Vice President of Engineering

Description

Mountain View Electric Association (MVEA) is one of the fastest growing mission-driven and member-owned electric cooperatives in Colorado. With offices in Falcon and Limon, our service territory spans 5,000 square miles from the foothills outside of Colorado Springs through the rolling plains of eastern Colorado. 

While a lot has changed in our industry since we were incorporated as a not-for-profit electric cooperative in 1941, MVEA still operates on the values we started with years ago—integrity, accountability, innovation, and commitment to community. Today, 

MVEA is proud to provide safe, reliable, and affordable electricity to more than 58,500 members and over 68,500 meters in portions of eight counties.

Our electric cooperative is financially strong and experiences tremendous growth of over 2,000 accounts per year due to the expanding communities outside of Colorado Springs. MVEA has annual revenues of over $125 million and over 6,500 miles of distribution line. We are a respected leader in the distribution cooperative industry due to a long history of safety, reliable service, member engagement, financial health, rate stability, and employee dedication. 

To learn more about MVEA and the communities we serve, visit www.mvea.coop.

Top Reasons to Work with Us:

• Competitive Salary and Outstanding Benefits Package including Medical, Dental, Vision, Long-Term Disability, Life, and Paid Time Off
• Traditional Pension Plan and 401(k) with Company Match
• Stable and Growing Company
• Four Day Work Week (Monday through Thursday 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.)
• Great Company Culture

We are looking for a Vice President of Engineering to provide executive leadership, strategic direction, and operational oversight for the Engineering Department to ensure the safe, reliable, cost-effective planning, design, construction, and operation of the Association’s electric distribution system. This position directs engineering strategy, infrastructure planning, regulatory compliance, system reliability initiatives, and capital improvement efforts while supporting the Cooperative’s strategic mission, vision, and values.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Leads and develops assigned teams to achieve organizational objectives by directing work, managing performance, and fostering employee growth. Collaborates with Human Resources on hiring, disciplinary actions, and employee relations while ensuring roles and responsibilities remain clearly defined and aligned with business needs.
• Responsible for the annual departmental budget, work plan, and capital purchases. Reviews monthly to determine if goals and objectives are being met. 
• Participates in management’s Executive Team meetings to assist in future planning, establishing policies, exchange and sharing of information, development of operating procedures, establishing departmental objectives, and confer on mutual issues.
• Assists the CEO in planning, developing, and implementing organizational initiatives and provides engineering updates, recommendations, and progress reports to the Board of Directors and Executive Leadership Team. 
• Leads the Engineering Department through effective workforce planning, employee development, succession planning, performance management, leadership development, and technical training to ensure long-term organizational stability. 
• Promote a safe working environment by identifying and correcting safety issues, training needs, and accountability requirements.
• Responsible for the annual departmental budget, work plan, and capital purchases. Reviews monthly to determine if goals and objectives are being met. Assists in preparation of long-term financial forecasting, including cost of service studies and rate analysis.
• Leads long-range engineering and capital investment planning, including construction work plans, system expansion, load forecasting, asset lifecycle management, capital improvement prioritization, and infrastructure replacement strategies to support short- and long-term Cooperative objectives.
• Develops and oversees cost-benefit analyses and risk-ranking methodologies to prioritize engineering and capital projects and optimize system reliability, resiliency, and financial performance. 
• Directs the planning, design, modification, and upgrade of substations, transmission, and distribution facilities while ensuring engineering practices align with Cooperative standards, RUS requirements, applicable codes, NESC standards, sound engineering principles, and prudent financial stewardship.
• Reviews and approves engineering designs, specifications, drawings, and technical recommendations prepared by internal staff, consultants, and contractors to ensure safe, reliable, technically sound, and economically responsible outcomes.
• Provides strategic oversight of major engineering and capital improvement projects to ensure scope, schedule, budget, risk, and organizational objectives are achieved.
• Collaborates closely with Operations, Finance, Safety, Information Technology, Member Services, and Executive Leadership to align engineering priorities with Cooperative goals and ensure effective workflow between departments.
• Coordinates engineering and operational planning for alternate feed arrangements, switching strategies, planned maintenance, outage restoration, system reconfiguration, and voltage conversion activities.
• Supports electric system resiliency, emergency preparedness, and risk mitigation strategies, infrastructure reliability improvements, contingency planning, and restoration readiness.
• Supports wildfire mitigation initiatives through engineering standards, infrastructure planning, risk analysis, and coordination with operations and vegetation management activities.

Requirements

• Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering or closely related engineering discipline required.
• Licensed Professional Engineer (PE) required or ability to obtain licensure in the State of Colorado within a defined period of employment.
• Minimum of ten (10) years of progressively responsible electric utility engineering experience, including significant leadership, supervisory, system planning, capital project, and utility operations coordination responsibilities.
• Demonstrated experience leading engineering personnel, organizational initiatives, capital improvement programs, and cross-functional utility projects in an electric utility environment.
• Experience with transmission and distribution engineering, substation systems, system protection, utility infrastructure planning, and electric system reliability strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated experience in utility budgeting, long-range planning, capital forecasting, and cost-benefit evaluation.
• Experience working with RUS standards, utility regulatory requirements, environmental compliance processes, and engineering governance practices preferred.
• Strong understanding of electric cooperative business principles, member service philosophy, and the operational, financial, and strategic objectives of a member-owned utility.
• Knowledge of applicable utility regulations, standards, and requirements, including Rural Utilities Service (RUS) requirements, National Electrical Safety Code (NESC), National Electrical Code (NEC), applicable federal and state laws, environmental requirements, and relevant regulatory guidance.
• Demonstrated executive leadership ability with proven success in workforce development, employee engagement, succession planning, performance management, coaching, conflict resolution, organizational development, and leading high-performing teams.
• Strong knowledge of utility financial management principles, including budgeting, capital planning, cost-benefit analysis, asset lifecycle management, cost-of-service concepts, long-range financial forecasting, and rate impacts.
• Knowledge of utility operational technologies and enterprise systems, including GIS, OMS, SCADA, AMI/metering systems, distribution automation, outage restoration systems, engineering modeling tools, communications systems, and related utility technologies.
• Exceptional verbal, written, presentation, and interpersonal communication skills, with the ability to communicate effectively and professionally with employees, members, contractors, consultants, vendors, regulatory agencies, executive leadership, the Board of Directors, and public stakeholders.
• Ability to develop collaborative working relationships and effectively coordinate cross-functional initiatives with Engineering, Operations, Finance, Safety, Information Services, Member Services, and Executive Leadership.
• Ability to effectively present technical and strategic information to executive leadership, the Board of Directors, public groups, regulatory entities, and industry partners.