Project Engineer

RES is the world’s largest independent renewable energy company, working across 24 countries and active in wind, solar, energy storage, biomass, hydro, green hydrogen, transmission, and distribution. An industry innovator for over 40 years, RES has delivered more than 24 GW of renewable energy projects across the globe and plans to bring more than 22 GW of new capacity online in the next five years. As a service provider, RES has the skills and experience in asset management, operations and maintenance (O&M), and spare parts – supporting 41GW of renewable assets across 1,300 sites. RES brings to the market a range of purposeful, practical technology-based products and digital solutions designed to maximise investment and deployment of renewable energy. RES is the power behind a clean energy future where everyone has access to affordable zero carbon energy bringing together global experience, passion, and the innovation of its 4,500 people to transform the way energy is generated, stored and supplied.

The Position

The Project Engineer fulfils a core role in the deployment of Engineering Team’s contribution to the wider RES business. They may be deployed on any of RES’ Projects, which currently span wind, solar, battery storage and hybrid combinations of the same.

The Project Engineer is assigned and contributes to varied Projects across all development phases (early Site selection through to financial close), and may additionally be involved assisting with construction and operational Projects. When assigned to a given Project, the Project Engineer:

• Takes ownership for the wider Engineering team’s actions and deliverables, by assisting the Development Project Manager to facilitate the involvement of Engineering resources (internal and external) as required to meet the Project’s objectives,
• Manages the interfaces within the technical workstream and the wider Project Team,
• Performs a pivotal role in the techno-commercial optimisation of the Project,
• Assists the Procurement team as the primary point of support for all technical aspects of contracting the Project, including being responsible for specifications and scopes, and being responsible for technical aspects of negotiations and contracting, and
• Maintains an understanding of how actions of the Engineering team contribute to the overall Project’s objectives, and takes action where required to ensure Project objectives are met,

Operating within a matrix organization, the Project Engineer will work closely with various key roles within the wider RES Team (outside of the Engineering Team) depending on the phase of the project. Typically, these would be Directors of Development, Development Manager, Procurement Manager and Commercial Leads.

By their application of engineering problem solving processes, specialist and generalist technical knowledge, project management, commercial acumen and communication skills, the Project Engineer ensures the successful and efficient progression of Project deliverables within the context of the broader Project’s needs.

Core benefits of the Project Engineer’s involvement in a given Project is to ensure:

• the technical aspects of the Project are coherent, aligned and meet the needs of the different stakeholders in the Project, and
• Project optimization is progressed throughout the life of the Project, with a holistic view of technical and commercial attributes.

In order to realise these benefits the Project Engineer must demonstrate leadership, initiative and take ownership of a broad scope in the life of the Project. The Project Engineer is a generalist who through a broad understanding of renewables projects can identify and facilitate the right assistance that is needed to resolve any technical issue. They have the wisdom and self-awareness to identify instances where they or the Team have knowledge gaps (“I know what I don’t know”), and embodies the accountability required to ensure those gaps are appropriately resolved.

A Project Engineer is:

• frequently faced with issues which have no clear answers,
• must be comfortable with uncertainty, and
• open to learning and grappling with new topics.

To face these new topics, they are assisted by and able to learn from some of the best minds in the industry, namely the global RES Team.

Travel

Additionally, this role will involve occasional travel to Australian project sites, regular visits to RES' Sydney office, and occasional trips to RES' international offices as needed.

Key Accountabilities

• Every RES team member is expected to consistently demonstrate a very high level of performance and commitment, fully embodying the RES values of Passion, Accountability, Collaboration and Excellence.

• When assigned to a specific Project, the Project Engineer will support their assigned functional lead (as directed), in a broad range of Project tasks to assist in the successful deployment of business objectives

• As a notable example, when assigned to the final procurement and financing phase of a Project, the Project Engineer will:

• act as the primary interface between the Project stakeholders, especially the Closing Management Team and Engineering resources (RES local, RES global, external),

• ensure all technical aspects of the procurement activity are resolved, utilising their own-technical capabilities coupled with additional resources (RES Australia, RES International, external) as appropriate,

• work closely with the assigned Grid Engineer to ensure that risks at interfaces between the grid connection workstream and other aspects of the Project are being effectively managed,

• contribute to the selection, procurement and contracting of equipment and Project partners

• provide strong support to the Procurement Lead in the development and negotiation of contracts, particularly as related to technical specifications and topics that cut across technical, commercial and risk allocation,

• resolve discrepancies and reduce risks, notably at interface boundaries,

• respond to questions from prospective investors and lenders, typically via their due diligence representatives, and

• manage technical due diligence consultant(s).

• Lead Techno-Commercial Project optimisation

• Assist in project scheduling and resource planning as pertains to engineering activities

• Maintain oversight of RES’ technical adherence to legal and contractual obligations

• Identify risks and opportunities for optimisation for RES and the Project, notably those that are technical in nature or cut across several workstreams including technical.

• Ensure the Project’s trajectory is informed by risk appetite of investors, banks and insurers in the renewable energy market

• Owns engineering topics for the Project scope they have been assigned to, including tracking progress and keeping the wider Project team abreast of risks & opportunities as they evolve. They will act as the primary interface between the Project stakeholders and Engineering resources.

Knowledge Skills

• Technical content of renewable energy Projects (notably wind, solar, and/or battery storage) through all phases from site identification to operation:
  • A high level awareness of all topics
  • A detailed technical understanding of some technical aspects, preferably in regard to one or more of the three key technologies listed above
• Commercial drivers of successful renewable energy Projects
• Perception of risk and opportunity as viewed by potential Investors, Lenders and Insurers in the renewable energy market
• Contracting, preferably of performance guarantees, scope interface management and specification design
• Owner engineer’s scope in a renewable energy Project (preferred)
• Australian energy markets, notably the NEM
• Financial models and assisting in their compilation
• Excellent ability to network and nurture relationships with internal and external stakeholders
• Finessed communication capability, with ability to interface effectively with stakeholders of range of technical and seniority.
• Leadership, mentoring and supervision of engineering resources
• Ability to work across multi-discipline teams
• Strategic thinking
• Problem identification and problem solving
• Process development and application
• Project management, exercising good organisation and planning
• Interface management

Experience Qualifications

• Relevant post graduate experience of multi-disciplinary infrastructure projects, ideally the development, delivery and/or operation of renewable energy Project(s) (preferred)
• Techno-commercial optimisation of complex Projects
• Experience in negotiating technical and contractual issues through to commercially viable resolutions
• Negotiating and managing engineering Consultants and contracts.
• Identification and mitigation of project design, construction and management risks.
• Regulatory issues in the NEM (preferred)
• Track record in end-to-end delivery of generation or storage plant (preferred)
• Degree in engineering