Program Specialist

Program Specialist Utility Programs and Services East Delivery

Location: Columbia, MD or Reston, VA (Hybrid Home Office with Office Travel)

Are you ready to make a difference?

To support our growth, ICF is seeking a Program Specialist to manage day-to-day responsibilities for a residential load management program in Maryland. Working closely with program and portfolio managers, this individual will ensure seamless project implementation and contribute to various tasks such as creating and managing program deliverables, supporting program stakeholders and participants, analyzing and organizing program data, and working across marketing, IT, operations, and Flexible Load Management teams at ICF to effectively implement the program.

What is a load management program? ICF partners with utilities to design and implement load management programs that enable utilities to strategically reduce and shift energy demand while maintaining a high-quality customer experience. ICF load management programs integrate multiple distributed energy resources (DERs), including smart thermostats, electric vehicles, batteries, and water heaters, into a coordinated framework that can be dispatched during periods of peak energy demand. As a trusted partner to utility clients, ICF provides full lifecycle support, including program design, technology partnerships, customer outreach and enrollment, incentive administration, and ongoing client operations. We leverage advanced analytics and our experience across diverse markets to orchestrate grid-edge resources that deliver measurable load reductions and system reliability improvements.

Some travel to client sites may be required (<10%).

Why you will love working here:

• Quality of life: Flexible workplace arrangements, work-life balance
• Investment of the community: Donation matching, volunteer opportunities
• Investment in you: Tuition reimbursement, access to professional development resources, 401k matching, Employee Stock Purchase Plan
• And many, many more (Ask your recruiter for more details!)

What you will be doing:

• Implement and manage a residential Bring-Your-Own-Thermostat load management program, ensuring quality control and adherence to best practices to meet program goal targets.
• Collaborate with multiple groups to ensure processing, outreach, IT systems, marketing initiatives, customer care, operations, and staff are aligned to reach a common annual goal.
• Maintain accurate program data for participation, customer incentive amounts, program financials, and other program data.
• Maintain internal trackers, spreadsheets, status logs, and SharePoint materials to support program management, budget monitoring, quality assurance, and regulatory reporting readiness.
• Support data quality control by reviewing customer, vendor, and internal program data for completeness, consistency, and potential errors, and by helping resolve missing or questionable information with internal teams, vendors, or the client as appropriate.
• Prepare and deliver weekly updates, monthly financial reporting, annual reporting, evaluator requests, and other ad hoc reporting needs for the client.
• Support utility customers during their program participation journey.
• Coordinate with vendors and partners to support timely collection of necessary program data.
• Identify continuous improvement activities, including workflow documentation, report template updates, process refinements, and escalation path tracking.
• Interface with the client team for day-to-day planning and updates.
• Provide insight and recommendations for program changes based on existing market knowledge and program trends.
• Create and maintain Excel spreadsheets and databases for internal tracking to ensure program remains within its budget and stays on track to meet goal.
• Report program performance to senior leadership regularly.
• Analyze data and call out trends, find and address errors to resolution.
• Develop and update high quality client reports within required timelines, provide regular program status updates.
• Handle and track issues brought by subcontractors, customers, and customer service representatives.
• Address client and customer issues with a positive attitude.
• Provide flexible support for additional program implementation, reporting, customer engagement, and operational tasks as needed.

What we need you to have (minimum qualifications):

• Bachelor's Degree (Business, Information Technology, Economics, Environmental Science or Studies, or related subject preferred but not required) plus 2+ years of relevant experience.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office (specifically Excel).

What we would like you to have (preferred):

• Prior experience supporting, or participating in, utility-sponsored demand-side management programs.
• Experience with customer management and engagement.
• Experience coordinating tasks across teams.
• Ability to work independently in a fast-paced environment while maintaining multiple deadlines with a client-first mindset.
• General understanding of load management programs.
• Excellent verbal, interpersonal and written communication skills.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving and decision-making capabilities.
• Additional skills: SharePoint, Teams, PowerBI

Compensation: Although the posted range below is broader, this position is anticipated to offer a base salary in the $70,000$75,000 range.