Asset Manager - Octopus Australia

Octopus Australia; City of Stonnington; On-site; AUD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary package

Extra annual leave

Flexible working arrangements

Career development opportunities

Job summary

A renewable energy company is seeking a skilled professional for technical asset management of renewable assets in Sydney or Melbourne. The successful candidate will manage asset performance, oversee compliance, and build relationships with stakeholders. Candidates should possess relevant qualifications and experience in renewable energy, excellent communication skills, and a strong understanding of project management in a complex environment. A competitive salary and benefits package is offered, promoting growth in a dynamic work culture.

Qualifications

• Eligibility to work in Australia – no visa sponsorship offered.
• Experience in renewable energy projects, preferably in Australia.
• Understanding of HSE practices and compliance requirements.
• Contract and project management skills with high organisation and diligence in complex environments.
• Understanding of Health, Safety and Environmental practices and regulations.
• Knowledge of compliance requirements across a NEM operating asset.
• Ability to build strong relationships with key project partners.
• Commercial mindset with ability to balance technical challenges with commercial context.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills.
• Understanding of core legal concepts relating to contracts for operation and management of renewable energy projects.
• Ability to assess risks and develop mitigation strategies.
• Self-starter with energy, initiative and delivery focus.

Responsibilities

• Oversee technical asset management and performance.
• Coordinate onboarding and transitioning of new assets.
• Build relationships with stakeholders and regulatory bodies.
• Manage technical performance via third-party Asset Managers or direct oversight.
• Resolve operational issues with strong problem-solving and urgency.
• Build and maintain relationships with external stakeholders and regulators (e.g. AEMO).
• Oversee contract delivery under Asset Management, O&M and third-party contracts; coordinate defect closeout.
• Support budgeting for Opex and provide insights for cost optimisation.
• Identify opportunities to improve asset performance and revenue with data-driven analysis.
• Prepare monthly asset reports and quarterly board materials with external asset managers and finance teams.
• Promote data-driven decision making to achieve best-in-class performance.

Skills

Technical understanding of renewable energy assets

Project management

Problem-solving capabilities

Compliance knowledge

Strong communication skills

Education

Tertiary qualification in project management or engineering

Tools

MS Excel

Job description

Overview

This is an exciting opportunity to join the Octopus Australia team in our Sydney or Melbourne office. As a valued member of the Assets team, you will play a pivotal role in achieving our mission to harness capital and expertise to accelerate the energy transition.

The successful candidate will have a strong technical understanding of the operation of Wind, Solar and Storage assets and be responsible for driving operational performance, whilst ensuring that best practices for contract, governance, and financial management with support from the finance function.

Role focus

The role is focused on technical asset management of our renewable assets including hybrid, solar, wind and storage. By working alongside our external partners and internal teams, the role will initially lead on bringing our hybrid assets into operations while transitioning to their ongoing management and optimisation. The role will at times become ‘hands on’ in solving issues, and at other times require technical and contract oversight of service providers.

This role will be based in Sydney or Melbourne, with site visits where required, and occasional travel between offices.

Company

Octopus Australia

Established in 2018, Octopus Australia is a dynamic multi-disciplinary team of over 60 highly skilled people which spans the expertise required to realise and operate a renewable energy and storage portfolio. With an existing multi-GW portfolio of operating and development assets, including solar, wind and battery storage across the country, we are continuing to grow to create a long-term business that can deliver a firmed energy product to meet the evolving needs of Australia’s energy future.

Job Description & Responsibilities

Applicants should be confident in taking ownership of all aspects of technical asset management, while effectively delegating and coordinating technical activities performed by third parties.

Key job functions include:

• Project management: Co-ordinate multi-disciplinary internal/external teams to ensure successful onboarding and transitioning to operations of new assets into asset management
• Compliance: Promote a culture of compliance focused on health, safety, and environment. Oversee all compliance activities at operational assets.
• Community Engagement: Work with the community and stakeholder engagement manager to develop and implement the community engagement strategy and initiatives.
• Technical: Manage all technical aspects of site performance through 3rd party Asset Managers or directly – performing detailed reviews on areas impacting safety, compliance or plant performance as required.
• Problem solving: Strong problem-solving capabilities to work through operational asset performance issues and bring multiple stakeholders together to resolve with a sense of urgency.
• Relationships: Proactively build strong relationships with external stakeholders, regulatory bodies (e.g. AEMO) and external partners.
• Contract Management: Ensure timely delivery of services under Asset Management, O&M and 3rd party contracts. Liaise with construction & engineering team on defect closeout. Set up performance metrics for all contracts within the Assets team.
• Opex Budgets: Support the finance function and 3rd party asset managers to prepare and manage yearly Opex budgets including reporting and insights.
• Develop: Create and implement bespoke technical asset performance opportunities to maximise site performance and revenue, including tracking and reporting with deep insights.
• Reporting: Prepare monthly asset and quarterly board reports for the leadership team in conjunction with external asset managers and the finance function.
• Data: Work with all stakeholders to implement a data-driven approach to decision making to ensure asset delivers best-in-class performance.

Qualifications

Ideally, you will have some or all of the following qualifications, skills and experiences:

• Eligibility to work in Australia – visa sponsorship is not offered.
• Experience. Prior experience working on renewable energy projects with a strong preference for candidates with experience on Australian projects connected to the NEM, with an understanding of technical plant performance requirements of the various technologies and key commercial principles.
• Qualifications. A tertiary qualification in project management, engineering, or a related discipline.
• Contract and project management skills demonstrating high organisation, diligence, and confidence with complex contract environments.
• Understanding of Health, Safety and Environmental practices, legislations, and requirements.
• Knowledge of Compliance requirements across a NEM operating asset.
• Ability to build strong relationships with key project partners.
• Candidates must demonstrate a commercial mindset, with ability to consider technical challenges in a broader commercial and investment context.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills. The ability to communicate effectively and ensure your communication strategy covers different stakeholders.
• An understanding of core legal concepts, particularly relating to contracts for the operation and management of renewable energy projects.
• Ability to understand risks, balanced appraisal of probability and severity, and develop feasible mitigation strategies.
• A self-starter with high energy levels, tenacity, initiative, and willingness to commit to deliver the required results.

We value diversity and inclusion and encourage applications from individuals with varied backgrounds and experiences. If you’re passionate about renewable energy and meet most of the criteria, we’d love to hear from you.

Additional Information

What we offer

• 💰 A competitive salary package including bonus and medical insurance benefits
• ✈️ Extra Annual Leave entitlement
• 🏡 Flexible working
• Ongoing learning and career development opportunities

Octopus Australia has built an exciting and inclusive high-performance culture where employees feel empowered. We also understand the value of diversity, and we are dedicated to creating an inclusive workplace environment. We would welcome people of all backgrounds to apply.

Our Values

At Octopus Australia we don’t just focus on what we do but also how we do it. Everyone shares our values of being straightforward, helpful, bold and empathetic. Our culture is critical to our success and is built around four principles that underpin how we pursue our goals:

• Be Bold – We like people who make decisions quickly and are OK changing their mind if there’s a better way of doing things.
• Be Helpful – We like people who behave as if it’s day one and who understand that without our customers there is no business.
• Be Straightforward – We like people who have opinions and express them in a respectful, easy-to-understand way.
• Be Empathetic – We like people who care about others and take the time to understand different perspectives.