outages, and compliance events — across transmission, distribution, and substation assets.

When something goes wrong on the grid, our team determines the technical cause, documents findings in regulatory reports, and identifies corrective actions to prevent recurrence. This work directly interfaces with PG&E's legal team, field operations, and senior leadership, and the outputs are submitted to state regulators. It's hands-on failure analysis with direct impact on grid safety and reliability in Northern and Central California.

Position Summary

PG&E is seeking an engineering student to join the Electric Incident Investigations (EII) team for a hands-on summer experience in applied failure analysis and electric system compliance

As an intern on the EII team, you'll work alongside experienced investigators on real cases — not simulations. Your experience may include:

• Field work — accompanying investigators to incident sites to observe evidence collection, equipment condition assessment, and cause analysis firsthand
• Lab work — supporting testing and evaluation activities at PG&E's Acceptance Testing Services (ATS) facility, where failed equipment is examined to support investigation findings
• Data analysis — analyzing historical incident data to identify trends, patterns, and systemic issues that inform how we approach future investigations

This is a technical role. Strong candidates will be curious about how things fail, comfortable with data, and capable of translating technical findings into clear written summaries. Experience with Excel is helpful; experience in an engineering or lab environment is a plus.

The role is hybrid, based at the Oakland General Office (OGO) approximately three days per week, with remote work on remaining days and field visits as investigations require.

PG&E is providing the hourly rate 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 hourly rate 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.

The hourly rate for this position ranges from $24.52 to $35.37 

Responsibilities

• Support experienced Incident Investigators in drafting technical cause evaluation reports — learning how evidence, data, and engineering judgment come together into a regulatory deliverable
• Assist with responses to CPUC data requests, including researching prior responses, gathering data, and drafting language for investigator review
• Extract and analyze incident data from PG&E systems to identify trends, patterns, and findings that support ongoing investigations
• Coordinate across PG&E departments — including the Corrective Action Program (CAP), Electric Asset Strategy, and Acceptance Testing Services (ATS) — to gather information relevant to active cases
• Support maintenance and updates to team procedures and job aids
• Take on increasing ownership of tasks as the internship progresses, with the opportunity to lead discrete workstreams under investigator guidance

By the end of the summer, you'll have a working understanding of how a major utility manages electric incident investigations from initial event through regulatory reporting — and how engineering, legal, operations, and compliance functions intersect in that process.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

• Qualified candidates are pursuing a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Science Fields (e.g., Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Fire), or other related field at an accredited University
• Students must be continuing their education towards their degree during and/or after the internship

Desired:

• 3.0 GPA or greater in both cumulative GPA and major GPA
• Engineering experience in utilities, municipalities, construction, or engineering consultation
• Ability to work in a team environment and support fellow team members
• Experience collecting and reviewing data (e.g. searching for anomalies/data gaps/inconsistencies), utilizing repeatable processes and adding controls, when possible, to increase data integrity
• Excellent written (technical report writing, email, presentations, dashboards/summaries of key takeaways) and oral (phone and in-person) communication skills, including technical writing and presentations
• Strong attention to detail, ensure consistency across concepts, be careful about details and thorough in completing work tasks.
• Takes initiative and can work independently with minimal direction, escalating when appropriate to get work done in a timely manner.

PG&E is unable to provide VISA sponsorship to students on an F-1, J-1 or other student visa for this position.