Electrical Engineer – Octopus Australia

This is an opportunity to join the Octopus office in Melbourne to focus on the launch and ongoing delivery of Octopus Australia renewable energy funds. The successful applicant will be able to join a team in Australia during an exciting period of growth as the country accelerates the transition away from coal towards renewables.

About Octopus

Octopus is a fast-growing company with more than 800 employees. From a standing start in 2010 Octopus grew its energy business rapidly to become Europe’s largest non-utility renewable energy investor. The core technology in this portfolio is solar PV – Octopus now manages over 1.3 GW of solar projects in the UK, France, Italy, and Australia on behalf of its investors and has the equivalent of nearly AUD 7 billion under management in the Energy team. We have one of the fastest growing energy retail businesses in the UK with almost 2 million customers.

In January 2018, an office was opened in Melbourne to take advantage of a rapidly growing renewable energy investment market. We have invested in the 333 MWDC Darlington Point Solar Farm – the largest so far in Australia – and have a strong national pipeline of projects across solar, wind and grid battery storage.

We have a team of 30 across Melbourne, Sydney, and Auckland.

The Brand – Octopus Australia – Closer to the Assets:

The Octopus Australia team here has big ambitions to become the main catalyst in Australia’s transition to renewable energy by being the premier developer/owner/operator of renewable energy assets in Australia. Our strategy for doing so is to bring all the key stakeholders (the community, government, energy buyers, and investors) in a renewables project “closer to the assets” in which they are involved. This means bringing transparency and openness to the long-term services, benefits and returns these assets provide. Alignment of these stakeholders we believe brings the greatest value to investors and will build Octopus Australia into a 100-year business.

About the Role

About the role

You will be responsible for providing technical support to the broader business including:

• Working with the investment team to provide grid-related insight on new investment opportunities
• Working with the development team during the early-development phase of projects, mainly in preliminary design of solar, wind and hybrid facilities, and management of the connection application process
• Providing technical support and management throughout the construction phase in areas including R1, registration, and R2 complianc
• Working with Asset Managers on operational assets to achieve high levels of plant performance and reliability, understanding and responding to operational matters on site.

The role is based in Melbourne  – with site visits required periodically to our projects throughout various stages. Our current portfolio consists of a mixture of greenfield through to late-stage assets.

Just as important as what you achieve in this role, is how you perform the role. We’ll need you to be an engaged team member, who can provide technical guidance to investment and development leads. You need to be a self-starter with high energy levels, tenacity, initiative, and a willingness to commit whatever it takes to deliver the required results.

Be ready for a dynamic work environment, with a start-up mindset. You’ll be encouraged and supported to be bold in your thinking and leadership, whilst being a helpful colleague to those around you.

Essential Job Functions

The role will require robust technical knowledge in renewable assets including solar, wind and storage with a ‘hands on’ approach to solving issues, as well as strong organisational and contractual oversight of service providers. Applicants must be confident and comfortable in this oversight role and effective at delegating and then managing the underlying technical activities carried out by third parties.

Key job functions include:

Fostering a culture that prioritises safety and ensuring all projects are delivered to the highest health and safety standards

• Ensuring high quality and timely delivery of technical reports, presentations, insights, and guidance to the broader business
• The ability to independently travel to site
• Schedule and contract management
• Forming and maintaining strong relationships with project participants, including contractors, investors, local authorities, and community members
• Working with NSPs and AEMO to deliver connection arrangements
• Running tender processes and selecting contractors and consultants

Qualifications

Outline of skills/experience required:

• Eligibility to work in Australia – visa sponsorship is not offered
• Qualifications. Candidates should have a tertiary qualification in electrical engineering or a related discipline
• To facilitate the travel to site, a valid driver’s licence is necessary
• Experience. Prior (at least 2 years) experience working on grid-scale renewable energy projects with a strong preference for candidates with experience on Australian projects. Particular emphasis is placed on grid connection experience within Australia
• Contract and project management skills. The candidate must be highly organised, confident in managing contracts and able to handle relationships with external consultants effectively, sometimes in challenging circumstances
• Candidates must demonstrate a commercial mindset, and in particular be able to consider technical challenges in a broader commercial and investment context
•  An understanding of core legal concepts, particularly those relating to contracts for the construction and management of renewable energy projects
•  An ability to understand risks, reach a balanced appraisal of probability and severity and build workable risk mitigation strategies
• Expertise in Health, Safety and Environmental practices, legislations, and requirements.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills

What we offer

💰  A competitive salary, bonus, share incentive plan
✈️ Take what you need holiday
🏡 Flexible working 
⚓ Anchor (our wellness hub) which includes Headspace 
👪 Enhanced family leave policies

Octopus has built an exciting and inclusive high-performance culture where employees feel empowered. This means we welcome discussions around flexible working hours or part time work. We also understand the value of diversity, and we have a team dedicated to promoting gender, ethnic, socio-economic, LGBT and disability equality, to make sure we back up our words with actions. All Octopus employees are given the opportunity to develop new skills, aim higher and accelerate their careers.

Our Values 

At Octopus we don’t just focus on what we do but also how we do it. Everyone to shares our values of being straightforward, helpful and bold. 

And while these are the fundamentals that guide us as an organisation, our DNA goes even further, by revealing our inner strengths: 

• We are loyal: we fully buy-in to the company's vision and believe in everything that Octopus stands for.
• We are respectful: we live and breathe the Octopus values of being helpful, straightforward, and bold. 
• We are resilient: we have an inner strength that means we never give in. 
• We are intellectually curious: we seek to understand how the world works and were always learning, adapting and improving.