Head of Engineering Thermal

Alpiq is a leading Swiss electricity producer and energy services provider headquartered in Lausanne and active throughout Europe with a diverse portfolio of hydropower, nuclear power and renewable energy sources. Over 1,300 colleagues from almost 60 nations are committed to achieve our purpose: "Together for a better climate and an improved security of supply". In a culture built on trust and respect, we boldly challenge ourselves to be better. We believe that it requires attitude and character, focus on people, and different ways of thinking energy.

As we progress on our flexibility strategy, we have grouped all the gas asset activities under the single Business Unit Thermal. The BU mission is to ensure safe and performing operations of existing gas assets f fleet and to execute the growth ambition of the business unit in line with company strategy.

Reporting into BU Head, you will lead a team to directly support technical management of Alpiq Thermal existing assets. You will support asset owners to maintain the assets and continuously improve availability and performance through upgrades, life extensions, repowering. You will oversee and steer engineering, project management and plant upgrades. You will create a common set of KPIs and procedures in the Business Unit and you will provide the BU Head with technical expertise to support decision making process. You will support the strategic growth ambition of the Business unit with deep technical analysis and due diligence on new assets.
 

Your accountabilities 

Multi-geographies organization management

• Manage and connect with a (partly existing) diverse engineering team and O&M organizations, based in various countries
• Ensure coordination across the different teams in Europe and proper knowledge exchange among power plants

O&M and Asset management support

• Ensure adequate technical support for the O&M function in order to guarantee the safe achievement and improvement of the availability and reliability objectives of plants over time
• Support the planning and execution of plant maintenance
• Monitor plant performance and provide with adequate expertise in failures root cause analysis
• Manage new, upgrade and repowering projects including contracting & purchasing, construction management, commissioning
• Support with your team, Asset Managers for O&M services negotiation and contract management
• Support asset owners for purchasing strategic parts and services with adequate procedures and strong relationship with OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturers)
• Provides engineering authority for asset upgrades, retrofits, and performance enhancements

Business Unit support

• Create a set of common KPIs and procedures to ensure a proper reporting and benchmarking across the BU thermal and the Division Assets
• Provide BU Head with the required technical expertise to ensure uniform technical standards and to support decision making
• Support BU Head and Head of Strategic Growth in the scouting and valuation of acquisition of new thermal flexible assets;  provide expert advice on opportunities, participate in due diligences, project assessments etc.

Engineering expertise development

• Ensure the continuous development of the Asset Engineering’s team capabilities to keep a high level of expertise in gas assets
• Manage the relationship with Original Equipment Manufacturers and strategic suppliers to promote Alpiq interests
• Organize the market intelligence activity for the team to stay informed about industry trends and emerging technologies for gas plants and carbon capture technologies
• Foster a culture of continuous improvement by integrating lessons learned and stakeholder feedback

Your profile

You combine strong technical competences with solid leadership skills to manage a multi-cultural team and to interact with consolidated and expert O&M organizations, to maximize value for Alpiq, and you bring:

• Engineering degree
• 15+ years of extensive and proven experience in a technical position in engineering, project management or O&M teams in the energy industry (power producers, energy companies, manufacturers, technical adviser…)
• 10+ years of management experience
• Full professional proficiency level in English
• Willingness to travel frequently across Europe and to asset sites
• Leadership skills, with the ability to manage cross-functional teams and external partners
• Excellent problem-solving and decision-making abilities
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to present complex information clearly.