Wholesale Systems Lead

SmartestEnergy•Houston, TX

About The Position

The IT – Wholesale Energy Systems Lead serves as a strategic partner between the Wholesale business and IT, leading the design, delivery, and optimization of technology capabilities supporting energy trading, risk management, scheduling, settlements, and market operations. This role combines deep business domain expertise with strong analytical and leadership skills to drive complex initiatives across the wholesale energy value chain. The successful candidate will act as a trusted advisor to business stakeholders, helping shape technology strategy, define future-state capabilities, and ensure technology investments deliver measurable business value. The role requires extensive knowledge of wholesale power and gas markets, ETRM platforms, risk management practices, and the end-to-end trading lifecycle. This role offers the opportunity to directly influence the evolution of SmartestEnergy's wholesale trading and risk management capabilities while helping shape the technology strategy supporting our continued growth.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Finance, Economics, Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related field.
10+ years of experience
Extensive experience supporting wholesale energy trading organizations and Energy Trading and Risk Management (ETRM) platforms.
Deep understanding of physical and financial power and natural gas markets, preferably including ERCOT, PJM, NYISO, ISO-NE, and MISO.
Strong experience across trading, risk management, scheduling, settlements, forecasting, market operations, and regulatory compliance.
Experience supporting Renewable Energy Credits (RECs), Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs), battery storage, virtuals, congestion products, and other structured energy products.
Experience leading large-scale technology initiatives, platform implementations, and business transformation efforts.
Proven ability to influence stakeholders and drive decision-making across business and technology teams.
Recognized subject matter expertise in wholesale energy markets and trading operations.
Ability to engage credibly with senior traders, originators, risk managers, schedulers, and executive leadership.
Strong understanding of front-to-back trading lifecycles and associated technology ecosystems.
Ability to balance near-term business needs with long-term technology strategy and architecture considerations.
Demonstrated success identifying opportunities for innovation, automation, and operational improvement.
Exceptional ability to analyze complex business and technology challenges and develop practical solutions.
Strong data analysis, process mapping, and requirements management capabilities.
Excellent verbal, written, and presentation skills.
Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams and influence outcomes without direct authority.
Ability to communicate effectively with both executive leadership and technical teams.

Nice To Haves

Master's degree preferred.

Responsibilities

Serve as the primary liaison between Wholesale business functions and IT, ensuring strategic alignment between business objectives and technology solutions.
Lead the identification, evaluation, and prioritization of technology initiatives that enhance trading, risk management, scheduling, settlements, and market operations capabilities.
Partner with business leaders to define future-state processes, operating models, and technology roadmaps.
Provide thought leadership on industry trends, market structure changes, regulatory developments, and emerging technologies.
Lead complex business analysis efforts from concept through implementation, translating business objectives into actionable requirements and solution designs.
Drive process improvement initiatives across the wholesale trading lifecycle, identifying opportunities to improve efficiency, controls, scalability, and automation.
Evaluate technology options and provide recommendations that balance business needs, risk, cost, and long-term architectural considerations.
Develop business cases, cost-benefit analyses, and implementation roadmaps for strategic initiatives.
Act as a senior functional lead for Energy Trading and Risk Management (ETRM) platforms and supporting applications.
Drive enhancements and optimization efforts across trade capture, position management, valuation, risk reporting, scheduling, settlements, and market interfaces.
Ensure systems effectively support evolving business requirements and market participation strategies.
Partner with technical teams and vendors to deliver platform improvements while maintaining operational stability.
Facilitate collaboration between traders, risk managers, schedulers, finance, operations, technology teams, and external partners.
Lead workshops, requirements sessions, and solution reviews with senior stakeholders.
Mentor and guide business analysts and project team members across complex initiatives.
Support project governance activities, including prioritization, scope management, status reporting, and executive communications.
Ensure technology solutions support effective risk measurement, reporting, and control frameworks.
Evaluate impacts of regulatory and market rule changes on business processes and systems.
Partner with business and compliance teams to maintain adherence to market regulations and internal controls.
Support audit activities and governance reviews as required.