JOB TITLE: Principal, Western Initiatives

APPLICATION MATERIALS:

Applicants are required to submit a combined cover letter and resume in one document. Incomplete applications will not be considered.

Interested parties should submit their cover letter and resume to rebecca.sexton@westernpowerpool.org by 5pm PST on February 20th.

SALARY AND BENEFITS:

In addition to a competitive salary range of $140,000 to $190,000, WPP employees enjoy outstanding benefits including medical, dental, vision, short and long-term disability insurance, an insurance premium contribution, a flexible spending account contribution, 401k contribution, personal leave, and educational reimbursement.

The WPP office is in Portland, Oregon. This position allows a remote or hybrid work schedule. For background on the WPP please see: https://www.westernpowerpool.org/

JOB SUMMARY:

The Principal is a new role at the WPP, and will play an integral role in day-to-day operations of regional reliability and coordination initiatives, with a primary focus on the Western Resource Adequacy Program (WRAP).

This position is responsible for engaging with WPP customers, executives, technical subject matter experts and policy staff to identify and analyze potential impacts of regional initiative issues to WPP grid operations and resource planning activities.  Additionally, the position will perform analysis and develop recommendations for WPP and WRAP participants regarding impact of regional initiatives in the western interconnect, including emerging market offerings.  

This position requires an understanding of reliability-based programs, including resource adequacy and reserve sharing, western energy market behavior, and transmission in the western interconnect.  This position requires expertise to recognize issues, perform analysis, and facilitate customers to identify solutions for identified impacts.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

Management:

• Provides strategic direction, management and technical expertise for the design and day-to-day implementation and maintenance of the WRAP and other grid operations and resource planning activities on an as needed basis
• Provides analytical and strategic support to WPP staff and customers, including assessing long term grid and resource requirements for the western interconnect footprint, economic and market considerations for generation and transmission in the west, and future technology enhancements that will impact grid operations, resource planning, and commercial and market design activities
• May require supervision of internal and contract based staff

Western Initiatives:

• Collaborate and communicate with WPP staff and customers regarding the evolution of regional coordination activities and  opportunities and issues that could impact the WRAP or WPP grid operations and reliability programs  
• Provide expertise, in collaboration with WPP staff and customers, to ensure that WPP offerings are designed to provide the highest  value and are aligned with commercial and operational activities in the Western Interconnect  

Engagement:

• Support WPP participation in local and regional proceedings related to grid operations and resource planning
• Represent the WPP in industry forums, conferences, public and stakeholder processes
• Partner with WPP staff to address WRAP participant, customer and stakeholder issues and needs

Ongoing:

• Maintain regular and predictable attendance
• Perform related duties and responsibilities as required
• Comply with WPP policies

QUALIFICATIONS AND REQUIREMENTS:

Full-time, permanent position.

Education Level: Bachelor's degree (B. S., B. A.) in engineering, mathematics/statistics, software engineering/computer science or a related field from a college or university. Master’s degree preferred.

Experience: Typically requires eight (8) to ten (10) years’ experience in the utility, power marketing or power operations industries. Significant experience with western markets, including market design and policy analysis and design. Knowledge of reliability programs and standards, such as reserve sharing and resource adequacy. Knowledge of tagging, scheduling and transmission in the western interconnect. Experience serving in a technical role, such as engineering, software development, data analytics and economics. Ability to perform semi-complex analytical tasks, modeling systems, performing economic analysis, and application of statistics, finance, mathematics, and problem solving. Experience managing projects or programs are preferred.

Skills:

• Excellent communications and collaboration skills, including demonstrated experience working with technical SMEs, policy staff, executives and decision makers
• Operational or regulatory and policy development experience
• Detailed understanding of electric power generation and resource planning principles, including adequacy analysis techniques and reliability evaluations.
• Knowledge of power generation and production, utility operations
• Knowledge of Western energy markets

Personal Characteristics:

• Outstanding written and oral communication skills
• Coordination skills
• Strong critical thinking skills
• Complex problem-solving skills
• Well-developed judgment and decision-making skills
• Project management skills
• Active listening skills

Other:

• Ability to work in the best interests of the members of the WPP
• Ability to help set the strategic goals and objectives of the organization based on customer needs and align the day-to-day work with those goals and objectives. 
• Ability to demonstrate problem sensitivity, which is the ability to tell when something is wrong or likely to go wrong.
• Ability to work with a broad range of customers and stakeholders
• Ability to understand highly complex and interrelated subject matter and communicate effectively about it
• Ability to positively influence others to encourage appropriate actions without formal authority.

Language Skills:

Ability to read, analyze, and interpret common scientific and technical journals, financial reports, and legal documents. Ability to respond to common inquiries or complaints from customers, regulatory agencies, or members of the business community. Ability to write speeches and articles for publication that conform to prescribed style and format. Ability to effectively present information to top management, public groups, and/or boards of directors. Must be proficient in reading, writing and speaking English.

Mathematical Skills:

Ability to apply advanced mathematical concepts such as exponents, logarithms, quadratic equations, and permutations. Ability to apply mathematical operations to such tasks as frequency distribution, determination of test reliability and validity, analysis of variance, correlation techniques, sampling theory, and factor analysis. Proficiency with quantitative concepts including time-series analysis, Monte Carlo simulations, operations research, and statistics.

Reasoning Ability:

Ability to define problems, collect data, establish facts, and draw valid conclusions. Ability to interpret an extensive variety of technical instructions in mathematical or diagram form and deal with several abstract and concrete variables

Complexity:

This position requires the ability to build knowledge of WPP Reliability programs, reliability metrics and modeling, power generation, transmission, finance and trading, market structure, and their impact on the WPP, its customers, business relationships and stakeholders. The incumbent will have extensive relationships with customer staff, external entities, including, but not limited to other utilities, regulatory agencies, research centers, and governmental entities. A variety of complex conceptual and mathematical models will be utilized to support decision-making. Additionally, knowledge of federal and state laws and regulations relating to the power industry is required.

Decision Making:

This incumbent relies on extensive experience, personal relationships, and judgment to plan and accomplish goals. Decisions impact multiple major programs and may involve multiple difficult or critical problems.  

Physical Requirements:

Prolonged periods working on a computer.