Director Grid and Market Solutions - Markets

At ERCOT, our diverse and dynamic work environment provides a platform on which employees can work together to build the future of the Texas power grid and wholesale market utilizing the latest technologies and resources. We encourage you to join our talented, dedicated workforce to develop world-class solutions for today and tomorrow’s energy challenges while learning new skills and growing your career. ERCOT is committed to fostering inclusion at all levels of our company. It is the cornerstone of our corporate values of accountability, leadership, innovation, trust, and expertise. We know that individuals with a wide variety of talents, ideas, and experiences propel the innovation that drives our success. An inclusive and diverse workforce strengthens us and allows for a collaborative environment to solve the challenges that face our industry today and in the future. Provides strategic leadership and oversight in the development and delivery of solutions for ERCOT’s Energy Market Systems and applications within the Grid and Market Solutions (GMS) organization. This role leads initiatives to position ERCOT to effectively manage the evolving complexities of the electric power industry by advancing long-term staff capabilities, market systems, and technology solutions. Drives development, engineering analysis and support of critical business systems and applications. These systems encompass real-time and day-ahead energy markets (SCED and DAM), Reliability Unit Commitment (RUC), Ancillary Services, Congestion Revenue Rights (CRR), Market Submissions, Outage Scheduler (OS), DCTIE, Market Simulator, Energy Management System (EMS) Interfaces, Market Reports and the integration and flow of market data between internal and external systems. Plays a pivotal role in defining technical requirements and roadmaps for new market systems, changes to existing market systems and ensuring consistent methodologies and standards are enforced for all systems. Collaborate closely with vendors in these areas to align vendors roadmaps with ERCOT’s roadmaps. Oversee the full systems development lifecycle, ensuring compliance with ERCOT policies, security standards, and NERC CIP requirements. Accountable for 24x7 operational availability and reliability of critical market systems. Requires proven leadership, effective communication, program and project management experience, and the ability to develop talent into Principal-level roles. JOB DUTIES Responsible for hiring, coaching, training, and performance management of staff. Regularly interacts with executives and/or major customers. Interactions frequently involve special skills, such as negotiating with customers or management regarding matters of significance to the organization. Typically directs and controls the activities of a broad functional area through several department managers within ERCOT. Has overall control of planning, staffing, budgeting, managing expense priorities, and recommending and implementing changes to methods. Responsible for budgetary decisions within functional areas according to organizational policy/guidelines. Recommend financial decisions that impact area of responsibility. ADDITIONAL JOB DUTIES Ability to lead and motivate individuals and teams to achieve program and project objectives. Leads and manages GMS technology development and engineering teams responsible for delivering the high-quality software solutions, engineering analysis, support and services to ERCOT business users for the complex market redesign requirements and evolving grid challenges. Leads requirements reviews and provide strategic direction on design and architectural changes of market systems and applications for market redesign initiatives, enhancements and technology upgrades. Guides cross-functional teams in conducting comprehensive impact analysis for market initiatives and ensures strong collaboration with business stakeholders, GMS, and IT teams. Anticipates and drives ERCOT market systems design changes to ensure market systems operate with industry-leading performance and reliability by adopting advanced energy‑market optimization techniques and solver technologies. Oversees team adherence to Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) processes and quality‑assurance best practices to ensure the delivery of high‑quality market systems and applications software solutions to business users. Oversee all market systems and applications changes into the production and testing environments Oversees weekly CIM Model promotion to EMMS Market systems. Ensure that all 24X7 business processes are executed per the documented procedures of the division and meet user expectations. Demonstrates a good understanding of market settlements and credit monitoring functions. Possesses a good understanding of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) technologies and leads the adoption and integration of AI/ML capabilities across ERCOT’s market and grid systems, enhancing application functionality and delivering greater value to business stakeholders. Foster a culture of continuous improvements by empowering teams to identify and remediate process, tool, and application inefficiencies, leveraging advanced analytics and GenAI capabilities to advance operational excellence and deliver high‑quality outcomes. Evaluates emerging technologies, and drive proof‑of‑concept initiatives that advance organizational capabilities and shape long‑term technology strategy for market systems. Collaborates closely with the Grid Transformation team on executing transformative market‑initiatives proof‑of‑concepts and develop implementation strategy to operationalize those market initiatives. Develops and maintains market applications technology road map and strategic plan. Provides strategic oversight of the market‑applications product backlog grooming, partnering with business stakeholders to define priorities and guide release planning to ensure timely, high‑impact delivery of market‑system enhancements. Establish market systems performance objectives and ensure service level objectives are met. Actively participates in long-range strategy planning and manages policy development to address complex business issues and provides leadership to cross-functional teams. Leads strategic and tactical activities including the development of new policies and procedures to ensure consistent, responsive, and reliable market systems. Effective engagement and management of vendors for this functional area. Collaborates closely with ERCOT’s vendor‑management team and business units to develop, negotiate, and finalize vendor contracts for this functional area. Represents GMS in key ERCOT market stakeholder forums including Technology Working Group (TWG), Protocol Revision Subcommittee (PRS), Wholesale Market Subcommittee (WMS), Congestion Management Working Group (CMWG) etc. to advance organizational priorities and ensure alignment between ERCOT initiatives and enterprise objectives. REQUIRED EXPERIENCE Requires minimum 10 years job-related work experience and 5 years in a management or leadership role in excess of degree requirements. Minimum years of job-related experience can include time in leadership roles. Experience with one of the vendors (Hitachi/ABB, GE, Siemens, Resource Innovations/Nexant) Energy or Market Management Systems and applications is preferred. PREFERRED EXPERIENCE Experience with Market Management Systems Software development background EDUCATION Bachelor's Degree: Electrical Engineering, Computer Science or related field (Required) Master's Degree: Electrical Engineering, Computer Science or related field (Preferred) PhD (Preferred) or a combination of education and experience that provides equivalent knowledge to a major in such fields is required WORK LOCATION – Taylor, TX: Employees will be required to be on-site in Taylor, TX at a minimum of 2 days per week, or more, as needed based on the business needs as determined by management Remote work is required to be performed from your Texas residence. Employees may opt to work on-site more than required or 100% of the time The foregoing description reflects the minimum qualifications and the essential functions of the position that must be performed proficiently with or without reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities. It is not an exhaustive list of the duties expected to be performed, and management may, at its discretion, revise or require that other or different tasks be performed as assigned. This job description is not intended to create a contract of employment with ERCOT. Both ERCOT and the employee may exercise their employment-at-will rights at any time. #LI-Hybrid, #LI-MH1 ERCOT is firmly committed to equal employment for all qualified persons without regard to race, sex, medical condition, religion, age, creed, national origin, citizenship status, marital status, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, ancestry, veteran status, genetic information or any other protected category under federal, state or local law. Expected Salary Range: $244,000 - $336,000 The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) manages the flow of electric power to 27 million Texas customers - representing about 90 percent of the state's electric load. As the independent system operator for the region, ERCOT schedules power on an electric grid that connects more than 54,100 miles of transmission lines and 1,250 generating units. ERCOT also performs financial settlement for the competitive wholesale bulk-power market and administers retail switching for 8 million premises in competitive choice areas. ERCOT is a membership-based 501(c)(4) nonprofit corporation, governed by a board of directors and subject to oversight by the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Texas Legislature. ERCOT's members include consumers, cooperatives, generators, power marketers, retail electric providers, investor-owned electric utilities (transmission and distribution providers,) and municipal-owned electric utilities. ERCOT offers an excellent benefits package, which includes health, dental, vision, life insurance, long/short-term disability insurance, long-term care insurance, Section 125 Flexible Spending Account, and a Retirement Savings Plan. The medical, dental, vision, and quality-of-life benefits offered by ERCOT are second to none. Full-time employees are eligible to enroll in benefits on the first of the month following the date of hire. Additionally, 401(k) plans are available to help employees plan for the future. The ERCOT Internship Program provides college students the opportunity to develop their skills in a professional work environment. Each intern will receive unique projects and assignments that aim to solve real challenges facing the electric industry. ERCOT internships provide professional learning experiences that offer meaningful, practical work related to each student's desired career path. Eligible candidates should be enrolled in an academic bachelors or post graduate degree program maintaining a GPA of 3.0 or higher. The ERCOT Engineer Development Program (EDP) is a 12- to 16-month, self-paced program geared toward entry-level engineers looking to start a career in the power industry. Through the program, an EDP Engineer receives one-on-one mentoring, specialized training, and exposure to the work performed by each of the engineering groups at ERCOT. The program allows engineers to develop the fundamental skills necessary to reach their full potential while gaining an understanding of the types of engineering work ERCOT has to offer. EDP management supports participants each step of the way as they progress through the program. Upon completion, graduates are placed as full-time engineers within one of ERCOT’s engineering groups. The GMS Development Program (GDP) is designed to provide entry-level and early career professionals with the skills necessary to become successful Power System and Computer Engineers. The program, which is based in ERCOT’s Grid and Market Solutions (GMS) Department, will provide experience in day-to-day work and instruction in the fundamentals of electric power systems engineering, grid and market applications, software programming, and IT service and operations management. The GDP offers one-on-one mentoring, training, field trips, and special assignments. These assignments allow GDP engineers to become knowledgeable and familiar with the various business areas at ERCOT. The GMS leadership team prepares GDP engineers for a future career at ERCOT in power systems and computer engineering. The System Operator Development Program (ODP) is intended to combine real-time daily operations in an exciting work setting to prepare participants with the vital skills necessary to be successful in such a critical position — providing 24x7x365 on-demand support to manage the flow of electric power to more than 26 million Texas customers. If you are new to the industry, this program introduces you to the Bulk Electric System by combining introductory courses with the NERC Certification Exam Preparation Program in preparation to pass the NERC Certification Exam.