Head - Design & Engineering - Utility & Offgrid - Solar Photovoltaic Systems Construction

Job description :

- The Head of Design & Engineering (D&E) is responsible for managing all departmental functions and personnel associated with the design of solar photovoltaic systems within the organization.

- The primary responsibilities of the D&E organization are the following; provide engineering support for the Sales organization when assessing opportunities or validating sales partner designs, perform site assessments to determine project viability and support full design development, create construction plan sets that meet all jurisdictional code requirements, provide bill of materials to the Procurement team for material ordering, manage professional and contractor engineering resources to support operations, provide technical support to achieve all project financing goals including addressing Independent Engineer inquiries and work closely with the Applied Engineering team in assessing and validating new technologies and applications.

- The D&E department activities support the development of a large portfolio of projects across several regions (state & provinces), segments (private, public, utility) and applications types (roof, ground, canopy). Additionally, the Head of D&E will be responsible for mentoring and training department personnel, establishing and managing the department operating budget and provide reports to management on the status of D&E operations.

Position Responsibility: 

- Oversee all operations of the Design & Engineering department.

- Manage the activities associated with the development of construction plan sets to be used by contractors for solar PV system construction and operation. Plan sets will need to specify all design requirements for roof top, ground mount and canopy applications.

- Responsible for developing design standards and component specifications in order to ensure uniformity across all regions plan sets and to ensure proper component utilization. Design standards also need to support Construction and Service organization operational requirements.

- Also, designs must comply with all applicable code requirements (i.e. NEC), meet necessary certification requirements (i.e. UL), and achieve 25+ year operation life time.

- Establish Quality Assurance (QA) processes to support both internal design reviews as well as external contractor plan set development and review.

- Develop departmental resource plans to support all operating regions within the region segment and work with Human Resources to identify viable candidates to fill open positions.

- Qualification and development of external engineering firms to support D&E operations in new regions or segments where additional technical expertise is warranted. Conduct negotiations to finalize scope and cost for contract engineering services when required.

- Coordinate with the Procurement organization to allocate module/inverter technology to forecasted projects and provide bill of materials to facilitate the ordering of long lead time components.

- Improve processes and continue efforts towards achieving standardization while maintaining necessary specification; utilize feedback loops and lessons learned to improve delivery of projects.

- Oversee maintenance of project design data in a centralized project database. The data supports both project scheduling and material procurement within the broader organization.

- Develop and management of departmental operating budget established on an annual basis.

- Responsible for identifying reasons for cost variances, either positive or negative and taking action to either mitigate or support.

- Responsible for managing growth and mentoring of personnel, conducting year end reviews, mapping career growth, recruiting and hiring, and all other personnel issues as necessary.

Position Experience and Qualification :

- Bachelors degree in Electrical or Civil / Structural Engineering Masters Degree or licensed Professional Engineering (Electrical) is highly desirable

- 15+ years managing a design organization in the construction industry experience with power plant or solar PV design is highly desirable. Must be comfortable managing a department with over 20+ employees many located in multiple regional offices

- Proven experience in using stage of the art Design & Engineering best practices (lean development methods)

- Experience establishing design standards, component specifications and document revision control system to ensure quality and standardization when working with external construction and design contractors

- Strong knowledge of construction permitting process experience with land development and permitting process is also highly desirable

- Experience managing a departmental operating budget and managing cost to be within or below budget. Experience developing and implementing cost reduction initiatives is highly desirable

- Proactive and results oriented to work in a rapidly growing industry with occasionally aggressive timelines and deliverable requirements

- Experience scaling an organization across multiple regions to accommodate high growth is also highly desirable

- Ability to develop clear, concise and pragmatic findings and recommendations, and strong communication skills including preparing and delivering well-designed presentations

- Ability to scope and structure complex projects and manage multiple teams

 - Exceptional interpersonal leadership and influencing skills, including ability to achieve goals without direct control over resources

- Strong attention to detail with high-level vision to meet deadlines