The Norland Group: Workforce Solutions

Job Posting Title

Product Strategy Lead, Expert

Location: Oakland, CA (hybrid)

Team Summary

Help us change the electric utility industry from the inside! Join a small, high-performing team within our client Company that is working on a portfolio of exciting and innovative projects to transform the electric grid into a smarter grid that works with and for our customers. The GRiD team is charting the future of the utility and the energy industry as part of the Strategy & Innovation division.

Position Summary

This execution-oriented candidate will play a Product Strategy Lead role within the Grid Products team in a mixture of new product innovation initiatives that support the Innovation Accelerator, product go-to-market, and the Grid Edge Strategy. The role will include creating, modifying, and collaborating on the strategy and vision for our electric grid; the tracking, reporting up, and coordination of teams working on the products and projects; and leadership across key initiatives that require open ended problem solving.

In addition to the innovation focus on new products, the Product Strategy Lead will also play a supporting role in the broader Strategy & Innovation team as a key stakeholder in our DER Management vision and Advanced Meter Infrastructure (AMI) 2.0 strategy, customer roadmap, and business development strategies.

The successful candidate will be an individual contributor that can also manage project teams from time to time, track across multiple projects, drive to remove blockers to ensure teams are progressing on goals, and can manage up and out across the organization to bring visibility and alignment on the work. This candidate will be expected to influence, organize, and lead others in the organization to support the products and project they’re working on. A strong applicant will be highly organized, articulate, and able to create compelling strategies, presentations, and materials for working up to executive level buy-in. This role will be expected to be an “on-the-fly” problem solver that is biased towards action and provides outcomes beyond the creation of strategy itself.

This position is based out of General Office in downtown Oakland, CA. The team has a hybrid work model and in-person activities will focus on synchronous collaboration, affinity building, ideation, or planning activities. The role may also require occasional travel to other client facilities throughout the client service territory.

client is providing the salary range that the company in good faith believes it might pay for this position at the time of the job posting. This compensation range is specific to the locality of the job. The actual salary paid to an individual will be based on multiple factors, including, but not limited to, specific skills, education, licenses or certifications, experience, market value, geographic location, and internal equity. Although we estimate the successful candidate hired into this role will be placed between the entry point and the middle of the range, the decision will be made on a case-by-case basis related to these factors. This job is also eligible to participate in client’s discretionary incentive compensation programs.

Responsibilities:

Tracking, coordination, and management of the Innovation Accelerator Product Portfolio

Be the point person who is tracking and managing up on a portfolio of Product initiatives which are in various stages of development
Create executive presentations relaying progress and recommendations across the portfolio
Engage with the broader organization, “growth advocates”, and product teams to ensure they are coordinated and supporting the product launches
Ensure coordination and cohesion across the Innovation Accelerator product initiatives that leads to a platform approach rather than disparate point solutions

Develop and manage the Grid Edge AMI 2.0 Strategy in partnership with the Customer Org

Grid Product initiatives to date have been heavily focused on AMI 2.0 innovation; continue to lead the strategy for this work in partnership with the Customer organization
Identify from the “bottoms up” where value in an AMI 2.0 system can be originated and analyze and create the business case for these initiatives
Work from a “top down” to realize a larger grid transformation vision through AMI 2.0 and grid edge computing
Bring together the strategy, create analysis and deck content for management, and advocate for the creation of projects/products to realize the value

Drive key strategic initiatives

Stand up AMI 2.0 initiatives, bringing together a plan and resources, as needed to support the Grid Edge AMI 2.0 Strategy
Form a Grid Edge Consortium between utilities, meter vendors, and device providers establishing the operating structure and driving collective outcomes
Become a key stakeholder in the rest of Strategy & Innovation work with a particular focus on customer electrification, load management, and AMI 2.0
Work through executive level problem solving or opportunity exploratory requests as they arise

Minimum Qualifications:

A strong applicant will be organized and motivated, with a strong track record of success in building consensus and managing many moving parts within matrixed teams.

Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science in Engineering, Business, or Computer Science
8 years of job-related experience in energy, products, strategy, or finance
Experience with strategy, business case creation and approval, and management of a portfolio of solutions

Desired Qualifications:

Experience both inside and outside of the utility industry
Experience with Distributed Energy Resources, consumer energy products, or product development
Experience leading cross cutting programs or technology deployments, with a focus on emerging/innovative technologies and creating new process & structure for rapid scale-up
Chief of staff or management experience

Desired Characteristics

Bias toward action, concise, and passionate
Strong ability to ideate both linearly and non-linearly
Removes barriers to products and projects moving forward in an autonomous fashion
Able to operate at different levels of abstraction, outcome focused while understanding and adhering to process where necessary
Empathic and curious – has an ability to seek to understand while driving towards shared outcomes
Handles multiple projects and stakeholders and pushes for pace with self-directed drive