Outage Specialist

Talen Energy•Berwick, PA

About The Position

The Outage Specialist reports to the Outage Manager and is responsible for leading the development, coordination, and implementation of detailed plans and schedules for forced, planned, maintenance, and refueling outages while ensuring shutdown safety, ALARA principles, Technical Specification compliance, and adherence to station procedures and outage management processes. Under the direction of the Outage Manager, this role supports outage milestone readiness, schedule execution, forced outage planning, and shutdown risk management, and works across station organizations to align scope, resources, schedule logic, and execution priorities in support of safe, efficient, and predictable outage performance. The Outage Specialist serves as a key integrator between site departments, outage leadership, and designated team leads during both pre-outage preparation and outage execution.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Business, Engineering, Science, Maintenance, or other technical discipline and 8 years of power plant experience, including at least 3 years of commercial or military nuclear experience in engineering, maintenance, operations, work management, outage management, or a closely related function; or
Current or previous Senior Reactor Operator license or certification and 8 years of power plant experience, including at least 3 years of commercial or military nuclear experience in engineering, maintenance, operations, work management, outage management, or a closely related function; or
Associate degree in Business or a technical discipline and 10 years of power plant experience, including at least 3 years of commercial or military nuclear experience in engineering, maintenance, operations, work management, outage management, or a closely related function; or
High school diploma or GED and 12 years of power plant experience, including at least 3 years of commercial or military nuclear experience in engineering, maintenance, operations, work management, outage management, or a closely related function.
Demonstrated experience supporting outage planning, outage execution, readiness tracking, schedule review, milestone management, or work management in a nuclear or similarly high reliability industrial environment.
Demonstrated ability to work across organizational boundaries and influence cross functional teams without direct line authority.
Working knowledge of outage scheduling, work windows, critical path concepts, schedule maintenance, emergent work integration, and outage milestone processes.
Working knowledge of shutdown safety, outage risk management, Technical Specification interfaces, and station outage governance applicable to outage planning and execution.
Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to present readiness status, risks, and recovery actions to the Outage Manager and station leadership.
Ability to maintain access authorization requirements, satisfy applicable medical or fitness for duty requirements, and support emergency response duties as qualified and assigned.

Nice To Haves

Previous outage execution experience, preferably including support of multiple refueling outages.
Experience leading outage schedule reviews, milestone reviews, readiness assessments, Outage Control Center support activities, or similar outage governance forums.
Shutdown Safety Program and shutdown risk management knowledge.
Experience with forced outage preparation, startup and recovery planning, and readiness communications to station leadership.
Supervisory, team lead, or project lead experience in outage, operations, maintenance, engineering, or work management organizations.
Advanced working knowledge of CAP tools, Primavera P6, NIMS, and Microsoft Office, including schedule maintenance, action tracking, readiness reporting, and presentation development.
Experience conducting outage critiques, benchmarking, gap analysis, and process improvement initiatives.

Responsibilities

Lead and coordinate development of the integrated outage plan and detailed outage schedule for upcoming unit outages under the direction of the Outage Manager to ensure Technical Specification compliance, shutdown safety, and alignment with station goals, milestones, and approved work scope.
Lead or support horizontal schedule reviews, vertical slice reviews, milestone reviews, and readiness assessments to validate schedule logic, work windows, resource alignment, risk controls, and execution strategy.
Coordinate planners, schedulers, operations, maintenance, engineering, projects, radiation protection, supply chain, training, and specialty teams regarding outage preparation, schedule alignment, and execution priorities.
Lead, development, implementation, and communication of the Shutdown Safety Program and support outage risk management to ensure schedule decisions appropriately reflect shutdown risk controls, plant configuration requirements, and defense in depth.
Direct outage schedule implementation during execution, including schedule maintenance, status updates, activity posting, critical path monitoring, emergent work integration, and communication of schedule impacts to the Outage Manager, station leadership, and the Outage Control Center.
Coordinate outage risk screening and support overall outage risk management by evaluating schedule changes, emergent scope, plant conditions, and work interactions that may affect shutdown safety or execution margins.
Develop and maintain forced outage, maintenance outage, and recovery plans, including OCC training support, tabletop drills, and preparatory communications for station stakeholders.
Track outage milestone readiness and communicate status, gaps, risks, and recovery actions to the Outage Manager and outage leadership team.
Support development of materials for outage readiness meetings, Outage Review Board meetings, Core Team preparation meetings, executive challenge meetings, management review meetings, and other leadership forums requiring schedule, risk, and readiness status.
Support high impact team tracking and provide oversight of team effectiveness, readiness progress, issue resolution, and execution performance during outage preparation and execution.
Develop or coordinate startup management and recovery meetings, as applicable, to support safe and efficient return to service.
Conduct critiques, capture lessons learned, perform gap analyses, and update outage templates, planning tools, and standard processes to improve future outage performance.
Interface with contractors, designated team leads, and specialty support organizations to align outage plans, support resource readiness, and address execution risks.
Actively support corrective action, self-assessment, and continuous improvement processes, including assigned actions, readiness gaps, outage observations, benchmarking, and after-action reviews.
Perform additional duties as assigned, including Emergency Response Organization and execution assignments for which qualified.