Director of the Municipal Energy Unit

Massachusetts Clean Energy; Boston; On-site; PHP 7,519,000 - 11,278,000; Full time

Job summary

The City of Boston seeks a Director of the Municipal Energy Unit to lead energy efficiency, decarbonization, and the Renew Boston Trust program across municipal facilities. Reporting to the Director of Energy Justice in the Environment Department, the role oversees energy aggregation, policy development, and coordination with other City divisions to advance the Climate Action Plan.

Candidates should bring 5+ years in energy project management and a strong background in public-sector energy

Qualifications

• Five years of full-time or equivalent energy project management with supervisory roles.
• Experience in energy efficiency and distributed energy projects (PV, solar thermal, geothermal, CHP, storage).
• Experience managing public-sector ESPCs is strongly preferred.
• Bachelor’s degree required; MBA/JD/related master’s is preferred and may substitute for three years of experience.
• Strong judgment, attention to detail, and communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead energy efficiency and distributed energy projects on Boston assets.
• Oversee EPC procurement, implementation, and M&V for Renew Boston Trust.
• Develop energy policies and goals for municipal facilities and Climate Action Plan alignment.
• Manage MEU staff, budgets, and cross-department coordination.

Skills

Project management

Energy policy

Leadership

Verbal communication

Writing

Education

Bachelor's degree

MBA or related master's preferred

Tools

Microsoft Office

Google Workspace

Job description

As part of Mayor Wu's vision for a Green New Deal for Boston, the City of Boston is seeking a Director of the Municipal Energy Unit (MEU). The Director works to understand how is used energy in the City and seeks to reduce the impact from energy use by implementing energy conservation measures in municipal buildings, reducing the carbon and other emissions from energy sources used, implementing and managing the operational and energy functions of the community choice energy program, and encouraging other parties to follow the City's leadership.

The Director of the MEU reports to the Director of Energy Justice in the Environment Department, and interacts with all segments of Boston's municipal government and of the Boston community.

Job Duties/Responsibilities

• Leads energy related projects including municipal aggregation and project-based efficiency initiatives on Boston's municipal assets. Oversee the procurement, underwriting, implementation, and performance of building and district-scale efficiency, distributed energy generation and energy-related resilience measures on Boston's municipal assets. Collaborating with counterparts in other departments including Public Works, Public Facilities and Finance, they lead efforts to develop energy policies and goals for municipal facilities. They will identify efficiency projects, incorporate them into the City's budgeting process, and ensure their successful short- and long-term implementation. The Director ensures that City staff or its contractors receive guidance on energy priorities, maintenance and operating procedures, efficiency and conservation measures, on-site energy generation and resiliency upgrades, through workforce training or energy services and facilities management contracting. The MEU Director runs the Renew Boston Trust Program, the City's program to implement energy and water efficiency and decarbonization measures in municipally-owned buildings and street lighting, and the development of related new initiatives to advance this work. They develop RBT program procedures and business practices, manage associated vendor relationships, and coordinate with other City divisions participating in the program.
• Leads development, implementation and operation of the City's electric municipal aggregation program to provide electricity to residents and businesses within the City consistent with the principles and values for the program,coordinates with the BCCE Program manager and assistant to ensure customer engagement and communications information is accurate and up-to-date.
• Leads development of recommendations for energy policies and goals, and energy reduction efforts, for municipal assets in support of the City's Climate Action Plan.
• Leads energy reduction efforts on municipal assets to fulfill the City's Climate Action goals.
• Leads efforts to identify projects or technical assistance to other City departments that lower operating costs, improve indoor environmental quality and reduce GHG emissions.
• Supports the City's policy objectives to expand investment and workforce development in public infrastructure.
• Maintains MEU and City department relationships involved in RBT Energy Performance Contracting project procurement and implementation.
• Oversees the ongoing management of any EPCs enacted via Renew Boston Trust Municipal, including coordination of inter-departmental work teams.
• Manages the MEU's staff, including performing annual reviews and making recommendations on hiring and other personnel actions.
• Manages the MEU's finance, project management, and data management work with building-scale systems and technologies, enterprise level monitoring and control systems, procedures and practices, and associated vendor relationships.
• Supervises municipal energy supply procurements, verification of third-party supplier billing and coordination of special projects and grant administration.
• Coordinates MEU resources to develop, schedule and implement energy efficiency and distributed energy resource projects.
• Develops the efficiency expertise and implementation capacity of all City departments.
• Performs related duties as required.

Qualifications

• Five (5) years of full-time, or equivalent part-time, professional work which included experience in project management implementing multiple energy efficiency and distributed energy projects (e.g. photovoltaics, solar thermal, geothermal, combined heat and power, battery storage), two years of which must have been in a supervisory or managerial capacity.
• Buy-side (owner) or sell-side (vendor) experience managing a wide variety of efficiency and distributed energy measures.
• A bachelor's degree is required.
• A J.D., MBA, or master's degree in energy, engineering, policy or a related field is strongly preferred and may be substituted for three (3) years of the required experience. Management experience may not be substituted.
• Ability to exercise good judgment and focus on detail as required by the job.
• Experience managing public-sector energy services performance contracts (ESPC) at the federal, state, or local level from procurement through implementation to measurement and verification (M&V) is strongly preferred.
• Relevant governmental experience with a range of assets matching those in the City of Boston'sportfolio is preferred.
• Experience with projects procured under MGL c25A §11i and §11c is preferred.
• Knowledge with Microsoft Office and Google Suite.
• Strong verbal communication skills, writing, and presentation skills