HV Regional Manager – West
Locations: San Diego, CA or Bend, OR
Relocation Assistance Available
Position Summary
We are seeking an experienced High Voltage Regional Manager to oversee a portfolio of substation, transmission, and utility interconnection construction projects throughout the Western United States.
The Western region will primarily support projects across CAISO and the broader Western Interconnection (WECC), including utility markets throughout California, the Pacific Northwest, Mountain West, and Southwest.
This position will provide senior operational leadership across multiple high-voltage projects and will be responsible for project execution, field leadership, financial performance, safety, quality, client and utility relationships, workforce development, and regional growth.
Candidates may be based out of San Diego, California or Bend, Oregon. Relocation packages are available for qualified candidates.
Position Responsibilities
Regional Project Leadership
- Provide executive oversight for multiple high-voltage substation, transmission, and interconnection projects throughout the Western region.
- Ensure projects are executed safely, on schedule, within budget, and in compliance with contractual, utility, quality, and regulatory requirements.
- Monitor the regional project portfolio with particular attention to engineering, procurement, long-lead electrical equipment, utility coordination, outage planning, and energization milestones.
- Identify potential schedule delays and execution risks early and work with project leadership to develop corrective or recovery plans.
- Participate in project pursuit decisions by evaluating contract structure, project schedules, execution strategy, available resources, and overall risk.
Team Leadership & Development
- Lead regional Project Executives, Project Managers, Assistant Project Managers, Project Engineers, Superintendents, and supporting field leadership.
- Build a consistent operating structure and performance expectations across geographically distributed project teams.
- Conduct recurring project and regional leadership reviews covering schedule, cost, staffing, safety, quality, and project risk.
- Mentor and develop project personnel and help establish a strong pipeline of future high-voltage leaders.
- Support workforce planning and resource allocation across the regional portfolio.
Safety & Electrical Qualification
- Maintain Qualified Electrical Worker (QEW) certification or obtain the required qualification within the established onboarding period.
- Ensure appropriate electrical qualifications are maintained by field supervision and other personnel responsible for high-voltage construction activities.
- Conduct regular field safety reviews and hold project leadership accountable for meeting established safety expectations.
- Provide senior regional oversight of energized work planning, permits, stop-work decisions, and critical electrical safety activities.
- Ensure near misses and incidents are thoroughly investigated with root causes identified and corrective actions implemented.
- Drive continuous improvement in regional safety performance with a goal of zero incidents.
Client & Utility Relationships
- Serve as a senior point of contact for clients, utilities, owners, and other key stakeholders throughout the Western region.
- Develop relationships with utilities and strategic customers across California and the broader Western Interconnection.
- Partner with business development, estimating, and preconstruction teams to evaluate new high-voltage opportunities.
- Support contractor qualification and Approved Vendor List initiatives with targeted Western utilities.
- Provide early constructability, staffing, scheduling, and execution input during project development and bidding.
Financial & Commercial Management
- Oversee budgets, forecasts, margin performance, and overall financial results across the Western regional portfolio.
- Monitor project costs and identify emerging financial risks or unfavorable trends.
- Ensure project teams maintain strong change management, documentation, and commercial discipline.
- Identify opportunities to improve productivity and protect or improve project margins.
- Maintain accurate regional forecasting and support periodic financial reviews.
Quality & Compliance
- Ensure regional projects meet company, client, utility, and regulatory quality standards.
- Maintain appropriate independent inspection and quality-control processes across high-voltage construction activities.
- Ensure critical electrical and civil scopes are properly inspected, tested, documented, and accepted prior to subsequent construction activities or energization.
- Enforce consistent tracking and resolution of nonconforming work.
- Evaluate recurring quality issues across projects and incorporate lessons learned into future execution practices.
Reporting & Documentation
- Provide recurring reports covering project status, financial performance, schedule, safety, quality, staffing, and regional risks.
- Ensure project teams maintain accurate and auditable construction and qualification records.
- Maintain documentation associated with electrical qualifications, testing, inspections, commissioning, and as-built conditions.
- Ensure documentation meets applicable client, utility, and regulatory requirements.
Regional Risk Management
- Identify regional risks involving schedule, long-lead transformers and electrical equipment, labor availability, utility coordination, permitting, outages, logistics, and customer concentration.
- Develop mitigation plans for significant portfolio-level risks.
- Support project teams in resolving major technical, commercial, scheduling, and client issues.
- Strategically allocate personnel and resources across projects to minimize execution risk and maintain portfolio performance.
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Construction Management, Electrical Engineering, or a related field preferred; equivalent high-voltage field and construction leadership experience will be considered.
- Minimum 8–10 years of high-voltage construction experience involving substations, transmission lines, and/or utility interconnection projects.
- Previous experience at the Project Executive, Regional Manager, Operations Manager, Senior Project Manager, or comparable multi-project leadership level.
- Demonstrated success overseeing multiple construction projects and geographically distributed project teams.
- Strong understanding of high-voltage construction, electrical safety, utility standards, NERC requirements, and utility interconnection processes.
- Working knowledge of CAISO, WECC, and Western utility markets, including California, the Pacific Northwest, Mountain West, and Southwest.
- Existing relationships with Western utilities or experience navigating utility contractor qualification and Approved Vendor List processes is highly desirable.
- QEW certification or ability to obtain required qualification within 90 days of hire.
- Strong experience with project budgets, forecasting, cost control, margin management, and change management.
- Demonstrated ability to lead both project management and field construction organizations.
- Excellent communication, leadership, client management, and organizational skills.
- Ability to make sound decisions across a complex multi-project portfolio under schedule and financial pressure.
- Significant regional travel should be expected.