The base salary range for this position is dependent upon experience and location, ranging from: $153,000 - $191,000

Job Summary:

The Director - NECEC Permitting & Compliance is responsible for securing all international, federal, state and municipal environmental and land use approvals for NECEC, and for assuring that NECEC construction and operations comply fully with all conditions of these approvals. The NECEC project is a $1B, 1200 MW HVDC link between the Central Maine Power Company bulk power transmission system and Hydro-Quebec, Quebec, Canada. The project consists of a new 145-mile 320kV HVDC transmission line, New HVDC Converter Station, 1 mile underground horizontal directional drill crossing beneath the Kennebec River, and $200M in network upgrades.

The Director position is a key leadership role, critical to the success of the project throughout its life cycle, responsible for securing and maintaining the approvals that are prerequisites to commencement and completion of NECEC construction and operation. Since its inception NECEC has generated motivated, well-financed, dedicated, widespread and persistent opposition. The Director is responsible for successfully securing all regulatory approvals despite the impacts of this opposition to NECEC, including the resulting significant delays, hearings, numerous additional regulatory and permitting steps, appeals, closer scrutiny, and rework of permitting. The Director is responsible for anticipating and understanding the regulatory, cost, engineering, construction and community relations implications of this opposition, and for working with all levels Avangrid, as well as outside consultants, to develop and implement strategies to mitigate the adverse impacts of this opposition.

The Director is responsible for developing and implementing effective permitting and permit compliance strategies, and coordinating with international, federal and state regulatory and natural resource bodies and agencies, stakeholders, project supporters, media consultants, and others to secure practical, cost-effective and favorable approvals. The Director is responsible for ensuring compliance throughout construction of the project, minimizing the financial impact of any potential non-compliances, avoiding and minimizing work stoppages through oversight of environmental inspectors and contractors, and cooperating with regulatory agency leadership as required.

The Director leads and directs a team of 10+ environmental, legal, real estate, and construction consultants, contractors and professionals to secure and implement NECEC approvals.

The Director will report to AVANGRID’s Vice President of Projects. The Director will coordinate with numerous departments across the organization, ensuring that they perform consistent with all NECEC approvals and all federal, state and municipal environmental statutes, regulations and ordinances.

Key Responsibilities:

• Full responsibility for securing all required NECEC environmental and land use approvals, including identification of all required approvals, development and implementation of permitting strategies, development and contracting of field studies to support applications, review and editing of all applications to ensure completeness, accuracy, consistency, and positive precedents, interacting and negotiating with senior leadership of environmental and natural resource agencies and non-governmental organizations, representing the NECEC project in regulatory hearings and public hearings as a subject-matter expert, and leading team of environmental scientists, attorneys, geologists, engineers and others in development of accurate and timely responses to agency application queries.

• Identification and mitigation of NECEC permitting and permits compliance risks, leading internal and external risk discussions, monitoring the effectiveness of associated risk mitigation strategies, and modifying strategies to optimize permitting and compliance outcomes.

• Effectively advocate for, explain and defend NECEC proposal and its benefits before often hostile or unreceptive municipal boards, citizens, hearing participants, and other stakeholders.

• Serve as the face of the NECEC project and company before multiple audiences and in multiple permitting, regulatory, and community relations settings.

• Reviewing and editing outside legal counsel’s draft regulatory and legal filings to ensure they are strategically effective, accurate, complete and timely.

• Act as functional lead and main point of contact with Engineering and Construction and other internal stakeholders regarding permit application information requirements, acceptable/permittable design, location and construction considerations, and permit-related construction timelines and constraints.

• Generate accurate, practical and timely reports to update all organizational levels on permitting status, permit compliance, and environmental performance.

• Prepare executive reports, provide general support to the NECEC management team, and present to the Executive Team on a regular basis.

• Track environmental compliance and performance, evaluate trends, and develop and implement corrective action plans to ensure compliance throughout NECEC construction. Report to Executive Team as needed.

• Review proposed laws for their impact on NECEC, provide written comments and contribute to testimony to support NECEC.

• Coordinate with Controls to calculate and implement permit related financial commitments (in-lieu fees, land conservation).

Required Qualifications:

• Education & Experience Required:

• Bachelors’ Degree in Ecology, Environmental Science, or Regulatory, and a minimum of 15 years relevant experience required.

• Master’s Degree or MBA preferred.

• Minimum of 15 years of broad-based experience in the energy, environmental and/or regulatory industry.

• Detailed knowledge and experience in environmental and land use statutes, regulations and ordinances, their practical application to grid-scale energy projects, permitting and regulatory processes, and regulatory staff personnel.

• Detailed knowledge and experience in all stages of environmental and land use regulation and permitting, including environmental studies scope development and implementation; proposal/application and information development and presentation; and effective natural resource agency, regulatory agency and stakeholder advocacy and interactions.

• Detailed knowledge, experience and competency in all aspects of environmental compliance, including interpretation of approval conditions; best management practices; effective compliance strategies; workforce orientation and training; root cause analysis; corrective action development; and regulatory agency cooperation and negotiation.

• Demonstrated effectiveness working in a large multi-faceted utility organization with evolving and varied goals, customers and stakeholders.

Skills/Abilities:

• Strong leadership, organizational and communication skills.

• Proven ability to research and understand complex legal and regulatory requirements, and to summarize and present these to others.

• Adept at interacting with regulatory agencies, developing and presenting to agencies in a credible, honest and effective manner to best position NECEC for success.

• Maintain calm, confidence and focus during adversarial NECEC public meetings.

• Work efficiently and effectively under ambitious deadlines and for extended periods requiring long hours.

• Proven ability to work effectively in a complex environment with many competing and shifting priorities and stakeholder demands.

• Strong focus on permit condition and overall environmental compliance, and identification of practical and cost-effective means of ensuring compliance.

• Strong business, financial, and schedule orientation.

• Excellent written, verbal and presentation skills.

• Proficient at Microsoft Office suite, particularly PowerPoint, Word and Excel.

• Clear understanding of permitting implications on construction sequence and schedules, and ability to work with Engineering and Construction to maximize efficiency.

• Motivated and able to work independently and motivate internal and external resources to meet key project objectives and deliverables.

• Strong interpersonal skills, ability to work across multifunctional teams and with executives and senior management.

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Avangrid employees may be assigned a system emergency role and in the event of a system emergency, may be required to work outside of their regular schedule/job duties. This is applicable to employees that will work in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, and New York within Avangrid Network and Corporate functions. This does not include those that will work for Avangrid Power.

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