New Business Construction Consultant I, II

The Customer Development Department focusses on growing our business from the addition of new customers, increased utilization of natural gas from our existing customer base and maintaining long term relationships with our key customer accounts.
The purpose of this position is to promote and market natural gas and facilitate the on-boarding of all new residential, commercial, and industrial customers to the utility’s distribution system. The primary focus of this role is to drive market strategy and growth opportunities and analyze expansion through the addition of new customers and expansion into unserved communities and new natural gas market applications. This role is responsible for initiating and developing relationships with customers/developers to collaboratively facilitate their natural gas infrastructure projects. This role utilizes rigorous project management and technical skills to develop and execute new business designs in a timely and efficient manner, as well as optimize designs such that they are both cost-effective and meet corporate policies and standards. The individual in this role will work with internal and external parties to ensure that we develop and maintain consistent and supportive customer growth opportunities to meet annual growth targets.

JOB REQUIREMENTS:
Required:      
•Bachelor’s Degree
OR
•5+ years of related work or military experience
•Proficiency with MS Office 
•Valid Driver’s License – position requires local travel within our service territory
       
Preferred:  
•Previous experience with construction project planning 
•Previous experience with builders/developers for residential/commercial construction
•Previous experience with customer-facing opportunities, front line sales, or market development
Skills:
•Excellent communication, presentation, negotiation and networking skills
•Strong organizational skills and excellent follow through skills
•Leadership skills, excellent interpersonal skills, ability to take initiative, highly organized
•Ability to build strong relationships with both internal and external customers
•Customer focused mindset with proven ability to respond quickly to customer needs

Working Conditions/Physical Requirements:
• This position involves a combination of office work, field visits, customer meetings, and pre-construction meetings, with the distribution of these activities being driven by project and workload needs.
•This position may require excessive driving throughout the Nicor Gas service territory

MAJOR JOB RESPONSIBILITIES:  
•Initiate and develop relationships with customers/developers to collaboratively facilitate their natural gas infrastructure projects from project initiation through construction installation completion
•Provide a single point of contact for a customer during the complete onboarding process from project initiation through construction installation completion
•Utilize rigorous project management and technical skills to develop and execute new business designs in a timely and efficient manner, as well as optimize designs such that they are both cost-effective and meet corporate policies and standards
•Ensure all customers are extended service in as timely and cost-effective manner as possible, by managing the planning, design and coordination for the construction of underground natural gas utility infrastructure for residential, commercial, and industrial customers
•Work with customers to obtain and evaluate essential project information such as natural gas load requirements, delivery pressure requirements, plats, site plans, etc.
•Formulate the most efficient routing of new gas mains and services to serve new residential, commercial, and industrial developments; recognize job site opportunities and propose alternative natural gas main and service designs for system reliability and cost effectiveness; advise potential residential, commercial, and/or industrial natural gas customers of constructability issues during the planning process
•Work collaboratively to drive a project with technical staff and other internal departments to ensure timely design and implementation of natural gas infrastructure projects while providing a superior customer experience though the sales and customer onboarding process
•Prioritize and manages multiple projects simultaneously to optimize overall customer demand portfolio.
•Generate budgets for new business projects and run feasibility models; reconcile past payments to the original customer commitment as directed by tariff.
•Responsible for negotiating and completing contracts, commitments, or agreements with the customer
•Identify and drive opportunities for growth through conversions utilizing a consultative sales approach, promoting the benefits of natural gas over other energy sources
•Provide excellent customer service through t