Senior Vice President, Plant Operations Oglethorpe Power Headquarters Tucker, GA

Executive Overview

The Senior Vice President of Plant Operations provides executive leadership, strategic direction, and operational oversight for approximately 200 employees across 11+ generating sites in Georgia. Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer, the SVP is responsible for delivering top-quartile operational performance, executing large-scale capital projects, maintaining enterprise-level safety culture, and ensuring readiness, resiliency, reliability, and long-term sustainability of the fleet.

This role is a key operational leader within OPC and will shape the organization’s next decade of growth, including commissioning new plants, expanding the portfolio, and developing the next generation of operational leaders. The role is integrated with the broader family of companies (OPC, GSOC, GTC), collaborates with system operations, engineering, construction/project management, and corporate functions, and regularly engages with Member EMC managers, OPC senior leadership, and Board committees.

The SVP oversees a portfolio of generation resources, including a 1,425 MW combined-cycle plant, a 240 MW combustion turbine unit, dual-fuel upgrades, and future projects such as additional gas capacity.

• Provide strategic and operational leadership for OPC’s gas fleet and Rocky Mountain Pumped-storage Hydroelectric facility.
• Ensure all units are safe, available, reliable, and performing at upper-decile industry levels.
• Lead a large, geographically dispersed workforce (approximately 200 employees), including plant managers, operations managers, engineering, and maintenance teams.
• Build and maintain a high-performance, safety-first culture rooted in technical excellence and accountability.

• Drive operational strategy across OPC’s fleet, including modernization, lifecycle planning, outage strategy, and resiliency upgrades.
• Evaluate and prepare for emerging technologies such as hydrogen cofiring, SMRs, battery storage, and biomass.
• Monitor market, regulatory, and Member-driven trends to inform asset strategy and investment decisions.

• Oversee construction, commissioning, and integration of major new generation assets and future utility-scale BESS projects, including: 1,425-MW two-unit CC plant; 240-MW combustion turbine unit; fleetwide dual-fuel upgrades;
  Rocky Mountain pumped-storage reinvestment program.
• Ensure capital projects are delivered on time, within budget, and aligned with strategic objectives.
• Partner with Construction & Project Management to ensure projects meet schedule, budget, and performance milestones; monitor risk, cost, and change-management plans.
• Contribute to long-term resource planning and portfolio strategy, evaluating SMRs/advanced nuclear, biomass, battery storage, and other technologies for OPC and Members.
• Ensure new assets are operationally ready, winter-resilient, and integrated with dispatch and market strategies.

• Collaborate with GSOC and GTC to align system operations, planning, and construction.
• Present plant operations updates at monthly EMC manager meetings and engage with OPC Member systems as needed.
• Participate in Board committee updates and engage with external partners to manage system reliability and outages.
• Serve as a visible, trusted leader across the cooperative community.

• Identify, develop, and mentor internal high-potential leaders.
• Shape culture through leadership transitions and succession planning for key sites (e.g., Rocky Mountain) and staff.
• Ensure succession planning, workforce development, and employee engagement support a long-term talent pipeline.

• Own overall safety performance for Plant Operations, driving a safety culture that meets corporate goals, including training and safety meetings.
• Ensure compliance with regulatory requirements (NERC, FERC, environmental, state, local).
• Drive operational KPIs such as availability, outages, heat rate, and cost performance.

• Deliver top-quartile reliability and availability across OPC-managed…