Manager Wildfire Risk Management

Job Description

Puget Sound Energy (PSE) is Washington State’s largest energy company with a history that spans over 150 years. With this comes over 6,000 square miles with 2,700 miles of transmission lines and 353 substations across Washington that connects 1.2 million customers. The beauty of the Pacific Northwest also comes with challenges with our diverse vegetation spanning our service territory.

The Manager Wildfire Risk Management leads a team that owns and oversees the risk assessment and wildfire mitigation activities across the entire service territory. With safety being PSE’s number one priority, this role is critical to protect the communities we serve.

This role will lead both strategic and tactical activities to identify and assess risk, as well as partner with senior leaders to develop and implement effective strategies with a focus on Wildfire Risk mitigation. This role will champion Wildfire Risk mitigation efforts, to ensure awareness across the organization, oversee operational Risk Management and provide guidance on policies, practices, and processes that support the risk mitigation plan.

In order to be successful in this role, the candidate will have experience leading a diverse team to implement the vision of climate change risk mitigation associated with wildfires. Knowledge of electric transmission and distribution will also be required to be successful in this role. As a leader at PSE, the Manager Wildfire Risk Management will uphold the safety compliance standards inherent in PSE’s operating and/or field procedures related to work responsibilities. They will also promote and support a culture of total safety in everything they do.

Demonstrates commitment to conduct business honestly, ethically and consistent with our core values and Code of Conduct. Ensures duties are performed in accordance with all regulatory compliance obligations.

This job is considered “safety sensitive” as defined in RCW 49.44.240 and is subject to pre-employment drug screening that includes screening for the presence of marijuana and marijuana metabolites.

Job Responsibilities

• Employee Safety, Development & Team Building - Providing employees with coaching, feedback, and developmental opportunities and building effective teams:
  • Demonstrates a passion for safety. Promotes and supports a culture of total safety including eliminating at-risk behaviors by conducting safety audits and inspections, eliminating hazards and near misses, and attending safety meetings.
  • Sets clear expectations and holds employees accountable for performance as well as safety goals/targets where applicable.
  • Oversees training and development of employees directly and indirectly managed and makes effective staffing decisions. Ensures required training is successfully completed.
  • Challenges and inspires employees to achieve business results.
  • Accountable to ensure employees adhere to legal and operational compliance requirements, as well as safety standards.
  • Conducts and ensures the completion of performance reviews.
  • Provides coaching, direction and leadership support to team members in order to achieve employee, business, customer and safety results.
• Leads Wildfire Risk assessment and mitigation activities across the utility with reporting structure within Energy Operations.
• Provides Wildfire Risk support, advice, and recommendations in order to ensure effective Risk Management and mitigation.
• Leads the process to identify and document risk, assess the impacts, explore & evaluate mitigation alternatives, develop risk scoring and mitigation prioritization approaches.
• Develops and maintains effective relationships with other risk and compliance managers across PSE to understand the interdependencies between risks and identify mutually beneficial mitigation strategies.
• Influences Wildfire Risk and electric operations investment planning to include programs to enhance system safety and reliability.
• Recognizes internal and external developments that may impact Wildfire Risks within electric operations.
• Develops and presents executive-level presentations on Wildfire Risk overview, mitigation strategies, performance against plans.
• Develops and proposes new plans, strategies, and/or approaches to address risks.
• Supports regulatory and compliance communications.
• Represents PSE to outside organizations such as regulators or industry associations regarding Wildfire Risk trends, common issues, or best practices.
• Maintains industry contacts for benchmarking and sharing information.
• Leads assigned team and collaborates with cross-functional leads and other others assigned with wildfire mitigation plan responsibilities.

Minimum Qualifications

• BA/BS degree in business, engineering, Risk Management or the equivalent in education plus experience.
• Ten (10) years of relevant experience in engineering, operations, maintenance, or construction of electric systems.
• Three (3) years of experience managing, coordinating, and performing complex program management and regulatory and compliance responsibilities.
• Experience in Risk Management, engineering, operations, maintenance, construction of electric systems.
• Experience in managing, coordinating, and performing complex program management and regulatory and compliance responsibilities.
• Experience leading and/or managing cross-functional teams, organization, or workgroup.

Desired Qualifications

• Cross-functional project management skills, strategic planning or utility operations.
• Experience with a variety of problem-solving tools and techniques.
• Previous experience in root cause analysis and safety engineering.
• Broad knowledge of the utility industry, trends, issues, business operations, and safety practices and regulations.
• Advanced knowledge of utility regulations and compliance.
• Strong interpersonal, influence and collaboration skills to effectively partner with leaders and peers in multiple departments and facilitate effective cross-functional team building.
• Strong written and oral communication skills to develop and deliver executive level briefings both in writing and orally.
• Excellent critical thinking abilities to interpret and implement high-level regulations and execution plans.
• Analytical investigative and problem-solving skills.
• Strong leadership skills to effectively coach and mentor staff and peers, as well as complete department operational plans.
• Strong adaptability, organizational, prioritization and independent working ability to effectively deal with ambiguity and changing business priorities.
• Knowledge and skill in process improvement concepts, methods and practices (e.g. Six Sigma, Agile, etc.).

Additional Information