Utility Engagement Lead

Forge Institute; Little Rock (AR); On-site; USD 130,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equal Opportunity Employer

Job summary

Forge Institute seeks a Managing Director/Utility Engagement Lead to advance cyber program initiatives with federal partners and utilities. The role focuses on persuading utilities to engage, enable staff participation in assessments and training, and ensuring long-term resilience across critical infrastructure.

Based in Arkansas, the role requires regular travel within the state, executive-level engagement, and a track record of building trust with diverse organizations.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field is required.
• Willingness and ability to travel within Arkansas approximately two days per week.

Responsibilities

• Build and sustain relationships with executive leadership and operational staff across participating utilities.
• Drive engagement in program activities and provide regular updates to Forge leadership and federal program officers.
• Serve as the primary day-to-day contact between Forge and utility partners, labs, and agencies.
• Coordinate scheduling and logistics with partners and travel within Arkansas as needed.
• Contribute to Forge’s pipeline of federal funding opportunities and long-term engagement with utilities.

Skills

Executive presence

Stakeholder management

Persuasion

Written communication

Verbal communication

Travel readiness

Education

Bachelor's degree in a relevant field

Advanced degree or industry certifications welcome

Job description

DESCRIPTION: The Managing Director will ensure that Forge Institute's cyber programs are at the cutting edge of technology and security.

About Forge Institute:

At Forge Institute, our mission is to advance critical technology capabilities for national security by strengthening the workforce, advancing innovation and enhancing resiliency through purposeful collaborations across the private and public sectors. Forge Institute is an Equal Opportunity Employer that empowers our people—no matter their race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, or veteran status—to fearlessly drive positive change.

Position Description:

The Role

The Utility Engagement Lead is the linchpin of Forge’s utility-facing work. Effective engagement with utility partners is what determines whether federal cybersecurity and risk programs deliver real value or fall flat. Forge has secured major awards and has multiple opportunities in the pipeline with federal partners that will continue and expand this kind of work. This is a permanent, ongoing role positioned at the center of that trajectory.

The role is fundamentally about persuasion and empowerment. Our programs do not deliver value unless utilities choose to engage with them and are equipped to fully utilize the offered technical assistance. Utilities have to commit staff time to assessments. Employees have to show up for training. Executives have to make space for briefings and tabletop exercises. None of that is automatic. We are looking for someone who can drive participation and the long-term resilience benefit to each utility and to the infrastructure they operate.

Key Responsibilities

• Build and sustain relationships with executive leadership and operational staff across the utilities currently participating in Forge programs.
• Drive participation in program activities including needs assessments, three-tier training, tabletop exercises, executive briefings, technical assistance engagements, and information/intelligence sharing and analysis.
• Serve as the primary day-to-day point of contact between Forge and each utility partner, federal labs and agencies.
• Travel regularly within Arkansas (Northwest, Northeast, and Central clusters) for in-person meetings, assessments, and training events. Be available for out of state travel as necessary.
• Represent Forge at utility executive briefings, board presentations, and sector industry events in Arkansas, the region and nationally.
• Identify barriers to engagement and work creatively to address them with your team.
• Coordinate scheduling and logistics with technical partners (federal labs and other partners on future programs).
• Track engagement metrics and provide regular updates to Forge leadership and federal program officers.
• Contribute to Forge’s pipeline of federal funding opportunities.
• Cultivate utility commitments to ongoing engagement with Forge beyond the duration of any individual program.

What Success Looks Like

• Identified utilities actively engaged.
• Completed cybersecurity capability assessments at every participating utility.
• Strong attendance across the training tiers (non-technical employees, leaders, technical professionals) etc.
• Sustained executive participation in briefings and exercises.
• Utilities committed to ongoing information and intelligence sharing through theETC/ ET-ISAC.
• A broadening base of utility partners ready to participate in Forge’s next set of program opportunities.

Required

• Demonstrated ability to persuade, build relationships, and drive participation among independent organizations.
• Executive presence and the ability to operate credibly with utility executives, boards, and operational staff.
• Willingness and ability to travel within Arkansas approximately two days per week, with flexibility as travel patterns shift across program phases and as Forge’s geographic scope expands.
• Strong written and verbal communication and analytical skills.
• Self-direction, organization, and comfort owning outcomes rather than activities.
• Ability to gain and maintain a security clearance.

Helpful Background

Two domains sit at the center of this work: the electric utility sector and cybersecurity. Candidates with direct experience in either or both will have an obvious head start, particularly:

• Experience in the electric utility sector, especially Arkansas, rural, cooperative, and/or municipal utilities with experience in grid operations/management.
• Working knowledge of cybersecurity sufficient to discuss program content credibly with both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Existing relationships with Arkansas electric cooperatives, municipal utilities, or sector associations.
• Experience with federal grant programs, cooperative agreements, or proposal development.

That said, we recognize candidates who can do this job well may come from adjacent backgrounds. We are equally interested in people who can demonstrate the ability to learn quickly and operate effectively in technical domains they did not start in. Examples of backgrounds we would welcome a conversation about include:

• Other regulated infrastructure sectors (water, gas, telecommunications, transportation).
• Economic development, rural community development, or technical assistance programs.
• B2B sales, partnership development, or consulting in technical fields.
• Workforce development, training, or education roles serving technical organizations.
• Federal program management or government-industry liaison work in any sector.

What matters more than the specific background is the combination of persuasive ability, comfort in technical conversations, and the appetite to learn cybersecurity and the utility business deeply enough to be credible quickly. If that describes you, we want to hear from you regardless of where you are coming from.

Education

Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field. Advanced degree or industry certifications welcome but not required. Relevant experience and demonstrated capability take priority over credentials.

Why This Role Matters

Forge’s mission is to bring national-grade cybersecurity expertise and federal resources to utilities that could not access them alone. That mission depends entirely on utility engagement. The best technical program in the world delivers zero value if the people it was designed to help never make it into the room. If you are energized by relationship-driven work, by building trust, and by helping shape what comes next, we want to talk to you.