Programs Manager, Residential Programs

Job Title: Programs Manager, Residential Programs

Salary: $155,000 to $175,000 (commensurate with experience)

Job Type: Full-Time with Benefits

Location: California residence required. We are a remote-first work environment with a strong preference to hire staff within a 100-mile radius of San Mateo County. Employees are expected to attend in-person meetings (generally monthly/quarterly) at our Redwood City office. Other meetings may be required.

Job Description

This is an exciting opportunity to join Peninsula Clean Energy's (PCE) Energy Programs team to lead and enhance our clean energy and electrification initiatives for residential customers. In this role, you will play an integral role in supporting PCE's mission to drive decarbonization in San Mateo County through innovative energy programs. As a vital member of the Energy Programs team, you will oversee major existing PCE residential programs including rebates, financing, and direct-install programs for heat pumps and other building electrification technologies. You will work under the Associate Director of Energy Programs and help shape and execute programs and strategies that promote building electrification, energy efficiency, and distributed energy resources.

About Peninsula Clean Energy
Peninsula Clean Energy (PCE) is the community choice energy program (known as a "CCA") for San Mateo County and the city of Los Banos. PCE's customer base includes over 300,000 accounts, serving a population of 765,000, with a total electrical load of almost 4 million megawatt-hours.

PCE provides cleaner power at lower rates, providing 100% GHG-free power as its standard power service. We have aggressive decarbonization goals including delivering 100% renewable energy on an hourly basis and supporting its service territory in reaching comprehensive decarbonization. PCE is an innovative, forward-looking organization that rapidly adopts methods and technologies and is making significant and growing investments to advance these objectives.

Duties and Responsibilities
The primary responsibility of this position is to oversee the implementation and strategy of PCE's building electrification rebates, financing, and direct-install programs for residential customers, known as Home Upgrade. This role requires strong collaboration skills to work effectively with internal teams and a diverse range of external stakeholders, including consultants, local contractors, and residential customers. It includes supervising one Programs Specialist handling rebate processing and working with a team that includes experienced building engineers, data analysts, marketing and technology support. The role also demands a solid understanding of electric energy use and residential building systems, ability to identify and integrate novel approaches, as well as research and analyze program data. We are seeking a highly organized individual with a keen attention to detail, strong understanding of program operations and customer service, capable of managing multiple complex projects simultaneously, and an excellent communicator who can engage both technical and non-technical audiences.

Home Upgrade is the umbrella program name covering (nearly) all PCE's current residential programs including a turnkey and income qualified direct-install program recently launched ($24M over 3 years, includes income-qualified and non-income qualified options), heat pump HVAC and heat pump water heater incentives (~$6M for the fiscal year), and on-bill finance (~$5M for the fiscal year), and an emergency water heater replacement track. Typical rebate volume currently is 120 to 130 projects per month. A key objective will be to drive down costs while delivering living wages, grow the volume, improve efficiency and the customer experience, and refine the program in anticipation of forthcoming electrification requirement rules being adopted by cities and regional agencies.

Specific responsibilities include:

• Program Design, Implementation, and Ongoing Operations: Lead the design and execution of residential building electrification programs, with a focus on electrifying home appliances like space and water heating, and cooking. Future initiatives may include integrating solar, battery storage, electric vehicles, and other energy management technologies as well as third-party finance. Contribute to the ongoing development of other existing PCE programs.
• Vendor and Consultant Management: Oversee consultants providing program implementation and administration services. This includes contract development, assessing vendor budgets and timelines, evaluating performance, and recommending improvements when necessary.
• Program Metrics and Budgeting: Develop and track program metrics, budgets, and projections for program participation and impact. Provide regular updates and recommendations based on performance analysis.
• Policies and Operations: Establish and evaluate policies and processes for residential programs. Continuously assess program performance and make recommendations for improvements.
• Document Development: Create program-related documents such as participation agreements, customer handouts, applications, and program handbooks. Ensure all materials are up-to-date and meet program requirements.
• Point of Escalation: Serve as the escalation point for issues related to rebates, financing, and direct-install programs. This involves communicating directly with residents to address concerns and resolve issues that have been escalated beyond the initial point of contact.
• Request for Proposals (RFPs): Develop and execute RFPs, including defining objectives, evaluation criteria, and coordinating with the communications team for publication. Evaluate proposals, recommend vendor selections, and develop contracts.
• Analytical Tools and Program Impact: Utilize analytical tools to develop targeted program lists, measure program impact, and perform detailed program assessments.
• Technical Analysis: Perform or evaluate technical analyses related to building energy use, including bill impact analysis, program performance, and equipment assessments.
• Marketing and Call Center Collaboration: Collaborate with the marketing team to develop messaging and marketing plans for residential programs. Ensure the Call Center has up-to-date program information and improve customer support.
• Cross-Department Coordination: Work closely with the Account Services, Finance, and Billing teams to address billing issues related to financing programs.
• External Stakeholder Engagement: Work with external stakeholders such as Community-Based Organizations (CBOs), cities, and others to keep them informed of program developments and progress.
• Industry Relationships: Build relationships with local contractors, appliance manufacturers, and other key players in the building electrification ecosystem to promote the adoption of electrification technologies.
• Reporting and Presentations: Prepare memos, reports, and presentations for Board meetings and other stakeholder engagements.
• Innovation and Pilot Programs: Identify key areas of innovation, collaborate with technology incubators, and develop, manage, and assess pilot programs. Recommend and integrate innovative solutions into existing programs.
• Best Practices and Workshops: Collaborate with subject matter experts to develop best practices, guides, and workshops as needed.
• Public Representation: Serve as a spokesperson at events, including city and CBO community events, conferences, and other relevant forums. This may require occasional evening or weekend participation.
• People Management: includes supervisory responsibilities of a team of one
• Other Duties as Assigned: Perform additional tasks as needed to support program and organizational goals.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

• BA/BS degree in environmental studies, architecture, engineering, business or other related fields.
• A minimum of 6 yrs of experience in energy and decarbonization-related program design and management, energy efficiency project implementation, or other related fields.
• Deep understanding of building electrification and efficiency strategies and deployment.
• Advanced capabilities in project management.
• Demonstrated ability to develop and maintain complex partnerships.
• Highly skilled communicator for technical and non-technical audiences.

Additional Preferred Qualifications

• Strong preference for candidates with prior people enablement and management experience;
• Strong preference given to candidates with experience working with building contractors, particularly in HVAC, plumbing, and/or electrical construction.
• Strong preference given to candidates with experience working on energy-related residential programs.
• Familiar with mission and goals of Peninsula Clean Energy.

Ability to:

• Deliver excellent written products with strong logistical and quantitative analysis.
• Assess business processes and identify improvements for CRM, operations, and communications.
• Deliver excellent public speaking across diverse audiences.
• Exercise sound judgment, creative problem solving, effective dispute resolution, and commercial awareness.
• Manage multiple priorities, meet deadlines, and quickly adapt to changing priorities in a fast-paced dynamic environment.
• Take responsibility and work independently, as well as coordinate team efforts.
• Be thorough and detail-oriented; demonstrate patience, tact, and courtesy.
• Establish and maintain effective working relationships with persons encountered during the performance of duties.
• Work as needed to attend occasional evening and weekend meetings and presentations. Ability to travel throughout the region to attend meetings and functions.
• Interact professionally and effectively with customers, commercial partners, PCE staff team, Community Advisory Committee, and Board of Directors.
• Ability to articulate solutions clearly, actively listen to concerns, resolve conflicts effectively, and maintain a positive attitude while working with residents.
• Work with intermediate and advanced MS Office functions, including Word, Excel, Outlook, and Powerpoint.
• Work with tools including CRMs, project management, other advanced project tools.
• Be part of a team of committed people.

Supervisory Responsibilities
This position oversees and enables the Senior Programs Specialist who provides direct support to customers interfacing with PCE programs (including application and payment processing, customer support, answering questions, etc.).

APPLICATION PROCESS
Please include:

• Cover Letter
• Resume
• Responses to the four Supplemental Questions.

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