Director, Utility Engagement

QTS Data Centers•Irving, TX

About The Position

The Director, Utility Engagement will be responsible for the team leading early-stage power engagement and utility company coordination across the North American footprint. This leader will ultimately own ensuring utility capacity is evaluated and secured at each campus to support data centers by developing power market intelligence; leading site power due diligence; negotiating power contracts; and fostering strategic utility engagement. This role will interface and collaborate with many critical stakeholders, including but not limited to pre-development teams leading overall due diligence and entitlements; utility delivery teams directing transmission and substation projects; energy leaders driving power contracts and negotiations; operations leaders managing load growth projections; sales teams coordinating customer demands; and development team project leaders planning and building new data centers.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, energy management, or equivalent professional experience
Ten or more years of utility and energy projects, along with utility contract negotiations
Three or more years of people leader experience
Knowledge of utility partners, including investor-owned / COOP / municipal utilities, and ISOs/RTOs
Able to travel up to 50% of the time or as needed to support relationship building and diligence
Demonstrated experience working directly with executives and collaborating effectively across all levels of the organization
U.S. Citizenship required for this position due to federal contracts
Strong verbal and written communication skills
Strong negotiating skills
Ability to build relationships and influence cross-discipline teams
Ability to be flexible and adapt to changing situations at a high growth company
Ability to prioritize, multitask, and deliver high quality work in tight timeframes

Nice To Haves

Fifteen or more years developing and fostering utility industry relationships
Experience leading due diligence on prospective large-scale power opportunities
Solid understanding of the power study and contracting process at various utilities
Demonstrated ability negotiating utility agreements such as ESAs and LEAs
Understanding of energy markets and large-load transmission planning
Experience managing large portfolio of work

Responsibilities

Lead strategic engagement with power utilities across the North American portfolio
Build and lead a team responsible for power market intelligence, power site due diligence, and power capacity management (for both load ramps at new sites, and transmission capacity planning for existing sites)
Manage power due diligence for prospective sites
Develop and manage utility engagement strategies for each utility, including call trees and contact plans; coordinate and execute the plans with relevant internal QTS stakeholders
Execute power contracts for new and expansion capacity, alongside the Energy Team
Support the Energy Team as required in their leadership and pursuit of energy procurement, PPAs, and sustainability goals
Track and report on power contract status for all North American sites
Collaborate with Pre-Development, Utility Delivery, Energy, Development, Legal, and Sales to secure power capacity in line with customer demands
other duties may be assigned