Senior Community Engagement Specialist – Energy Projects

Senior Community Engagement Specialist – Energy Projects

The Community Engagement team is searching for a Senior Community Engagement Specialist to enable customer outreach for energy-related initiatives, construction activities and capital projects.  The scope of this role is primarily focused on energy-related projects and issues, but the team is dynamic and works across issues to support each other when needed.

How will you make an impact?  

• Astutely navigate the complexity of the energy industry and the layers of regulatory and permitting requirements for energy projects
• Use your in-depth knowledge and experience to define community engagement strategy, create measurable objectives, monitor performance, and train and mentor other team members
• Create and implement engagement strategies based on the International Association of Public Participation (IAP2) Spectrum of Public Participation
• Pursue innovative methods for engaging customers on important issues and projects
• Manage in-person customer and construction crew interactions in a wide variety of conditions**
• Provide community engagement consultation to other departments and leadership; provide strategic counsel to staff on policy decisions, procedures, and operations
• Anticipate and plan for risk
• Lead and facilitate public meetings and community presentations, to include in-person, hybrid and virtual forums
• Adapt engagement strategies to the unique needs of different audiences and projects
• De-escalate customer conflicts, including one-on-one discussions with residential and commercial customers, and interactions with construction contractors, internal construction and operational crews
• Provide timely and accurate customer notifications for energy-related construction projects
• Protect the organization's brand by embracing transparency, accessibility, flexibility and accountability
• Support crisis response
• Participate in a 24/7 on-call emergency response team on a rotating basis

Who You Are:  

• Bachelor’s degree in Public Relations, Communications, or a closely related field
• Possess 7+ years of experience in planning, implementing and evaluating customer engagement strategies
• Can negotiate the dynamism of the energy industry as well as the demands of representing a community-owned utility
• Can demonstrate critical thinking and problem-solving skills
• Possess strong writing skills with the ability to translate complex topics in a way that makes them easy to understand and relatable to affected audiences
• Ability to navigate a large volume of projects, requests and tasks within the same timeline
• Detail focused and a commitment to meeting deadlines
• Comfortable with software tools and platforms to support customer outreach, effective communication and collaboration
• Highly relational with demonstrated experience building and strengthening relationships with internal staff and affected communities
• Proven ability to provide strategic engagement counsel to individual contributors, managers, executives and board members
• Bilingual in English/Spanish preferred, but not required for consideration 

**NOTE: As this position is a combination of field work and office work, the selected candidate will spend time working inside and spend time outdoors transporting and carrying equipment to and from public meetings, visiting construction sites, hiking/climbing/walking to locations (some remote) and may be impacted by various weather conditions.

A valid, unrestricted driver's license is required for this position.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS/WORKING CONDITIONS:
-  Exerts up to 20 lbs. of force occasionally, and/or up to 10 lbs. of force frequently, and/or a small amount of force constantly to move objects. Physical demand requirements are in excess of those required for Sedentary Work. Even though the weight lifted may be only a small amount, a job should be rated Light Work when it requires walking or standing to a significant degree or when it requires sitting most of the time, but entails pushing and/or pulling of arm or leg controls and/or when the job requires working at a production rate pace entailing the constant pushing and/or pulling of materials even though the weight of those materials is small. NOTE: The constant stress and strain of maintaining a production rate pace, especially in an industrial setting, can be and is physically demanding work even though the amount of force exerted is negligible.
-  Positions in this class typically require reaching, standing, walking, grasping, talking, hearing, seeing and repetitive motions. 

Who We Are: