Director of Operations (m/w/d)

Job Description

GridStor is a rapidly growing, grid-scale energy storage developer, owner and operator backed by Goldman Sachs Asset Management ("GSAM") and led by experienced clean energy industry professionals. We acquire and develop battery storage projects in markets across North America. GridStor's mission is to accelerate the transition to a carbon-free, resilient grid by rapidly deploying stand-alone energy storage at scale.

GridStor is based in Portland, Oregon, and offers competitive compensation and a wide selection of benefits including unlimited paid time off. Read more about life at GridStor at: https://gridstor.com/careers/

Role Summary

GridStor is looking for an experienced Director of Operations to join our team. This role will be responsible for overseeing GridStor's operational asset performance by leading grid operations, field services, performance engineering, and operations engineering to ensure safe, reliable, and market-optimized operation of GridStor's BESS assets. The role directs field activities, establishes standard operating procedures and protocols, and oversees outage coordination. This person will also serve as Operations Safety Director, providing strategic leadership and staff development, fostering a culture of safety, quality, and accountability across the organization. Ideal candidates will have substantial utility-scale energy asset experience, combining control room and hands-on technical expertise. Proven leadership in multi-disciplinary teams, maintenance programs, and ISO/RTO market optimization is required. Strong technical fluency in inverter-based systems, high-voltage safety, SCADA/EMS platforms, and outage response is essential, along with the ability to translate operational issues into business impacts and maintain effective relationships with remote operations centers, OEMs, and O&M partners. Candidates should be disciplined, safety-driven, and capable of building scalable processes and guiding engineering and field service teams.

Key Responsibilities

Grid Operations

• Coordinate with trading/market operations on dispatch optimization, BESS state of health management, and revenue maximization.
• Monitor real-time performance of BESS assets using SCADA, EMS, or other digital platforms
• Develop and maintain relationships with GridStor's third-party Remote Operating Centers and develop procedures for incident, system events, and operational anomaly response.
• Ensure asset operations comply with federal, state, and local regulations (e.g., OSHA, NFPA 855, UL 9540A, NERC) and internal operational policies and procedures.
• Act as in-house expert on all things related to dispatch of assets (e.g. ADS/AGC, Emergency Dispatch, etc.)

Field Services

• Manage the GridStor field services team and infrastructure
• Maintain leadership-level relationships with GridStor's third-party O&M providers
• Develop and implement standard operating procedures (SOPs) and emergency protocols related to on-site work
• Ensure all service activities comply with company standards, customer contracts, and regulatory requirements (e.g., OSHA, NERC, ISO)
• Manage field services procedures and activities associated with outage coordination

Performance Engineering

• Manage the performance engineering team that monitors, analyzes, and optimizes the operational efficiency of GridStor assets
• Develop and maintain key performance indicators (KPIs) for energy generation assets
• Build and maintain data engineering pipelines for performance data from site in coordination with the SCADA/Controls team
• Build and maintain dashboards and applications related to the GridStor business unit access of operational information
• Prepare and present regular reports to executive leadership, highlighting performance against budget and identifying improvement opportunities

Operations Engineering

• Oversee operation-phase capital projects including major repairs and modifications
• Oversee root-cause analysis for performance issues or anomalies
• Implement predictive and condition-based maintenance strategies
• Organize and manage response to outage events and unplanned maintenance and repair events
• Ensure proper spare-parts strategy, inventory management, and lifecycle planning
• Oversee operational readiness for new BESS assets entering service

Organizational Leadership

• Perform as Operations Safety Director and champion safety, quality, and accountability across the team
• Act as a strategic business partner to GridStor senior leadership by identifying growth opportunities, improving cost efficiency, and driving operational results
• Provide organizational leadership to staff associated with each of the associated functional areas (Grid Operations, Field Services, Performance Engineering, and Operations Engineering)
• Recruit, mentor, and develop BESS operations personnel, ensuring the team is client-focused, performance-driven, and aligned with company culture