Director of Project & Engineering job in Berkeley

After more than four decades delivering solar on over 3,000 projects across California, customers trust Sun Light and Power to deliver industry-leading quality and an exceptional customer experience.

We design, build, operate and maintain reliable solar energy solutions that save money, lower carbon use, provide resilience and get us closer to full electrification of our world.

We specialize in generating solar electricity (PV), capturing solar thermal energy (hot water) and powering integrated applications such as energy storage, EV charging, heat pumps and micro-grids. We are driven to help California businesses and homeowners reduce their carbon footprint while saving money.

Job Description
Sun Light & Power delivers exceptional customer experience through 3 Key Processes: Customer Discovery, Customer Delivery and Customer Performance. The Director of Projects & Engineering will play a key role in the management of the Customer Delivery process by leading the project management and engineering teams.

The core focus of our project management team is to successfully lead the engineering, procurement and construction of projects to deliver customers clean, reliable, and renewable energy. We define success in both exceeding customer expectations and delivering expected margin and revenue to the company. SLP project managers quarterback highly skilled resources (internal & external to SLP) to insurer that the company can deliver on the promises made to each customer.

The core focus of our engineering team is to design systems that deliver customer-expected performance, that exceed our warranty obligations and deliver the expected system life. The engineering team balances several tradeoffs (e.g. performance & target cost, speed & accuracy, innovation & standardization) in their significant role on each project team.

The Director of Projects & Engineering will cultivate a strong customer-focused culture, demonstrate excellent communication skills, share technical skills with their team, and strive to secure & deliver reliable promises to both internal and external team members and customers. The Director of Projects & Engineering will manage a system that creates flow across the entire project lifecycle.

Key Accountabilities & Responsibilities:

Manage the Projects Team & Engineering Team:

• Oversee key projects, processes and performance reports to manage risk, ensure project flow and measure the customer experience
• Manage teams who plan, design, specify and engineer PV, Solar Thermal, energy storage and EV charging systems
• Establish & report metrics for the Projects & Engineering teams
• Build & manage a group budget that to execute the SLP annual Operating Plan

Build a strong, cohesive team:

• Support our team members in doing their best work
• Contribute to team culture by motivating individuals and building teams
• Manage and develop team members
• Contribute to the team in other capacities as needed

Improve the Delivery System to improve flow efficiency and reduce failure demand:

• Manage, test & improve "System" (series of key processes) from customer's perspective which reflect the customer experience across the Customer Delivery process
• Plan, do, check (celebrate) & adjust continuously key processes & procedures
• Introduce and implement new methods & tools for project teams for improving project flow (e.g. Pull Planning / Last Planner System, Target Value Design, Kanban)
• Contribute to designing a project information platform for SLP projects (future implementation)

Manage partner relationships with SLP vendors and subcontractors:

• Manage engagement practices between Sun Light & Power and partners
• Remove bottlenecks in our partner relationships to achieve key objectives

Share your technical knowledge & aptitude of solar products, regulatory requirements and constraints facing project planning and design decisions:

• Selection of new products in project design (how to manage & measure success)
• UL, ICC certification of products (and what they mean to project management & design)
• IBC (International Building Code) requirements (e.g. roof structures)
• NEC (National Electric Code)

Establish & develop relationships with Sun Light & Power’s major clients:

• Deliver exceptional customer experiences with the best mission-driven businesses, project developers, architects, engineers and general contractors in California
• Support Sales & Business Development efforts to win new projects and portfolio work

Key Experiences:

We prefer leaders with solar industry experience including:

Overcoming the key challenges in solar project management and project design for small, medium-sized and large projects.
Managing both the technical considerations fundamental to solar power (PV) and solar thermal design and construction & the inherent regulatory constraints and requirements [building, mechanical, electrical, and utility codes]
Managing change and exploring new perspectives. Experience seeing the whole, reducing variation, learning new methods and exploring new operational strategies (e.g. lean project delivery). Knowing how to manage change and experience with experimenting with new methods and strategies to improve flow, reduce cost and improve the customer experience

Key Qualifications

• Demonstrated ability to organize and motivate team members to successfully execute project delivery
• Excellent communications skills: requesting, clarifying, listening, committing, negotiating and writing in English
• Demonstrated ability to coach project team members to develop solutions and to make quick good decisions
• Minimum 5-7 years solar engineering, solar engineering management and/or solar project management leadership experience
• 5-10+ years solar project management, design, and/ or construction experience - preferred
• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, design or similar discipline and at least 5 years directly solar experience or an equivalent combination of education and experience;

Experience of and knowledge in the following applications:

• AutoCAD
• Microsoft (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Project) - preferred
• Google for Work (Gmail, Sheets, Docs) - preferred
• SalesForce - preferred
• Knowledge of structured finance - preferred
• Experience reading, understanding, and negotiating contracts - preferred
• Experience with labor compliance or contract compliance - preferred
• Key certifications and/or qualifications (e.g. NABCEP, PMI/PMP, masters in related field of study) - preferred

EEO Statement

It is the policy of Sun Light & Power to provide equal employment opportunity to all persons without regard to sex, race, color, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, religion, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, military or veteran status, marital status, registered domestic partner status, genetic information, or any other basis protected by applicable federal or state law. This policy applies to all aspects of employment, including but not limited to: recruitment, selection, training, promotion, transfer, compensation, demotion, termination, etc