Director Operations Control Systems

Summary

Leads research, design, and development activities to improve NYPA’s energy services. Designs, constructs, and tests and operates equipment. Ensures that standards of quality, cost, safety, reliability, timeliness and performance are met throughout all engineering activities.

Engineering, design, implementation and day to day operations of supervisory control systems (SCADA/EMS) and machine control systems (PLC/DCS/HMI/RTU) in support of NYPA G&T assets. Design special applications software to assist in the real time efficient optimization of generation resources.

Responsibilities

• Responsible to ensure that NERC Reliability Standards Compliance tasks and evidence are executed, established, and/or maintained for the standards and requirements to which the Director is assigned in NYPA’s Compliance Responsibility Matrix and that the applicable NYPA policies and procedures are reviewed and updated annually and disseminated to all internal stakeholders.
• Responsible for discipline design authority, and serve as engineer of record for all electrical engineering design drawings and specifications.  Provide professional signature and seal and ensure adherence to configuration management policies. 
• Maintain awareness of changes and advancements in the industry and develop industry-wide expertise. 
• Initiate contact with the operating facilities to determine equipment performance and equipment replacement schedules. 
• Design, specification and procurement of real-time (plant) control and monitoring systems and associated data telemetry for new and existing generating and transmission facilities.
• Develop, implement and ensure adherence to Authority policies and procedures.
• Responsible for the specification, engineering design and implementation of specialized software for operation and engineering analysis.
• Responsible for standard design and specification of real time systems such as RTU, PI Tagging and OT network architectures. 
• Develop and implement programs to achieve strategic objectives.
• Prepare and manage operating and capital budgets, provide technical evaluation, and generate cost estimates for process control and computer monitoring equipment for all operating facilities.
• Establish management control procedures and reports.
• Manage/monitor workload to accomplish the highest priority tasks in an acceptable timeframe with existing staffing levels and allocation of resources. 
• Develop and maintain a technical staff with sufficient expertise to ensure that department objectives are met in a timely and efficient manner.
• Manage employees including performance management, salary administration, succession planning and workload balancing.  Identify and recommend solutions to modify staff to meet NYPA needs.
• May chair an external task force, support the internal cyber security committee and support NERC initiatives and compliance, including supply chain requirements .
• Primary member on NYPA’s NERC CIP13 team.
• Represent NYPA on industry committees for organizations such as APPA, LPPC, EPRI, and Doble, as well as special projects.
• Coordinate and oversee design and framework development for Operations Technology areas associated with NYPA Strategic Initiatives such as Smart G&T, and Asset Management.
• Ensure compliance with NYPA Cyber Security policies and procedures including: periodic maintenance , account management, security audit log review for plant computer control systems, security access control and monitoring systems, and associated subsystems.  Assist in maintaining and upgrading these systems and maintaining secure configurations that meet regulatory requirements.
• Participate in the design and review of new hardware and software systems as it pertains to Operations Technology at the responsible site(s). Responsible for maintenance and support of the site’s business local area networks (LAN), personal computers, mobile devices, and end-user support in collaboration with the White Plains Information Technology department, to ensure the IT needs of on-site staff are met.  

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Solid technical/engineering background in computer control systems, both hardware and software.
• Ability to remain current with the new technologies in the field. 
• Full understanding of how NYPA interacts with outside organizations, including other utilities and regulatory agencies, and with its customers.  Intimately familiar with NYPA’s budgets, costs, and policies.
• Possess substantial knowledge of related disciplines and understand the effects on the industry and its customers.
• Ability to analyze different technical solutions presented for implementation by staff, to decide on a course of action. 
• Extremely strong planning and administration skills, to effectively manage both operating and capital budgets.
• Excellent interpersonal skills.
• Strong persuasive ability and skilled to lead a group of engineers in a cooperative manner to accomplish the group’s goals.
• Ability to communicate work assignments to subordinates in a clear and concise manner; ability to communicate accurate performance feedback to individuals.
• Ability to deliver presentations that are logical, smooth, and influential, both internally and externally.
• Knowledge of a wide breadth of activities such as design and implementation of data telemetry for real-time control and monitoring, cyber security and compliance, software and systems engineering for applications development for plant real-time control and auxiliary monitoring systems Ability to provide technical guidance and leadership to staff assigned to support the real-time systems, security access control and monitoring systems, and site IT equipment and systems.

Education, Experience and Certifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Science, B. S. (Engineering related or Computer Science)
• Minimum 7 years involved in the engineering design, procurement, testing, installation, and maintenance of power plant control systems preferred
• Minimum 3 years of experience managing/leading a team preferred.
• Professional certification
• Experience with Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition Systems in the Power Industry
• Experience with Engineering Design Drawings & Schematics
• Experience writing Engineering Technical Specifications
• Extensive Computer Hardware Experience
• Extensive Computer Software Experience
• Professional level Certifications in areas such as computer operating systems, network technologies (e.g., CCNP), Cyber Security (e.g., CISSP), and/or NYS Professional Engineering (PE) License, preferred.
• Minimum Seven (7) years of applicable experience in the area of real-time process controls for power plant control systems preferred
• Experience directing engineers, analysts, technicians and electricians, and coordinating vendor support in troubleshooting, testing, servicing, and making changes to real-time computer systems and security access control and monitoring systems.
• Experience with of North American Electric Reliability Corporation – NERC CIP Reliability Standards, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) regulations and NYISO.
• Experience with Energy Management Systems and Industrial Control Systems  in the Power Industry.
• Experience with Engineering Processes, Design, and Documentation 
• Experience using standard application development design, report and project management tools, preferred.
• Experience with networking infrastructure and protocols, preferred.

Physical Requirements

• Ability and willingness to travel up to 20%.
• Normal color vision for design of human-machine interfaces (HMI).