Quality Operations Specialist, Expert

Requisition ID # 168924 

Job Category: Compliance / Risk / Quality Assurance 

Job Level: Individual Contributor

Business Unit: Electric Engineering

Work Type: Hybrid

Job Location: Oakland

Department Overview

The Electric Compliance Assurance department is part of the Electric Risk & Compliance organization, where together we will embed compliance and risk in all that we do and achieve regulatory outcomes that support the business’ needs. The work of this department is critical in our efforts to find compliance challenges and identify areas of risk so that we can fix them. The main functions of this new department are identifying areas of compliance risk and opportunities to mitigate those risks, including through incident reporting and investigations, overseeing Electric Operations and Power Generation CAP, and validating the controls on the organization.

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 in 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:

Bay Area Minimum: $ 122,000.​

Bay Area Maximum: $194,000.​

OR

California Minimum: $ 116,000.​

California Maximum: $184,000.

​

Position Summary

PG&E is seeking an experienced business professional to be a member of the Electric Causal Evaluation (CE) Team as a Causal Evaluator. The CE team is responsible for investigating incidents and areas of potential concern and performing Apparent Cause (ACE) and Root Cause (RCE) evaluations to determine the cause and any corrective or preventive measures to mitigate recurrence. The CE team supports the Electric Incident Investigation (EII) team as workload requires. The EII team is responsible for investigating Electric Incidents (EIRs) reported to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) as well as other areas of compliance risk to determine the cause and any corrective or preventive measures to mitigate reoccurrence.

This role plays a critical role in conducting detailed investigations and analyses of electric incidents and operational concerns, utilizing established evaluation methods and tools as well as collecting and analyzing technical data, as appropriate. This position is responsible for managing cause evaluations from start to finish, gaining cross-functional consensus, presenting corrective actions, and ensuring their approval to prevent recurrence.

The successful candidate will demonstrate a proven track record of timely investigations that drive safety improvements, asset integrity, and risk reduction across functional areas. This role requires close collaboration with PG&E leadership and other teams, including Legal and Compliance, often presenting findings and recommendations to senior and executive leaders. A high level of visibility with PG&E leadership is expected, so the ideal applicant will be organized, motivated, curious, a consensus builder, and committed to understanding the “bigger picture.”

The location of this position is flexible within PG&E service territory and will require occasional travel to other areas around PG&E’s service territory. This position is hybrid, working from your remote office and assigned office based on business needs.

Reporting Relationship

This position reports to the Manager, Electric Cause Evaluations.

Job Responsibilities and Expectations

• Conducts cause evaluations (Apparent Cause, Root Cause, Common Cause, etc.) and leads CAP investigations and analyses using established formal cause evaluation methods and tools to investigate safety, equipment, MVIs, and compliance replated events.
• May investigate and manage investigations of Electric Incidents of medium to high risk to PG&E, including working with PG&Es Legal team. Prepare and submit summary of investigation (20-day report) and Apparent Cause Evaluations (ACEs), including identifying corrective actions and gaining consensus with senior and executive leadership to mitigate risk.
• Collaborates with organizations in Electric Operations, Electric Engineering, Power Generation, or across functional areas to develop effective corrective action plans for identified issues.
• Project manages causal evaluations and investigations, including building consensus with multiple senior leaders to stay on schedule.
• Reviews data, provides analyses and reporting of adverse trends, extent of condition, and other insights resulting from cause evaluations.
• May extract data and transfer from databases to analyze or support operational analysis efforts, ensuring data accuracy. Demonstrates and utilizes broad expertise in data processing and data analysis and applies this knowledge to a number of different issues.
• Evaluates effectiveness of, and recommends improvements in business processes, practices, and procedures. Identifies and communicates opportunities for systemic continuous improvement.
• Verifies corrective actions are implemented and validate effectiveness to prevent recurrence.
• Promotes continuous improvements in performance.
• May participate in business process reengineering efforts.
• May provide quality recommendations by evaluating and reviewing processes in a functional area or in department.
• Benchmark with other functional areas, utilities, or experienced operators.
• Acts as team lead and provides direction to less experienced colleagues.
• Travel to other facilities for meetings and site visits about 30% to 40% of the time, throughout the PG&E territory, with occasional overnight travel.

Background Qualifications

 Minimum

• BA/BS Degree in Marketing, Business, Computer Science, Engineering, or other related field or equivalent work experience
• Job-related experience, seven (7) years of related work experience (progressive experience in utility operations or in other highly regulated industry)
• Two (2) years of experience in casual evaluation methods and investigations
• Travel to other facilities for meetings and site visits 10% to 20% of time

Desired

• BA/BS Degree in Marketing, Business, Computer Science, Engineering, or other related field or equivalent work experience
• Master’s degree in related field or equivalent experience
• Experience in corrective action programs
• Experience with electric operation systems (data systems within electric operations) and/or engineering background
• Strong writing, problem-solving, organizational, prioritization, and multi-tasking skills.
• Proven ability to prepare materials for and effectively communicate/present complex findings to senior and executive leaders with clarity, gain consensus on path forward on aggressive timelines.
• Project management skills including the ability to handle multiple investigations with critical deadlines and work in a fast-paced environment.
• Efficient interviewing for high-quality, low-stress results
• Ability to work independently and be effective in team settings
• Ability to data mine and analyze data in tools such as Tableau, Power BI, Foundry
• Proficient in Microsoft Office Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
• Working knowledge of SAP
• Certification in Root Cause Analysis (e.g., TapRooT®, Cause Mapping, or equivalent)
• Cause Evaluation training in one or more of the following methods: HFACS – Human Factors Analysis Classification, 5-Whys, Fault Tree Analysis
• Professional Certified Investigator (PCI – ASIS)
• Professional Engineer (P.E.)
• Lean Six Sigma Certification
• Certified Project Management Professional (PMP)