Director, O&M

Job Posting: Director, O&M

Company: Rethink Electric

Location: Illinois

Type: Full-Time

Compensation: Competitive Base Salary Discretionary Bonus Comprehensive Benefits

About Rethink:

With over 15 years of experience and 1,000 projects installed, Rethink provides top professional commercial and industrial solar panel installations. Our NABCEP-certified professional installers deliver quality craftsmanship from start to finish. We pride ourselves on excellent communication throughout the process and complete your project in the most efficient manner possible, keeping safety as our priority. Whether you are a solar developer that has one project or a portfolio of projects, or a sales team that needs a local installer, we have the capacity to build all of your projects. For more information, please visit: www.rethinkelectric.com.

Position Overview:

The Director, Operations & Maintenance, will lead Rethink’s on-site technician organization and oversee all field-level O&M activities across our operating solar portfolio. This role blends hands-on technical expertise, field leadership, and operational rigor — ideal for someone who has worked in the field, understands how sites run, and is also comfortable managing systems, data, and people.

This leader will be responsible for preventative and corrective maintenance execution, technician resourcing and development, safety and compliance, vendor coordination, and production optimization across a diverse portfolio.

Key Responsibilities:

• Field Operations & O&M Leadership: Lead and scale Rethink’s internal on-site technician team across multiple regions. Own day-to-day execution of corrective and preventative maintenance activities. Ensure PM contracts and performance obligations are met without compromising technician availability for outages or emergencies. Provide on-call leadership escalation for critical field issues and asset availability events.
• Technical Oversight & Asset Performance: Optimize asset production and long-term ROI across the operating portfolio. Leverage field findings to identify design, equipment, or manufacturer-specific trends and improvement opportunities.
• Planning, Scheduling & Execution: Manage technician scopes of work, scheduling, site access, and logistics. Coordinate parts sourcing, spares strategy, warranty returns, and RMAs. Communicate with Utilities ahead of planned outages impacting generation. Plan and oversee end-of-life recycling and e-waste programs for decommissioned equipment.
• Safety, Compliance & Quality: Lead job hazard analyses (JHAs) and enforce safety standards across all field work. Ensure compliance with applicable codes, interconnection requirements, and utility protocols. Oversee subcontracted medium- and high-voltage services when required. Submit and review incident reports same day for thermal events, recalls, or safety issues.
• Vendor & Client Communication: Manage subcontractors, electricians, and specialty service providers. Maintain strong relationships with manufacturers and OEM technical contacts. Keep internal stakeholders and external partners informed via: Work-order updates, Weekly and quarterly reporting, Ad hoc incident and outage communications, Systems & Process, Own work-order management, reporting accuracy, and operational visibility, continuously improve O&M processes, documentation, and technician workflows. Partner closely with Asset Management, Engineering, Development, and Finance teams

Qualifications:

• 5 years of experience in solar O&M, field operations, or technical services
• Prior hands-on field experience as a solar technician, electrician, or commissioning engineer
• Experience managing or leading technician teams
• Strong working knowledge of:
• PV system components and failure modes
• Inverters, transformers, MV infrastructure
• SCADA and performance monitoring platforms
• Comfortable using computers, O&M software (Also Energy), and reporting tools

Rethink is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status.

The compensation range for this role reflects the broad array of factors considered in making compensation decisions. These factors include, but are not limited to, skill sets, experience, training, licensure, and certifications, as well as other business and organizational needs. The disclosed range estimate has not been adjusted for the geographic differential associated with the location where the position may be filled. A reasonable estimate of the current range is $140,000 to $180,000. At Rethink, it is uncommon for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their role, as compensation decisions are tailored to the specifics of each case.

We do not accept unsolicited agency resumes and are not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes. We request that recruiters and agencies refrain from contacting us regarding this or any other role within the company. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.