Supervisor - Substation Work Management

FirstEnergy at a Glance

We are a forward-thinking electric utility powered by a diverse team of employees committed to making customers’ lives brighter, the environment better and our communities stronger.

FirstEnergy (NYSE: FE) is dedicated to integrity, safety, reliability and operational excellence. Headquartered in Akron, Ohio, FirstEnergy includes one of the nation's largest investor-owned electric systems, more than 24,000 miles of transmission lines that connect the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions, and a regulated generating fleet with a total capacity of more than 3,500 megawatts.

About the Opportunity

This is an open position with FirstEnergy Service Company, a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp. 

This is a full-time, on-site position located in Akron, OH.

Summary:
This supervisor position provides leadership for an assigned Work Management group supporting substation construction, maintenance, testing, commissioning, and protective relay operations within the Transmission Operations organization. Responsibilities include collaborating with the Manager, Work Management to establish and monitor organizational goals, policies, plans, forecasts, standards, performance objectives, operating and financial targets, budgets, and resource requirements.

This position supervises short- and long-range planning, scheduling, and work-readiness processes for substation and relay activities. The supervisor analyzes performance, removes barriers to execution, and implements process improvements that increase safety, productivity, schedule attainment, and equipment reliability within FirstEnergy’s work management system.

This position will provide leadership from the following perspectives:
Substation and Relay Work Management:

• Demonstrating and directing a strong commitment to safety, Leading with Safety principles, Human Performance tools, and safe work practices across substation, relay, and field operations.
• Leading planner/schedulers responsible for forecasting, planning, and scheduling substation construction, maintenance, testing, commissioning, and protective relay work.
• Supervising the daily activities of planner/schedulers, readiness coordinators, and administrative support personnel while driving consistent processes and continuous improvement.
• Prioritizing substation and relay projects and maintenance work based on safety, system reliability, equipment condition, regulatory commitments, outage requirements, and available resources.
• Maintaining a firm two-week work plan and a one-month projection for substation and relay activities, including outage, switching, resource, and contingency requirements.
• Directing long-range planning to optimize labor, contractor support, materials, test equipment, outage windows, and completion of the highest-priority substation and relay work.
• Partnering with Substation Operations, Relay, Engineering, Project Management, System Operations, and other stakeholders to achieve safe and reliable execution.
• Ensuring work packages meet planning, design, constructability, testing, pre-job readiness, clearance, and scheduling requirements before field execution.
• Developing and implementing scheduling strategies that coordinate substation crews, relay technicians, contractors, outages, switching, and commissioning activities.
• Leading continuous improvement efforts through effective use of Work Management MDT systems, performance metrics, lessons learned, and standardized work practices.
• Coordinating work requests and project interfaces with customers, contractors, engineering groups, operations personnel, and other internal organizations, including after-hours contacts when appropriate.
• Overseeing requests for substation outages, switching, clearances, equipment access, utility locates, traffic control, and other permits or operational approvals required for safe execution.
• Ensuring the availability of major equipment, relay and control panels, materials, test sets, special tools, drawings, settings, procedures, and permits; expediting critical items when necessary.
• Supporting storm restoration and emergency response, including substation damage assessment, relay support, material coordination, and resource deployment.

• Making sound financial and business decisions while balancing safety, reliability, compliance, schedule, and cost.

  Communications:

• Encouraging open, honest, direct, and ongoing conversation across utility operations groups and corporate support groups.
• Championing an environment within the business unit where self-development is encouraged.
• When needed, lending expertise to an internal team(s) and/or task force.
• Supporting the views and policies of the company and providing strategic direction to customers and employees.
• Fostering communications between work groups through timely and open dialogue.
• Providing timely and open discussion to team on organization initiatives and updates.

• Planning and facilitating team meetings.

  
  Performance Management:

• Developing the team’s technical, safety, work management, and leadership capabilities related to substation and relay work.
• Supporting and coaching employees on corporate and regional goals and driving achievement through performance and safety.
• Ensuring appropriate staffing levels are maintained to meet team goals and updates staffing plan as changing operating environment dictates.
• Providing consistent and clear leadership through effective communication of company and team goals.
• Involving team in development of specific goals.
• Encouraging employees to think creatively and develop innovative ways to meet and exceed goals.
• Effectively delegating responsibility.
• Preparing short- and long-range development plans that address changing substation technologies, protective relay systems, testing practices, compliance requirements, and workforce needs.
• Preparing succession plans and identifying promotional paths for employees.
• Working with employees in identifying professional goals and objectives while integrating them into development plans.
• Providing regular and routine feedback on performance, recognizing employee accomplishments and providing coaching for improvement and/or corrective actions.
• Conducting regular check-in conversations with team members to provide timely and relevant feedback on performance.
• Thoroughly understanding and administering human resource policies and regulations fairly and equitably for all employees.

Qualifications:

• An Associate’s or Bachelor’s degree and five years of related experience are preferred. In lieu of a degree, a high school diploma or equivalent and seven years of related experience are required. Relevant experience includes substation construction or maintenance, protective relaying and controls, apparatus testing, commissioning, project management, or planning and scheduling complex utility work. Prior leadership experience is preferred.
• Demonstrated project management experience as both a team leader and team member, preferably involving substation, relay, or transmission projects.
• Demonstrated ability to lead initiatives, implement change, and improve work management processes.
• Ability to manage competing priorities, provide high-quality service to internal and external customers, and communicate effectively in writing and verbally.
• Leadership capability to provide direction, coach sound decision-making, resolve execution barriers, and facilitate cross-functional meetings.
• Highly driven, self-motivated, and committed to safe, reliable execution.
• Strong analytical skills with an emphasis on safety, schedule, productivity, cost, compliance, and reliability metrics.
• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to collaborate with field personnel, relay technicians, engineers, system operators, contractors, and leadership.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office applications and CASCADE is required. Knowledge of applicable work management, GIS, outage, scheduling, document-control, and enterprise asset-management systems is preferred.
• Awareness of applicable NESC, NEC, OSHA, and company safety requirements, as well as relevant NERC, regional reliability, and protection-system compliance obligations.
• Working knowledge of substation equipment and systems, including power transformers, circuit breakers, switches, bus configurations, batteries and chargers, instrument transformers, grounding systems, station service, protective relays, control circuits, SCADA interfaces, and communications systems. Familiarity with substation construction methods, maintenance practices, testing, relay settings implementation, commissioning, energization, and outage coordination is preferred.

Benefits, Compensation & Workforce Diversity

At FirstEnergy, employees are key to our success. We depend on their talents to meet the challenges of our changing business environment. We are committed to rewarding individual and team efforts through our total rewards philosophy which includes competitive pay plus incentive compensation, a company-sponsored pension plan, 401(k) savings plan with matching employer contribution, a choice of medical, prescription drug, dental, vision, and life insurance programs, as well as skills development training with tuition reimbursement. Please visit our website at www.firstenergycorp.com to learn more about all of our employee rewards programs. FirstEnergy proudly supports workforce diversity. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, status as a protected veteran, or status as a qualified individual with a disability. No recruiters or agencies without a previously signed contract. Unable to sponsor or transfer H-1B visas at this time.

Safety

Safety is a core value for FirstEnergy and is essential to all of our business activities. We ensure employees have the tools, information, and processes to perform their duties in a manner that assures safety for themselves, their co-workers, our customers and the public. Our goals are to provide a safe work environment, to maintain an accident-free, injury-free workplace, and to promote and maintain public safety. To meet these goals, we dedicate ourselves to achieving world-class safety standards.

Position Classification

Exempt

FirstEnergy Human Resources Team