Senior Director Grid Analytics

Senior Director Grid Analytics

Leap29 are recruiting for a Senior Director of Grid Analytics on behalf of a rapidly growing utility scale renewable energy company focused on developing acquiring constructing and operating solar and energy storage projects across high-growth U.S. power markets.

With a substantial development pipeline spanning utility scale Solar and BESS projects the company is scaling rapidly from greenfield development through construction and commercial operation while continuing to expand its portfolio through new development opportunities and strategic acquisitions.

This is an exciting opportunity to join a company at a pivotal stage of growth where your work will have a direct impact on investment development and siting decisions. The successful candidate will have significant influence across the organization and the opportunity to grow with the business.

The Opportunity

We are seeking a Senior Director of Grid Analytics to own develop and scale our in-house power flow and transmission system analysis capabilities.

This is a senior technical leadership role for an individual who combines deep expertise in transmission planning and generator interconnection with strong commercial judgment systems thinking and a strong bias toward automation and continuous improvement.

The company has established a grid analytics framework supporting its proprietary site-selection and development process. The Senior Director will take ownership of this framework and continuously enhance it to improve analytical speed consistency scalability and decision quality.

This is not a run studies as assigned role. It is a decision-driving system-owning leadership position with direct influence on executive-level investment development and siting decisions.

The role will also lead the generator interconnection process across the portfolio and support technical due diligence for M&A activities. This includes taking several mid-stage projects through generator interconnection agreements and into execution and commercial operation while coordinating with transmission owners to ensure project schedules and milestones are achieved.

Key Responsibilities

Grid Analytics Framework

• Take end-to-end ownership of the existing grid analytics framework and continuously evolve it to support faster more consistent and forward-looking siting and interconnection decisions.
• Design and refine repeatable workflows for regional screening scenario modeling and sensitivity analysis.
• Reduce friction rework and reliance on institutional knowledge by formalizing assumptions methodologies processes and analytical outputs.
• Establish scalable analytical standards that can support a rapidly expanding development portfolio.

Transmission & Interconnection Analysis

• Perform and oversee innovative and complex power flow injection and scenario studies supporting greenfield prospecting and project development.
• Independently predict replicate validate and challenge ISO transmission owner and consultant study results.
• Estimate interconnection facility and network upgrade costs and assess associated project risks.
• Modify regional power flow base cases to reflect future resource mixes generation retirements load growth and planned transmission upgrades.
• Identify grid constraints opportunities and risks early in the development lifecycle.

Generator Interconnection

• Lead and oversee the generator interconnection request process from model and application preparation through interconnection agreement negotiation and execution.
• Coordinate with transmission owners and other stakeholders to resolve project schedule technical and cost issues during execution.
• Serve as the internal subject matter expert on generator interconnection procedures queue windows and processes governed by Open Access Transmission Tariffs (OATTs).
• Drive projects through the interconnection process while maintaining alignment with broader development and construction schedules.

Automation Tooling & Leverage

• Design and maintain automated scalable analytical workflows using Python or other scripting languages for model execution post-processing and scenario evaluation.
• Identify opportunities to leverage AI-assisted tools for data processing queue tracking scenario generation result synthesis and other analytical workflows.
• Continuously improve analytical efficiency and coverage through automation.
• Build a grid analytics capability that scales with portfolio growth without requiring a linear increase in headcount.

Strategic Decision Support

• Translate complex transmission and interconnection analysis into clear actionable recommendations for development teams and executive leadership.
• Clearly communicate assumptions uncertainties risks and tradeoffs associated with siting and interconnection decisions.
• Support portfolio-level prioritization by identifying grid-driven risks and opportunities early in the development process.
• Help shape investment and development decisions through rigorous commercially relevant grid analysis.

Leadership & Team Development

• Provide technical and strategic leadership to a junior power flow engineer including guidance on modeling approaches assumptions interpretation of results and professional development.
• Establish analytical standards and decision frameworks that enable junior team members to contribute effectively without becoming bottlenecks.
• Manage and direct third-party consultants as required while retaining internal ownership of core analytical thinking and decision-making.
• Build and develop the grid analytics and interconnection team as the portfolio grows with anticipated future roles including Regulatory Lead and Interconnection Analyst(s).

External Engagement

• Represent the company in interactions with ISOs transmission owners utilities regulators and other industry stakeholders throughout interconnection and transmission planning processes.
• Track and participate in relevant transmission planning queue reform regulatory and policy proceedings.
• Develop and maintain strong working relationships with external stakeholders critical to project execution.

Qualifications & Experience

• 10 years of experience within an IPP utility consulting firm or ISO/TO performing transmission planning interconnection analysis and grid-related decision support.
• Deep hands-on experience with TARA PSSE or similar power flow tools including experience with associated Python APIs.
• Demonstrated experience navigating generator interconnection processes through executed or near-executed interconnection agreements.
• Strong proficiency in Python or other scripting languages used to automate power flow analysis modeling and post-processing.
• Working knowledge of OATTs generator interconnection procedures and transmission planning processes within SPP and WECC markets.
• Strong understanding of transmission system constraints interconnection risks and their implications for project development and investment decisions.
• Ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly and effectively to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Strong analytical judgment commercial awareness and ability to operate independently in a fast-paced development environment.
• Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering or a related field; Masters degree preferred.

If you are interested in this fantastic opportunity please send your Resume through to Rob Byrom.