Energy Jobs: Green Charge, PG&E, Edison International, Greenworks, Vivint Solar, SolarCity, UBS

Executive and boardroom moves in cleantech, utilities, energy and venture capital.

Green Charge named Tanya Willacy as its general counsel. Most recently, Willacy was head of legal for SunEdison’s distributed generation division. Prior to SunEdison, Willacy spent 13 years with Pacific Gas and Electric, where she helped launch the utility’s first energy storage solicitation. Green Charge, now part of Engie (a large independent power producer), claims to have more than 55 megawatt-hours of energy storage projects in operation or under construction.           

Vivint Solar, a residential solar installer and financier, promoted Chance Allred to chief sales officer, Paul Dickson to chief revenue officer, and Bryan Christiansen to chief operations officer.

Brooke Reilly was promoted to director of demand response and data platforms at Pacific Gas and Electric.  

Jeremy Smith, formerly of Evolve Solar, is now CFO at solar installer Encor Solar.

Edison Energy named Rob Federighi of SoCore Energy, as managing director of commercial market sales. Edison International acquired SoCore in 2013.   

Aaron Kraus, formerly with SolarCity, is now director of market activation and policy at Greenworks Lending. Greenworks uses the property-assessed clean energy tool to reduce the cost of financing clean energy, energy efficiency, energy storage and water improvements in the commercial and industrial market segment.    

According to Hawaii's Honolulu Star-Advertiser, PV building permits on Oahu fell to 379 last month, down 40 percent from 631 in September 2015. The article cites data from Marco Mangelsdorf, president of Hilo-based ProVision Solar. Mangelsdorf added that the self-supply program had a low adoption rate, "with less than 60 [projects] in the pipelines for all three Hawaii Electric utilities as of Sept. 27.”

The article noted, "Some 442 solar employees have lost their jobs since the end of a popular [NEM] solar incentive program, equaling a 42 percent reduction in the solar workforce over the last year."

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Enertech Search Partners, an executive search firm with a dedicated cleantech practice, is the sponsor of the GTM jobs column.

Among its many active searches, Enertech is looking for a Senior Account Manager -- Energy Efficiency.

The client provides the leading DSM Operations Platform for utilities and energy-efficiency program implementers, exclusively focused on cloud-based DSM solutions. After nearly 9 years in business, they are proud to maintain 100 percent customer reference ability.

Currently, the client is seeking a Senior Account Manager that can retain and maintain strong relationships with prospect clients and utilities. The candidate will need to demonstrate past sales success in the enterprise software application environment and will be reporting to the VP of Business Development. 5+ years in software sales and 4+ years in selling to utilities are required for this position.

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The UBS Evidence Lab has detected a slowdown in solar hiring, noting "a decline in the intensity of online job postings at an accelerating rate for both solar installations and solar sales positions. The deceleration is more significant for sales postings than installer postings, which reverses the boom in sales postings."

FIGURE: National Solar Sales and Installation Positions

Source: UBS Evidence Lab



Also, mechanical gears have been observed in nature for the first time.

From the previous jobs column:

According to Bloomberg News, hundreds of employees in Apple's automotive program (Project Titan) are being reassigned or laid off. Apple's plan "no longer includes building its own car, according to people familiar with the project." Rather, the company is "refocused on developing an autonomous driving system that gives Apple flexibility to either partner with existing carmakers, or return to designing its own vehicle in the future."   

Electric-bus builder Proterra named Josh Ensign as COO. Before Proterra, Ensign was VP of manufacturing at Tesla Motors -- responsible for manufacturing activities at the Fremont, California production site. Proterra has raised a total of more than $230 million in VC funding from investors including KPCB, GM Ventures, Hennessey Capital, NMT Capital, Mitsui & Co. Global Investment, 88 Green Ventures and Vision Ridge Partners.