Principal Strategic Lead

Requisition ID # 174610 

Job Category: Business Operations / Strategy 

Job Level: Manager/Principal

Business Unit: Strategy & Growth

Work Type: Hybrid

Job Location: Oakland

Department 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 working on a portfolio of exciting and innovative projects to transform the electric grid into a smarter grid that works with and for our customers. The GRiD team is charting the future of the utility and the energy industry as part of the Strategy & Innovation division of PG&E.

Position Summary

This execution-oriented candidate will play a Product Strategy Lead role within the Grid Products team in a mixture of new product innovation initiatives that support the Innovation Accelerator, product go-to-market, and the Grid Edge Strategy. The role will include creating, modifying, and collaborating on the strategy and vision for our electric grid; the tracking, reporting up, and coordination of teams working on the products and projects; and leadership across key initiatives that require open ended problem solving.

In addition to the innovation focus on new products, the Product Strategy Lead will also play a supporting role in the broader Strategy & Innovation team as a key stakeholder in our DER Management vision and Advanced Meter Infrastructure (AMI) 2.0 strategy, customer roadmap, and business development strategies.

The successful candidate will be an individual contributor that can also manage project teams from time to time, track across multiple projects, drive to remove blockers to ensure teams are progressing on goals, and can manage up and out across the organization to bring visibility and alignment on the work. This candidate will be expected to influence, organize, and lead others in the organization to support the products and project they’re working on. A strong applicant will be highly organized, articulate, and able to create compelling strategies, presentations, and materials for working up to executive level buy-in. This role will be expected to be an “on-the-fly” problem solver that is biased towards action and provides outcomes beyond the creation of strategy itself.

This position is hybrid, working from your remote office and your assigned work location based on business need. The work location is PG&E’s General Office in downtown Oakland, CA. The team has a hybrid work model and in-person activities will focus on synchronous collaboration, affinity building, ideation, or planning activities. The role may also require occasional travel to other PG&E facilities throughout the PG&E service territory.

PG&E is providing the full salary/pay range for this position.  The actual amount paid to an individual will be based on multiple factors, including, but not limited to, internal equity, specific skills, education, licenses or certifications, experience, market value, and geographic location.  The range to reasonably expect will be between the minimum and the midpoint of the range.  The final decision will be made on a case-by-case basis related to the factors above. This job is also eligible to participate in PG&E’s discretionary incentive compensation programs.

Bay Area Minimum: $140,000.00

Bay Area Midpoint: $189,000.00

Bay Area Maximum: $238,000.00

Responsibilities:

 Tracking, coordination, and management of the Innovation Accelerator Product Portfolio

• Be the point person who is tracking and managing up on a portfolio of Product initiatives which are in various stages of development
• Create executive presentations relaying progress and recommendations across the portfolio
• Engage with the broader organization, “growth advocates”, and product teams to ensure they are coordinated and supporting the product launches
• Ensure coordination and cohesion across the Innovation Accelerator product initiatives that leads to a platform approach rather than disparate point solutions

Develop and manage the Grid Edge AMI 2.0 Strategy in partnership with the Customer Org

• Grid Product initiatives to date have been heavily focused on AMI 2.0 innovation; continue to lead the strategy for this work in partnership with the Customer organization
• Identify from the “bottoms up” where value in an AMI 2.0 system can be originated and analyze and create the business case for these initiatives
• Work from a “top down” to realize a larger grid transformation vision through AMI 2.0 and grid edge computing
• Bring together the strategy, create analysis and deck content for management, and advocate for the creation of projects/products to realize the value

Drive key strategic initiatives

• Stand up AMI 2.0 initiatives, bringing together a plan and resources, as needed to support the Grid Edge AMI 2.0 Strategy
• Form a Grid Edge Consortium between utilities, meter vendors, and device providers establishing the operating structure and driving collective outcomes
• Become a key stakeholder in the rest of Strategy & Innovation work with a particular focus on customer electrification, load management, and AMI 2.0
• Work through executive level problem solving or opportunity exploratory requests as they arise

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.

Qualifications

Minimum:

• Bachelor’s degree in Economics, Statistics, Mathematics, Business, Finance, Sociology, Policy, Engineering, Physics or other related fields or equivalent work experience
• 8 years of job-related experience

Desired:

• Experience in energy, products, strategy, or finance
• Experience with strategy, business case creation and approval, and management of a portfolio of solutions
• Experience both inside and outside of the utility industry
• Experience with Distributed Energy Resources, consumer energy products, or product development
• Experience leading cross cutting programs or technology deployments, with a focus on emerging/innovative technologies and creating new process & structure for rapid scale-up
• Chief of staff or management experience

Desired Characteristics

• Bias toward action, concise, and passionate
• Strong ability to ideate both linearly and non-linearly
• Removes barriers to products and projects moving forward in an autonomous fashion
• Able to operate at different levels of abstraction, outcome focused while understanding and adhering to process where necessary
• Empathic and curious – has an ability to seek to understand while driving towards shared outcomes
• Handles multiple projects and stakeholders and pushes for pace with self-directed drive