Project Manager at Solar Capital (Pty) Ltd

The Role:

Solar Capital is currently seeking an experienced Project Manager to lead ongoing and future projects in South Africa. The Project Manager will be responsible for the planning, management and overview each project to ensure they are completed in a timely fashion and within budget. This person plans, prepares budgets in conjunction with Finance Team, monitors progress and keeps stakeholders updated entirely through the project, tracking key milestones, toll gates. This is all done within the confines of our Company goals and vision.

The Ideal Candidate:

• Ambitious, self-starter, with strong business acumen and a desire to drive excellence and innovation in the business.
• Demonstrated ability to drive projects. Deal maker, with an entrepreneurial flair to seek out and generate business leads and opportunities.
• Proven track record in project development of large-scale ground-mounted and/or floating solar projects from green field until Financial Close
• Demonstrated understanding of full project life cycle: initiation, planning, execution, and closure, and delivering on a post-mortem to ensure lesson learned to incorporate into new projects.
• Willing to take ownership for delivering project and management of key stakeholders.

Main Responsibilities:

• Project Manager (Solar) responsible for planning, scheduling, coordinating, and getting all the required approvals, consents, and compliances for construction of utility scale solar energy generation power plants from concept to completion including but not limited to:
• Responsible and accountable for overall management and delivery of design, engineering, construction of utility scale solar PV projects
• Responsible for Planning, Scheduling, Tracking, Providing the direction and support to construction team and all the contractors and sub-contractors for execution of work to required standards as per DOE norms and regulation.
• Responsible for forecasting of Resource requirements for the planned and assigned work
• Required to analyze and assess the risk factors involved during the execution of work and ensure they are mitigated
• Responsible to monitor and report the work progress to the COO / His Designate
• Responsible for daily and weekly reporting on the work progress
• Responsible for maintaining the best safety practices at site with zero accidents and LTIS
• Responsible for all documentation and handing over of the project to O&M with closure of all punch points.
• Responsible for smooth interface & relationship with ESKOM/Department of Energy/Local Communities for Social Economic Development and Project Stakeholders
• Responsible for coordination with the Supply chain team and the vendors for smooth flow of material
• Responsible for Coordination and liaison with ESKOM & DOE team to get all the necessary
• and sanctions for the plant construction, commissioning, operation and meeting all the mandatory compliances as per Republic of South Africa (RSA) regulations
• Responsible for Management and compliance of Local content Obligations by all the contractors, and subcontractors with maintenance of records and coordination with all the respective
• Responsible for Management and compliances of Ownership element obligation as per the local content requirement with timely reporting and maintenance of records as per the formats provided by DOE
• Responsible for coordinating with Lenders Engineers, Owners Engineers and the Lenders for timely approvals and clearances with submission of all records and documents

Accountability:

• Resource planning & Forecasting
• Ensure project compliances as per DOE and other government regulatory
• Getting all the project approvals & Drawing approvals from ESKOM/Government Authorities
• Meet project timeline as per set targets
• Cash Flow and Cost control for the project
• Contractor billing and Payments

Target Deliverable:

• Completion of project construction as per PPA COD and approved budget
• Meeting all the timelines for approvals, Sanctions, and compliance for the project
• Handing over of the project within set timelines

 Minimum Requirements:

• Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical & Electronics/Electronics & Communication/Power Electronics Engineering.
• Experience: 8-10 years’ Experience in Planning and Execution of Large-Scale MW Solar PV Projects/Conventional Power plants/Electrical/EHV/Transmission & Distribution Projects. Preference will be given for candidates who have experience in construction of solar PV power plant projects.
• Should be a local resident of Republic of South Africa (RSA)
• Should have good oral & written communication skills in English with sound knowledge on preparation of project reports, Schedules, site Test reports, QA plans, FAT documentation, Performance test & procedures and HOTO (Handing Over and Taking Over) documents.
• Should have strong leadership skills and experience to lead a team of site engineers, project engineers, contractors, and sub-contractors.
• Should have good computer skills, literate in MS Office, AutoCAD & Project tools like MS Project.
• Should have good techno-commercial skills, Proven track record in implementing power plant projects
• Should have good exposure on Testing of Electrical equipment’s, Solar Inverters, etc., with sound knowledge on usage of testing tools & equipment’s installed at site.
• Should have sound knowledge of generation data analysis with monitoring of data and mitigate the problems for any underperformance of the generation plant.
• Should have good exposure to Health & Safety work practices in execution of the project and implementing the same at the site with proper instructions to all the contractors and sub-contractors.
• Must be ready to travel as required