Senior Engineering Manager

Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa
Full Time
CrossBoundary Energy
Manager/Supervisor
Senior Engineering Manager
CrossBoundary Energy

About the Firm
CrossBoundary Energy (CBE) is a leading provider of clean, renewable, reliable, and affordable electricity directly to mines globally. According to research by McKinsey’s Basic Materials Institute, the mining sector represents 1% of global CO2 emissions. CBE helps to reduce these emissions by providing mining houses with fully financed renewable power. Through this approach, we are building a disruptive, distributed, renewable utility that can unlock sustainable growth throughout the mining industry.
We are already making rapid progress towards our vision. CBE is currently delivering a portfolio of over $200M of solar, wind, and storage projects for businesses across Africa and Australia. Our clients include Rio Tinto, Syrah Resources, NextSource Materials, ENEOS, Bulwer Island, Diageo, Heineken, Unilever, and other leading regional companies.
CrossBoundary Energy is a member of the CrossBoundary Group, a mission-driven investment firm committed to unlocking the power of capital for sustainable growth and strong returns in underserved markets. Learn more at www.crossboundary.com.

Why join us
The CrossBoundary Energy team is a unique group of people who are genuinely excited by the opportunity to make a difference in some of the world’s most challenging and exciting renewable energy markets. The chosen candidate will play an important role in a unique team with the opportunity to make a large impact on the clean energy landscape for mines across the world. Team members come from diverse backgrounds but share several qualities: curiosity, humility, integrity, a drive for excellence, and a bias for action. 

What you'll do
We are seeking a highly experienced and technically proficient Senior Engineering Manager to lead engineering functions and teams across the full lifecycle of large-scale utility and hybrid renewable energy projects. This role is pivotal in driving technical excellence, ensuring robust design and implementation, and supporting operational optimization across a diverse portfolio of renewable energy assets. CBE is not an EPC or a pure developer, as we seek to build a portfolio of long-term, high-performing assets. CBE will look to you for practical insights on how to make discrete business decisions that will directly affect our financial outcomes.

Primary Responsibilities
  • Lead the technical development of renewable energy projects, including site studies, resource assessments, and optimal configuration design.
  • Provide technical inputs into contractual documentation, including Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) and contractor technical schedules.
  • Oversee and coordinate owner’s engineering workstreams, including interface management, design reviews, testing and commissioning plans, and handover to operations.
  • Support root cause analysis and performance optimization of operating plants.
  • Develop and continuously improve engineering processes, standards, and team structures.
  • Manage and mentor a team of engineers working across multiple projects at various lifecycle stages.
Qualifications
Ideal candidate will have the following skills and qualifications:
  • Minimum requirement: Bachelor’s degree in engineering (Electrical, Mechanical, Renewable Energy, or related discipline).
  • Discipline is less critical than the candidate’s ability to understand and lead across all technical workstreams.
  • >8 years of relevant experience in engineering roles within the renewable energy sector, or demonstrable experience across several large-scale or complex hybrid projects (PV, BESS, Thermal, Wind) in roles such as Project Engineer, EPC, or Owner’s Engineer.
  • Proven experience in the complete lifecycle of technical development, design, implementation, and operating large, complex utility-scale or hybrid renewable energy facilities.
  • Strong understanding of design workstreams related to large-scale renewable energy projects.
  • Experience in the following sectors / skills will be advantageous:
    • Renewable System Design & Modelling
      • Resource assessments and optimal system configuration and sizing
      • Fundamental understanding of energy modelling and simulation tools
    • Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) designs and integration
    • Photovoltaic (PV) System designs, technology selection and implementation of large-scale projects
    • Wind Energy Systems designs, technology selection and implementation of large-scale projects
    • MV system design, including grid interfaces, outdoor / indoor substation design and specification
    • Power System Studies (Grid integration, protection coordination, transient / dynamic stability assessments)
    • SCADA / EMS designs
      • Operational Technology (OT) communication systems design
      • Control philosophy management and optimisation, with key understanding of control modes and applications provided by different suppliers.
      • Control and functional design specifications
Who You Are
  • Self-starter who is passionate about clean energy and its potential to transform fragile states and frontier markets in Africa
  • Understand the fundamentals of deploying grid scale applications for renewable energy, power systems engineering, electrical transmission/distribution networks and / or electrical generation
  • Capable of applying engineering principles to complex, bespoke problems that require creative thinking
  • Comfortable with ambiguity; you are effective in a fast-moving and complex environment that does not have a fixed rule book.
  • A practical thinker known for choosing the simple, robust solution where more complicated approaches would deliver the same results
  • A systematic and highly-organized project manager; takes personal accountability for tracking numerous activities across workstreams and driving them all to successful conclusion
  • A creative problem-solver not afraid to get their hands dirty to untangle a complex issue
Think you have what it takes but are not sure you check every box? Research shows that while men apply to roles when they meet an average of 60% of the criteria, women often only apply when they meet every requirement. If you're passionate about what we're building, we want to hear from you!  

Location
Candidates will ideally work from either Kenya or South Africa, but we are open to considering alternative offices. 

Equal Opportunity Employer
CrossBoundary is an equal opportunity employer. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request to [email protected]





 
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