Director of O&M Services

Adapture Renewables • Oakland, California • 3w ago

Opportunity

Adapture Renewables, Inc. is on a mission to be a leader in this new era of sustainable energy. Drawing upon an extensive knowledge base, we develop, finance, engineer, build, own, and operate high quality utility-scale photovoltaic projects and battery energy storage projects. Our Operations and Maintenance (O&M) team is looking for an experienced Director of O&M Services to lead and elevate the technical, financial, and operational management of our growing operating fleet. Adapture Renewables is owned by KIRKBI Climate – the private holding and investment company of the Kirk Kristiansen family founded to build a sustainable future for the LEGO® brand through generations.

Overview

This position leads the O&M Services function within our Asset Management team, which is responsible for the technical and financial management of a growing portfolio (currently approximately 650 MW) of utility-scale solar and battery energy storage projects located across the United States. This is an opportunity to continue to build on ARI’s O&M function by modernizing how the fleet is operated through data, automation, and disciplined financial management as the portfolio scales. The Director of O&M Services owns the strategy, operating budget, and vendor relationships that keep the fleet safe, available, and performing, partnering closely with the O&M Performance & Optimization, Asset Management, Engineering/EPC, and Project Finance teams. This is a leadership role that sets direction and holds execution accountability rather than performing day-to-day field tasks. This position reports to the VP of Asset Management and manages a small team (1–2 direct reports), including the O&M Manager.

Core Responsibilities

Strategy & fleet performance: Own the strategy and roadmap for the O&M Services function across the operating fleet. Define availability, performance, safety, and cost targets and the plan to achieve them.
Budget & P&L ownership: Build, own, and manage the annual O&M operating budgets and the O&M P&L. Lead a monthly budget-vs-actual cadence with rigorous variance analysis, root-causing, and reforecasting; benchmark cost-per-MW and cost-per-MWh across the fleet; and tie O&M spend to production and revenue. Report financial and operational performance to Asset Management leadership and ownership.
Data- & AI-enabled operations: Advance condition-based and predictive maintenance across the fleet by using fleet monitoring and operational data. Leverage analytics and AI tools to automate performance reporting, accelerate root-cause analysis, streamline contract and warranty review, and document recurring fixes and operating procedures.
Vendor & contract leadership: Lead the negotiation, structuring, and management of O&M service contracts, warranty agreements, and parts/service procurement. Hold third-party providers accountable through data-driven performance scorecards and KPI-based service levels, and use performance data to inform make-vs-buy and self-perform decisions as the fleet grows.
Systems & process architecture: Own the work-management and CMMS strategy for the function, consolidating monitoring tools into a single, reliable source of plant data. Standardize O&M processes so the function scales efficiently with a growing portfolio.
Team leadership: Lead and develop the O&M Services team (1–2 direct reports), including the O&M Manager. Set clear success criteria, give the team autonomy to operate, and build hiring and capability for a growing fleet.
Set the standard for fleet monitoring, troubleshooting, and work-order management; ensure issues are correctly identified, prioritized, and tracked to resolution with documented fiscal impact.
Direct spare-parts inventory strategy and supply-chain readiness across the fleet, addressing deficiencies before they affect availability.
Build reliability-engineering practices, including fleet-wide failure-mode trending and root-cause analysis.
Manage escalations and relationships with equipment suppliers and OEMs to secure warranty support and resolve recurring issues.
Partner cross-functionally with the O&M Performance & Optimization, Engineering/EPC, and Quality teams; feed O&M lessons learned into future project designs and reviews.
Own O&M readiness for the commissioning and onboarding of new projects entering the operating fleet.
Oversee site-services contractors and obligations, including regular and special (habitat) vegetation management; ISO connectivity (CAISO, ERCOT, PJM, etc.) issues; and fencing, gates, security, site access roads, erosion, tree trimming, neighbor relations, and related site activities.
Establish and maintain reporting standards: scheduled technical operating reports, periodic performance assessments, and budget/variance reporting for management and ownership.
Regular travel to operating sites is required.

Qualifications and Experience

7+ years of experience in solar O&M or operations with progressively increasing leadership responsibility; utility-scale strongly preferred.
Demonstrated people-leadership experience, including managing teams and/or third-party service providers.
Strong financial acumen, including P&L ownership, monthly budget-vs-actual and variance analysis, cost benchmarking, and building data-backed capital expenditure business cases.
Demonstrated use of data and analytics, and ideally AI tools, to improve operational outcomes such as availability, performance, and cost-to-resolution.
Direct experience negotiating and managing vendor and contract relationships, including O&M service agreements, warranties, and parts/service procurement, and KPI-based performance management.
Strong technical grounding across utility-scale PV and BESS systems, including troubleshooting strings/modules, inverters, combiner boxes, feeder lines (direct burial or conduit), racking hardware, tracker motors, actuators, bearings, controllers, sensors, and DAS/SCADA components.
Experience operating and maintaining battery energy storage systems strongly preferred, including familiarity with degradation, augmentation, and storage warranty management.
A continuous-improvement or reliability-engineering mindset, including root-cause analysis, failure-mode trending, and process standardization.
Excellent communication skills, a high level of organization, and the ability to lead cross-functionally with contractors, suppliers, and internal teams.
Proficiency with MS Office and web-based monitoring and field-service platforms such as PowerFactors and Salesforce; able to manage department directories and standard business applications.
Ability to take initiative and operate independently with limited guidance, with a drive to build and grow the function.
Bachelor’s degree in engineering or a related field preferred.