General Manager, VP

About the role

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with key stakeholders to develop and execute annual and long-term business plans.
• Convert investment objectives, regulatory commitments, grant requirements, and customer needs into operating priorities, budgets, and milestones.
• Maintain an integrated plan covering development, customer agreements, agency approvals, grant obligations, and operational readiness.
• Identify business, regulatory, financial, and operational risks and recommend appropriate action to senior leadership.
• Serve as the primary relationship manager with water agencies, watermasters, joint powers authorities, environmental agencies, and other governmental stakeholders.
• Represent the water bank in agency meetings, public forums/hearings, technical working groups, industry associations, and community discussions.
• Leverage existing relationships and build new relationships with State Water Project contractors, municipalities, irrigation districts, groundwater organizations, landowners, and prospective customers.
• Monitor water policy, groundwater regulation, and agency actions affecting the asset.
• Lead customer outreach and business development for water storage, recovery, transfer, and related services.
• Manage requests for proposals, bidding processes, letters of interest, storage agreements, and other customer arrangements.
• Partner with Investments, Legal, and Development to negotiate agreements consistent with project capacity, commercial objectives, and regulatory requirements.
• Support the development of pricing, service structures, operating terms, and allocation methodologies.
• Manage compliance with funding agreements, grant milestones, reporting requirements, public-benefit commitments, and documentation requests.
• Coordinate with Development, Finance, Accounting, and consultants to complete technical reports, reimbursement support, progress reports, and other grant deliverables.
• Track eligible expenditures, grant budgets, deadlines, contractual obligations, and funding risks.
• Support the negotiation and completion of funding, public-benefit, operating, and regulatory agreements.
• Partner with Development on feasibility studies, groundwater modeling, environmental review, permitting, engineering, construction, commissioning, and transition planning.
• Represent customer and operational requirements in design and development decisions.
• Support evaluation of wells, pump stations, conveyance infrastructure, turnout capacity, water quality, monitoring requirements, and put-and-take scenarios.
• Develop a readiness plan covering staffing, procedures, agreements, maintenance, monitoring, emergency response, reporting, and customer coordination.
• Lead the transition from development into active water bank operations.
• Direct storage, recharge, recovery, conveyance, and delivery activities once the water bank becomes operational.
• Coordinate operating plans with customers, partner agencies, watermasters, operators, and technical consultants.
• Monitor water balances, pumping performance, groundwater levels, water quality, system capacity, and customer commitments.
• Ensure compliance with storage agreements, operating rules, permits, monitoring plans, and reporting requirements.
• Establish operating procedures, controls, escalation protocols, and emergency-response plans.
• Coordinate inspections, preventive maintenance, repairs, testing, and capital-replacement planning.
• Develop scopes of work, support consultant selection, negotiate terms, and monitor performance against budgets, schedules, and deliverables.
• Hold consultants and contractors accountable for quality, timeliness, cost, and issue resolution.
• Develop and manage operating budgets, long-term forecasts, and business-plan assumptions.
• Monitor expenditures, contract costs, funding availability, and budget-to-actual performance.
• Review invoices and consultant charges within delegated authority.
• Maintain reporting on agency approvals, customer activity, grant milestones, agreements, budgets, risks, and operational readiness.
• Prepare clear updates and recommendations for leadership, investors, agencies, and governing bodies.
• Maintain a positive relationship with all corporate support departments.
• Carry out supervisory responsibilities in accordance with the organization’s policies and applicable laws.
• Exhibit passion and commitment to their own personal and professional development as well as that of their colleagues.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree
• 7+ years of experience in CA water sector (e.g. agency, regulatory or water storage).
• Experience with grant management, preferably Prop 1, with an understanding of how to optimize reimbursements.
• Experience engaging with state, regional or local water regulatory agencies, or other utility agencies or control boards.