Senior Program Manager, Clean Energy Transportation Strategy

Job Category: Project / Program Management

Job Level: Individual Contributor

Business Unit: Engineering, Planning & Strategy

Work Type: Hybrid

Job Location: Oakland

Department Overview

The Clean Energy Transportation (CET) group is focused on advancing the adoption of clean vehicles in California. CET leads a ~$0.5B portfolio of transportation electrification (TE) programs to increase the adoption of clean vehicles in California as we work to address one of the largest contributors to climate change – and we need a motivated, organized strategic thinker to help us determine how to expand this portfolio. We serve PG&E’s customers by deploying electric vehicle (EV) programs to increase access to charging infrastructure, reduce total cost of electric vehicle ownership, educating our customers and pursuing innovative vehicle-grid-integration (VGI) strategies to unlock additional benefits to EV drivers and the grid.

We focus on safety and quality, invest in our team’s success, solve problems, and strive to be better, work as an integrated team, and build trusted relationships. We collaborate and are intellectually curious. We are looking to collaborate with passionate, thoughtful people who want to make a real impact.

Team Overview:

CET’s Strategy and Policy (S&P) team creates, tests, and advocates for evidence-based clean energy transportation solutions by spearheading pilot projects, policy frameworks, tailored customer offerings, and stakeholder engagement. Our team develops, iterates, and executes on PG&E’s strategy to connect 3 million EVs to the grid and enabling at least 550MW of flexible load from (VGI) applications by 2030. To do this, the team is focused on:

• ideating and developing new programs to ensure we invest in all our communities,
• reimagining how we build the transmission and distribution grid to enable mass EV adoption,
• strategizing how we can enable and deploy VGI at scale,
• working to ensure we serve our EV customers in a way that inspires joy and builds trust, and
• creating a repeatable and scalable pathway to enable widespread electrification via partnerships and policy advocacy.

Position Summary

A sizable portion of PG&E’s residential customers live in multi-family housing units or in a location without access to parking, which we define as parking constrained customers. This customer segment has limited access to reliable and affordable charging. Installing an EV charger in these locations can be costly, lengthy, and complicated by the need for approval and investment by the property owner/manager as well as zoning and permitting challenges. While PG&E has seen significant EV growth topping ~25% of new vehicle sales in 2023, improving access to parking constrained customers will be critical to meeting our goal of 3M EVs by 2030.

The S&P team is looking for Senior Program Manager to lead the development and management of a new pilot to research and test scalable charging solutions for parking-constrained residential customers. The successful candidate will use results from the pilot to help develop and refine PG&E’s strategy for supporting these residential customers and meet our broader EV goals.

The position will handle the day-to-day implementation of the pilot, including but not limited to budget monitoring, running requests for proposals, contracting with vendors, internal and external stakeholder engagement, providing direction to and managing consultants and vendors, creatively solving emergent issues, and reporting out on pilot results. This person will also work on the development of a broader strategy around charging solutions for parking-constrained customers.

The successful candidate will be able to manage ambiguity and make forward progress in situations when they are presented with incomplete information. They will engage in deep collaboration and change management with other internal teams as well as with external teams such as consultants, municipal partners, charging solution companies, engineering and design firms, and utility regulators.

This position is hybrid, working from your remote office and your assigned work location based on business need. The preferred work location is Oakland, CA. Also, this role will involve regular travel at certain times to pilot sites, whose location is yet to be determined. You must be willing and able to travel to areas that may not be easily accessible by public transportation.

PG&E 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 PG&E’s discretionary incentive compensation programs.

A reasonable salary range is:

Bay Area Minimum: $102,000

Bay Area Maximum: $162,000

Job Responsibilities

• Program Management – develop and manage a budget, metrics reporting, and day-to-day pilot implementation activities.
• Research and Problem Solving – work with external consultants to develop a State of the Market Report that will include market analyses, benchmarking and customer segmentation as well as recommendations for charging solutions to be used in a field demonstration pilot.
• Cross-functional Collaboration – work closely with internal and external stakeholders to support implementation, understand barriers, and identify solutions.
• Support Sourcing and Contracting- conduct requests for proposals, select successful bidders, and oversee contracting.
• Conduct Site Visits – Travel to pilot sites for site visits and hold in-person meetings with external stakeholders as needed.
• Strategy Development – support the development of the broader strategy in support of team goals.
• Regulatory Engagement and Reporting – Be the liaison with regulators (e.g. California Public Utilities Commission) if/as needed and lead on external/internal reporting including but not limited to weekly operating reviews, monthly progress reports, and the project close out report.

Qualifications

Minimum:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience in Business, Public Administration, Engineering, Environmental Studies, Social Science, Community Development or related discipline.
• 6 years of job related experience
• 3 years’ experience in a program management, project management, business/research analyst or management/environmental consulting role.

This role will involve regular travel at certain times to pilot sites, whose location is yet to be determined. You must be willing and able to travel to areas that may not be easily accessible by public transportation.

Desired:

• Experience managing or supporting research/studies that include one or more of the following: market sizing, benchmarking, customer surveys, in-depth interviews and technology assessments.
• Knowledge of/experience with electric vehicles, electric vehicle charging, and/or the multifamily housing space
• Detail oriented with excellent organization and time management skills.
• Demonstrated ability to present findings, make recommendations and influence decisions.
• Strong analytical and written communication skills
• You enjoy working with others, have invested time and effort into building your communication skills, and have experience collaborating across different stakeholders.
• Experience working with external stakeholders and demonstrated ability to navigate project roadblocks with internal and external stakeholders.
• Dedication to delivering the highest quality of work.
• Experience working at or with electric utilities and/or municipalities/authorities having jurisdiction.
• Interest, willingness, and aptitude to learn new subjects and keep up with technology trends.