Manager - System Planning

Manager, System Planning

Help Build the Grid of Tomorrow At American Transmission Company (ATC), transmission planning is essential to preparing the electric grid for evolving customer needs, emerging technologies, and long-term reliability requirements. We are seeking a Manager, System Planning to provide strategic, technical, and people leadership for the team responsible for planning ATC's transmission network.

This is an opportunity to influence critical infrastructure investments, advance planning excellence, strengthen compliance, and develop highly technical professionals whose work will shape the future of the grid.

Essential Responsibilities:

You will connect technical planning, enterprise strategy, and people leadership to help ATC make informed decisions about the future of the transmission system. Your leadership will support system studies, project development, capital forecasting, regulatory activities, customer needs, and compliance with reliability standards.

Leadership Impact:

Coach and empower technical professionals, align priorities and resources, and foster accountability, collaboration, innovation, and succession readiness.

System Impact:

Guide planning programs and studies that support transmission reliability, project decisions, regulatory needs, and long-term grid strategy.

What You'll Do:

Lead and Develop a High-Performing Team

• Inspire, coach, mentor, and develop transmission planning professionals.

• Set clear priorities, align internal talent and external consultants, and balance workloads and financial resources.

• Build a culture of accountability, collaboration, high performance, innovation, and continuous learning.

• Support the ATC Strategic Engineering Experience and Development (SEED) program.

Drive Grid Strategy and Planning Excellence

• Oversee the design, execution, evaluation, compliance, and continuous improvement of planning programs and processes.

• Direct system planning studies and project development activities, including support for regulatory approval and technical testimony.

• Advance planning criteria, guidelines, tools, technologies, processes, and documentation.

• Support capital forecast development and the prioritization of transmission investments.

Protect Reliability and Compliance

• Maintain strong governance for planning-related NERC reliability standard compliance.

• Identify planning and compliance risks early and guide appropriate corrective action.

• Ensure planning work responds to changing customer needs and transmission system reliability requirements.

• Provide leadership before, during, and after an ATC Ready event when called upon.

Influence Enterprise and Industry Outcomes

• Represent System Planning in enterprise-wide discussions and champion organizational initiatives.

• Partner across engineering, operations, asset management, project management, interconnection solutions, customer engagement, and regulatory affairs.

• Communicate credible planning recommendations to executives, board members, customers, regulators, and industry stakeholders.

What You'll Bring:

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering, or equivalent experience in transmission planning or power systems.

• Eight or more years of experience in transmission system planning, transmission design, engineering, operations, maintenance, or another related technical area.

• Demonstrated ability to set priorities, manage resources, balance workloads, coach employees, and guide technical programs and projects.

• Strong understanding of electric power system reliability standards, compliance procedures, and relevant regulatory organizations.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Progressive responsibility leading engineers, technical specialists, consultants, or complex cross-functional work.

• Experience directing transmission planning studies and supporting project justification or regulatory approval.

• Ability to explain complex technical matters clearly to executives, board members, customers, regulators, and industry stakeholders.

• Experience developing capital forecasts, allocating financial resources, or prioritizing technical portfolios.

• Exposure to FERC, NERC,…