Operations Analyst

Operations Analyst

Western Power Pool is hiring an Operations Analyst to join our team in Portland, OR!

Key Details:

• Pay: $108,328 - $115,714/year DOE
• Location: Remote in select states - must reside in: AZ, OR, WA, UT, NV, CA, WY, MT, ID, NM, CO, El Paso TX
• Schedule: Full-time, Monday Friday, 8am 5pm PPT
  • On-Call: One week, Monday Monday, approximately every 5 weeks
  • Travel: Up to 12 regional trips annually, primarily to WPP headquarters in Portland
• Benefits: Employer-paid health, dental, vision, and life insurance; PTO; 11 paid holidays; company-funded Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA); 401k with 6% match; discretionary profit-sharing contribution, budgeted at 7% of salary; and flexible working schedule

Who You Are: You're an analyst who's happiest inside a large, messy data set and won't let go until the numbers hold up. You stay organized without anyone checking on you, you hold accuracy under a tight deadline, and you're not shy about picking up the phone. That last part matters here. You'll be in regular contact with operators and staff at roughly 30 member utilities, so being friendly, patient, and easy to reach is part of the work.

Qualifications Include:

• 3 - 5 years' experience in a heavy data analytics role
• Experience working with large volumes of data and turning it into reports, metrics, and analysis other people can act on
• Advanced Microsoft Excel, including writing formulas and functions
• Clear written and verbal communication, and comfort with frequent phone and email contact with external stakeholders
• Strong organization and the ability to keep work accurate under tight time constraints
• Self-motivation and a track record of working well in a fully remote team
• Ability to participate in the team's rotating on-call schedule
• A bachelor's degree in a related field or an equivalent combination of education and relevant professional experience

Preferred Qualifications:

• Utility experience, especially on the operations and planning side
• Background in NERC standards or compliance
• Scripting, coding, or automation tooling for data processing, such as Python, R, or Microsoft Power Automate
• Experience with energy data platforms such as OSI or GE, PI Vision, or OATI SmartTag
• Heavy data mining experience from another field, such as market or financial analysis

What You'll Do: As an Operations Analyst, you'll support the Reserve Sharing Group, WPP's longest-running program. Every utility has to cover its own load plus backup in case a generating resource fails, and the program allows members to pool that backup so each carries less on its own. When a member has a balancing contingency event, access to "pooled" contingency reserves aids in their quick recovery. Your work is event analysis: pulling data on every event, sizing it, determining whether it's reportable, and confirming whether recovery was met and within the required window.

Additional responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Collect, validate, and analyze program data, and write the reports that come out of it
• Flag potential compliance issues against NERC standards and support the review that follows
• Proctor monthly testing of the Reserve Sharing Program with RSG Participant operators to confirm the program is working as expected, and support operator training, including occasional in-person sessions
• Act as a regular point of contact for member participants on event questions and program functionality
• Build deep expertise in WPP programs and help members and participants navigate complex requirements and operational questions
• Bring people together by assisting to lead meetings, testing, training, onboarding, readiness, and implementation activities
• Keep programs prepared for reporting, audits, governance, and compliance through organized, accurate documentation
• Document processes and find better ways to collect and analyze data, including building new tools where they'd help
• Cross-train on other WPP programs and projects, such as the frequency response workgroup
• Represent WPP in collaborative member, committee, and industry discussions

Who We Are: Western Power Pool (WPP) is a non-profit organization that helps keep the lights on by ensuring power utilities in the West achieve maximum benefits from coordinated operations. Our work is customer-driven, relationship-based, and collaborative.

We've been serving the energy sector for over 80 years and are at the forefront of ensuring the reliability and security of the power grid while spearheading the integration of renewable energy sources. As a leader in the energy sector, we manage power generation and transmission across multiple states, facilitate competitive energy markets, and foster innovation to meet the challenges of tomorrow.

Western Power Pool is an equal-opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are dedicated to creating an inclusive atmosphere for all employees.