Technical Director, Engineering

Southwest Power Pool (SPP) is about more than power. We’re about the power of relationships. Our employees have the opportunity to work together to ensure electricity is delivered reliably and affordably to the millions of people living in our service territory. We have been voted one of Arkansas’ Best Places to work by Arkansas Business and we are looking for a member of our team who is passionate about our mission to keep the lights on!

We have a core ideology here at SPP that we stand by: Do the right thing, for the right reason, in the right way.

 We believe in supporting our employees through a fantastic benefits package:

• Competitive pay with bonus opportunities
• Excellent insurance package including three great medical plans to choose from, employer-paid short term disability, long term disability, and life insurance
• Relocation assistance
• Flexible working environment for positions that are eligible where employees have the flexibility to work from home and come in where collaborative in person work is needed.
• Fantastic contributions to your retirement through a 401(k) savings plan with employer-match benefits and a defined benefit plan fully funded by SPP

Overview

The Technical Director, Engineering is a senior leadership role tasked with overseeing and supporting tariff production, planning, and Engineering initiative activities. Engineering processes include: Engineering Modeling, the Integrated Transmission Plan (ITP), Resource Adequacy, Generator Interconnection, Transmission Service, Planning Coordinator Assessments (PCA), and Planning Policy & Research.

Key Responsibilities:

• Engage and support multiple stakeholder working groups fostering collaboration within and across departments to drive the creation, balanced prioritization and achievement of strategic objectives.
• Provide expert technical and policy support in developing study scopes and processes.
• Represent SPP in industry and regulatory technical and policy settings, ensuring alignment with organizational goals.
• Work closely with SPP members to address key issues and share results.

This position demands a highly experienced individual capable of navigating complex technical and policy landscapes, influences collaboration among stakeholders, and driving continuous improvement in SPP’s engineering processes.

Essential Functions

 Governing Processes

• Develop and maintain a deep level of understanding with the governing documents for Tariff and NERC activities including: SPP Tariff, FERC & NERC standards, SPP Business Practices, SPP Planning Criteria, Seams Agreements and SPP Market Protocols and understand their relationship to the various SPP organizational groups and SPP business functions.
• Stay abreast of the latest FERC, NERC, and EPA orders and rulemaking activities and SPP organizational group initiatives that impact Engineering processes and initiate and assist in the development of innovative change to processes, including drafting revision requests, maximizing value beyond compliance requirements, and integrating new technologies into SPP processes.
• Consults and communicates with SPP stakeholders, transmission owners, affected systems, consultants and stakeholders in support of Engineering’s technical study activities and processes.
• Prepare and present technical testimony and represent SPP as a subject matter expert in support of Engineering legal and regulatory needs.
• Lead, review, and/or support Engineering technical data in support of regulatory changes, study processes, and special projects.

 Engineering Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain a strong level of familiarity with the SPP transmission system, transmission planning concepts, power system analysis tools, and processes in order to provide technical and process guidance and support as needed.
• Facilitate and implement development, maintenance, and improvement of technical engineering processes, procedures and documentation used in Engineering.
• Participate in or lead special projects as assigned.
• Facilitate productive discussions and meetings, internally, and externally, to drive timely and quality decisions
• Develop positive and productive relationships with internal teams and peers

 Stakeholder Relationships

• Develop positive stakeholder technical, supervisory, leadership and management level relationships as necessary to accomplish SPP objectives and assigned directives.
• Develop and maintain necessary relationships with internal and external technical staff and customers to collect data, collaborate on analysis, and