Senior Strategic Sourcing Specialist - O&M

National Grid Renewables is a leading North American renewable energy company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with satellite offices located in the regions where it develops, constructs, and operates renewable energy projects. As a farmer-friendly and community-focused company, National Grid Renewables develops projects for corporations and utilities that seek to repower America’s electricity grid by reigniting local economies and reinvesting in a sustainable future. National Grid Renewables is part of the competitive, unregulated Ventures division of National Grid. It has a portfolio of solar, wind, and energy storage projects throughout the United States in various stages of development, construction, and operation.
National Grid Renewables partners with communities, farmers, and landowners where we develop. This means it’s not just about projects but about the people we work with, both outside and inside our organization. National Grid Renewables Team Members embody our foundational culture of being entrepreneurial, creative, and nimble and take pride in supporting National Grid’s vision to be at the heart of a clean, fair, and affordable energy future for all.
National Grid Renewables is seeking a Sr. Strategic Sourcing Specialist to join our Procurement team. The Sourcing Specialist will drive strategic procurement of operations and maintenance scopes for utility scale solar, wind and energy storage projects and continue to drive down the overall OPEX cost in support of the solar, wind and storage operational assets. The Sourcing Specialist will collaborate with internal Operations, Engineering, Construction, Legal, Finance, Commercial, and Asset Management teams. In addition, this position will play a vital role in supporting operations stage gate (6-10), establishing procurement operations and maintenance policies/procedures, leading inventory planning/sourcing/management, training, a strong safety culture, and tooling as National Grid Renewables moves towards self-performance.
Responsibilities:
Category Management

• Operations and Maintenance subject matter expert with a desire and ability to coach and teach Procurement staff and stakeholders
• Engage with stakeholders to establish clear business needs, apply forward thinking skills to set near and long term E2E category strategies and a roadmap to continuous improvements and benefits.
• Lead a complex operations and maintenance procurement strategy to support 1GW/year of solar, wind and storage pipeline assets becoming operational
• Lead full sourcing processes from construction of the SharePoint and Procore data rooms to evaluation of the proposals
• Actively collaborate with internal technical teams and suppliers to continually drive down LCOE (Levelized Cost of Electricity) ($/W)
• Utilize varied and complex data sets to identify new opportunities to drive benefits through the contracts E2E lifecycle
• Manage the forecast and delivery of category savings targets in support of team and Procurement commitments and goals
• Develop and run competitive RFP processes to support the operations and maintenance team
• Incorporate market intelligence and vendor inputs into the bid evaluation and contracting process
• Coordinate with operations and engineering to gather and maintain operational specifications, scopes of work, and standards to be followed for solar, wind and energy storage operational assets
• Ensure timely and frequent engagement with operations, engineering, construction, legal, finance, commercial, and asset management teams on all issues related to operations and maintenance for all operating assets.
• Support and facilitate internal team resolution on changes to agreements across both commercial and technical issues
• Support Procurement Manager for necessary administrative functions
• Ongoing contract administration for operations and maintenance contracts and agreements

Commercial Negotiation

• Establishes structured negotiation plans in support of company needs with clarity of desired outcomes
• Understanding of supplier’s position, desired outcomes, and leverage points
• Able to involve stakeholders in negotiation preparations and events
• Provide support to team members in development of negotiation strategies
• Effectively support the negotiation of agreements for items related to scope, price, terms & conditions, delivery, and contract changes with suppliers and contractors

• Apply contracting abilities, editing of work scope, understanding of commercial terms and conditions, and accurate monitoring of commercial changes from award to delivery
• Review cost proposals and actual cost reports from projects to establish standard summary data cost reports and variance analyses. Track and report on cost movement during negotiations.
• Ensure—through effective contract negotiation to meet objectives related to safety, cost, delivery performance, schedule and quality.
• Ensure that risks are mitigated through alignment across major project agreements (EPC agreement, Equipment supply, PPA, Warranty, etc.)
• Detailed understanding of the contractual obligations related to the IRA requirements.

Supplier Relationship Management

• Identifies critical operations and maintenance suppliers and creates appropriate engagement plans to ensure our Supply Chain risk profile and inputs to continuous improvement are proactively managed
• Demonstrates a collaborative approach with supply base and develops integrated plans to drive appropriate value for business and customer requirements
• Builds appropriate supplier performance measurements (KPIs) into contractual frameworks
• Holds suppliers to account for performance delivery using KPI data and strategic business reviews
• Develop and maintain relationships with operations and maintenance suppliers and contractors, having a peripheral knowledge of the project equipment commodities; wind turbines, modules, inverters, trackers, HV Breakers, Sub-Station, SCADA, GSU, PMT, and BESS
• Remain informed of latest technology trends and the government policies in the market and understand the implications of the procurement strategy and adjust accordingly

Procurement Process Management and Improvement

• Drive continuous improvement using lean techniques to identify and eliminate waste in the extended E2E Supply Chain

Systems and Analytics

• Demonstrates ability in working with multiple ERP systems: SAP, Netsuite, Procore, Ariba, Tableau, Spend Analytics
• Understands how to analyze large data sets and extract information for strategic decision making

Qualifications:

• Four-year college degree; or ten (10) years of related experience; or the equivalent combination of education and experience
• Demonstrated knowledge in solar, wind and energy storage facility operations and maintenance including a minimum of four years’ experience in a broad range of renewable operations management and administrative functions, Strategic Sourcing functions, commodity management, contract negotiation and vendor management
• Project management skills working with large scale solar, wind, and/or energy storage projects
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills. Ability to explain complex concepts in a concise manner
• Detail-oriented with demonstrated ability for accuracy
• Demonstrated ability to successfully manage and execute multiple contracts on schedule, has experience negotiating contracts
• Demonstrated ability to drive cross-functional initiatives
• Ability to influence internal and external stakeholders to drive mutually beneficial outcomes
• Proficient in planning, collaboration, and analysis
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment and communicate effectively across all levels of the organization
• Advanced computer skills utilizing word processing, spreadsheets, email, and management/reporting systems
• Ability to solve practical problems and deal with a variety of concrete variables in situations where only limited standardization exists
• Valid Driver's License

Preference may be given to candidates with the following:

• Experience in Solar, Wind and/or BESS operations, logistics, inventory management and purchasing functions
• Experience working with NetSuite and/or SAP
• Experience establishing and improving operations and maintenance procurement policies/procedures
• Previous supervisory or management experience