Head- Performance and Prediction Analytics USA

First Solar (US)•Perrysburg, OH

81d

About The Position

This highly visible leadership role is central to driving the rapid expansion of First Solar’s manufacturing footprint and product capabilities. This position oversees the strategic direction and execution of all initiatives related to validating fielded product performance and enhancing energy prediction accuracy. The role is responsible for developing and implementing advanced experimental designs, managing long-term data integrity across global field test sites and partner power plants, and applying cutting-edge analytics to improve modeling and prediction algorithms. It leads efforts in algorithm development, performance analytics, risk assessment, and financial impact analysis. Operating across the full product lifecycle—from R&D through manufacturing—this role collaborates with multiple business units to ensure product excellence and reliability. Additionally, it serves as a technical ambassador, providing education and support to customers and third-party laboratories, leveraging deep expertise to build trust and drive industry leadership.

Requirements

Technical bachelor’s degree in engineering, Material Science or related discipline.
Knowledge in Statistics, Modeling, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence.
15+ years of industrial experience in engineering discipline including volume manufacturing and process/product improvement.
10+ years of relevant work experience in related statistical analysis, data mining and problem solving.
10+ years of engineering leadership or management experience.
Accountability: Takes responsibility for one's actions, doesn't point fingers, and delivers results aligned with organizational goals. Strives for excellence daily and trusts others to do the same. Demonstrates Commitment, Ownership, Resilience, and Continuous Learning, turning failures into lessons learned.
Collaboration: Works with others to achieve a common goal with the possibility of producing an outcome greater than one that would be developed in a silo. Leverages everyone's unique strengths and skills in an inclusive environment. Skilled at navigating the organization to get things done. Welcomes diverse thinking, open to different options, works to achieve optimal outcome for the business.
Agility: Constantly evolves to capitalize on emerging opportunities in a rapidly changing environment, maintaining focus on tasks at hand. Is intellectually curious about surrounding changes and seeks to understand potential future shifts.
Effective Communication Skills: Clearly articulates ideas, thoughts, and information to different audiences. Identifies and utilizes effective communication channels and methods. Tailors message to the level and experience of the audience. Maintains timely and consistent communication based on the needs of the project, goal, team, or individual.
Strategic Thinking: Has a strategic mindset, identifies upcoming trends, opportunities and risks, and crafts effective strategies to meet both short-term and long-term objectives. Creates and operationalizes strategic plans to achieve goals that align with First Solar and function's vision, mission, and values. Adapts approach/plans to account for changes in the business environment.
Technical Knowledge: Has the necessary knowledge relevant to their work to deliver the expected value and stays current with developments in their field of expertise. Demonstrates the ability to apply their technical knowledge to problem-solving and offer creative/innovative solutions and outcomes, as well as communicate clearly with non-technical stakeholders.
Disciplined and Methodical: Approaches tasks in an organized and structured manner, commits to a plan, takes a systematic and logical approach, prioritizes tasks, and follows through with them. Breaks down complex tasks into manageable steps, develops a clear understanding of what needs to be done, and ensures each step is correctly completed before moving to the next.
Analytical Aptitude: Visualizes, gathers, and aggregates information. Articulates issues, analyzes data for effective decision-making and problem-solving. Sees problems from multiple viewpoints and understands data, paying attention to detail without getting bogged down.
Builds High Performing Teams and Talent: Keeps the bar high for talent. Attracts, develops, and retains a high-performing team and aligns them with organizational goals. Sets clear expectations and delegates responsibilities, fostering autonomy, trust, and accountability in others. Leads by example, works with associates to achieve outstanding results through coaching for performance and providing timely and specific feedback. Works on growth and development with each team member.

Nice To Haves

10+ years of technical experience in the PV industry preferred

Responsibilities

Responsible for model development and implementation to ensure accurate global prediction capabilities of First Solar’s historical and future products.
Establish and maintain global fielded product experience programs to continuously evaluate product performance creating and sharing deeper understanding and insights across First Solar and the solar industry.
Lead the verification and validation of various reliability models & predictions to continuously improve capability for fast and accurate product development.
Collaborates as a performance and prediction subject matter expert with the solar PV community including strategic customers, national labs, 3rd party labs and independent engineers to advance product prediction capabilities and product adoption.
Brings insights and understanding to leadership through energy prediction and performance analytics.
Operates, maintains, and develops state-of-the-art global field test sites.
Manages a team of subject matter experts in operations, data analytics and field performance prediction technology.
Continually strives to build and maintain a global culture where the appropriate application of advanced field analytics is performed to achieve maximum efficiency and speed while ensuring the correct objective conclusions are made.
Leads quantitative method development to understand process to performance correlation to ensure product design robustness.
Other duties as assigned.