Manager, Operations & Maintenance

Orenda•New York, NY

2h•$150,000 - $170,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Orenda is seeking a Manager, Operations & Maintenance to own the physical fleet of Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) sites in New York City. This role is responsible for the safety, integrity, and operational readiness of these sites, which will grow from one asset to dozens across the five boroughs. The Manager will lead all on-site maintenance, repair, and quality assurance, utilizing their own crews as the primary response force and managing third-party contractors and OEMs for specialized work. This position reports to the Director of Asset Management and involves building the field team, establishing a 24/7 on-call rotation, developing site emergency plans, managing inspections, and overseeing vendor quality assurance. The role requires definitive technical approval over third-party maintenance invoices before payment and is crucial for translating the Asset Management plan into a functioning operation. This role is ideal for a hands-on field commander with strong electrical expertise, experience leading crews, and a commitment to safety, with an understanding of the importance of stakeholders like the FDNY in NYC.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, engineering technology, or a related field or equivalent qualification through trade licensure (journeyman/master electrician).
7+ years in power/energy operations, including 3+ years leading field teams or plants.
Hands-on O&M of substations or power generation plants; electrical depth is non-negotiable.
Vendor/subcontractor management track record, including SLAs, holdbacks, and quality enforcement.
CMMS driven maintenance management: work orders, PM compliance, failure codes.
OSHA 30 (or OSHA 10 with upgrade before start); clean safety record; valid driver's license.
Working knowledge of NFPA 70E and NFPA 70B.

Nice To Haves

Direct BESS, inverter, or energy storage O&M experience
Deep NYC operating fluency: field experience with FDNY and Con Edison (switching, outages, inspections), DOB familiarity, and comfort in NYC's contractor/union environment
Master electrician license, CMRP (Certified Maintenance & Reliability Professional), or OEM battery/inverter certifications
NFPA 855 working knowledge
FDNY B-28 (or other FDNY Certificates of Fitness) already in hand
Experience building a team or function from scratch

Responsibilities

Act as the on-site Owner's Representative and Quality Assurance authority for all Preventative Maintenance and corrective maintenance work performed by in-house teams, third-party contractors, and OEMs through the CMMS across all operating sites.
Serve as the primary, on-site, hands-on response team for all critical faults, building and managing a 24/7/365 on-call rotation program.
Perform advanced on-site diagnostics and physical repairs in-house; manage outsourced subcontractors for any specialized work under the Site Operations Manager's (SOM) quality authority.
Ensure rigorous vendor quality and safety compliance by witnessing critical PM steps and performing random spot-checks of workmanship.
Provide definitive technical approval for all third-party maintenance invoices, confirming work was completed to standard before forwarding to the Commercial Asset Manager for payment.
Own the FDNY program, including B-28 Certificate of Fitness coverage, site emergency plans, annual inspections, and battalion relationships.
Manage field vendors, including the HV/MV maintenance subcontractor, and witness and QA their work.
Coordinate OEM warranty and LTSA field execution with the Commercial Asset Manager, including defect documentation and OEM field visits.
Support commissioning and operational readiness of new sites, owning the operations side of handover acceptance.
Build and lead the field team, including hiring, training, and certifying technicians.
Own site safety, including LOTO, job hazard analyses, drills, incident response, and reporting.
Own spares and inventory discipline, providing monthly operations input to the reporting pack.
Own site integrity and security, including routine site walk-downs, physical security measures, and general upkeep to ensure every site is safe, secure, and audit-ready.
Split vendor QA across the Battery OEM and the Balance-of-Plant contractor, holding each to its engineered scope of work.
Develop a plan to bring recurring, cost-justified work in-house over time, relying on outsourced and OEM crews heavily at the outset.
Coordinate with Construction and Development at handover, walking down and approving the physical site before accepting operational responsibility.
Document all in-house maintenance in the CMMS, review all third-party field service reports, and own spares and inventory discipline.
Coordinate all field-level Con Edison interactions, including switching, planned outages, and utility inspections, acting as Orenda’s on-site interface for ConEd field crews.
Coordinate with peer managers: take alarm dispatch and work orders from the Central Operations Manager and report closure; execute PM scopes, SOPs, standards, and safety programs set by the Principal Engineer and escalate unresolved technical issues; and route technically-approved third-party maintenance invoices, vendor-quality data, and field intelligence to the Commercial Asset Manager.