The California Independent System Operator (ISO) manages the flow of electricity across the high-voltage, long-distance power lines that make up 80 percent of California's power grid. We safeguard the economy and well-being of 30 million Californians by operating the grid reliably 24/7.

As the impartial grid operator, the California ISO opens access to the wholesale power market that is designed to diversify resources and lower prices. It also grants equal access to 25,865 circuit-miles of power lines and reduces barriers to diverse resources competing to bring power to customers.

The California ISO's function is often compared to that of air traffic controllers. It would be grossly unfair for air traffic controllers to represent one airline and profit from allowing that company's planes to go through before others. In the same way, the California ISO operates independently—managing the electron traffic on a power grid we do not own—making sure electricity is safely delivered to utilities and consumers on time and reliably.

The California ISO is committed to the health, safety, and work/life integration of its employees and is proud to offer flexible work arrangements. This position would be eligible to participate in a flexible hybrid schedule.

Relocation assistance is available.

Under the general direction of the Manager, participates in developing programs to track, evaluate, implement, and promote forecasting model evolution including production modeling on Short Term Forecasting using Big Data, Machine Learning, Numerical Weather Prediction Models, Artificial Intelligence, and Neural Networks.  Develops and enhances energy efficiency models, demand response models, and other energy models and incorporates their impacts to the Short Term Load Forecast.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities

• Participates in the research, development, and implementation of new forecasting tools and interfaces. Assists with integrating and preparing large, varied datasets, specialized databases and computing environments, and communicating results. Collaborates on the enhancement of current or development of new tools using computer programming languages such as VBA, Python, Perl, etc. Evaluates potential inefficiencies in current procedures and proposes improvements.
   
• Researches, develops, and enhances complex energy efficiency models, demand response models, short term load forecast, wind forecast, solar forecast, and other energy models (i.e., plug in electric vehicles, distributive generation models) through the use of statistical, algorithmic, mining and visualization techniques.
   
• Coordinates and participates in Short Term Forecasting projects to implement new or enhanced features to production environments and/or applications. 
   
• Conducts post-analysis to evaluate forecast accuracy. Seeks to improve pre-established forecasting goals. Stays abreast of forecasting developments within the demand modeling and meteorological field,  and the impact of such developments to the organization.

Additional Responsibilities

• Attends business meetings and collaborates with ISO colleagues to develop "best practices" policies and procedures, and to identify and resolve issues to help create a flexible and efficient organization.
   
• May perform related duties and activities as assigned.
   
• Adherers to and supports the Core Values of the ISO.
   
• Adheres to and supports the safety policies and programs of the ISO. Accountable for implementing the policies and procedures of the ISO Safety Program.

Level of Education and Discipline

• A Bachelor’s degree (BA, BS) or equivalent education, training or experience in Statistics, Math, Computer Science, Economics, Data Science, Atmospheric Science/Meteorology, Engineering, or closely related field.
• An advanced degree (MS or PhD) is preferred.

Amount of Experience

• Equivalent years of education and training, plus two (2) years or more of related experience.

Types of Experience

• Experience in Short or Long Term (Load, Wind, and/or Solar generation) forecasting using artificial neural network (ANN), Support Vector Machine (SVM), machine learning, and/or regression forecasting techniques.
   
• Experience in Short or Long Term Forecasting (Load, Wind, and/or Solar generation) using numerical weather prediction. Open-source project experiences that demonstrate programming, mathematical, and machine learning abilities and interest.
   
• Experience showing application of statistics, advanced mathematics, simulation, software development, and data modeling to integrate and clean data, recognize patterns, address uncertainty, pose questions, and make discoveries. 
   
• Experience in data management and scientific application processing, including data warehousing, workflow development, and automation. 
   
• Research experience in Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, and Neural Networks (e.g. links to open-source work or link to novel learning algorithms).
   
• Knowledge and experience in electricity market designs and power system operations desired. Experience in forecast model technique, tuning, and demonstrated model improvements desired.
   
• Familiarity with Numerical Weather Prediction Models and aptitude for working with the statistical analysis of data and gridded atmospheric data sets.
   
• Familiarity with ITRON forecast model is preferred.
   
• Desired programming languages – SQL, UNIX, C, C#, python, NCL, PERL, Gempack, R, VBA, etc.

Additional Skills and Abilities

• Ability to think strategically and devise solutions to problems in keeping with multiple considerations.
• Ability to effectively communicate complex materials and concepts.
• Must be able to work effectively in a team environment as facilitator and team member.
• Excellent analytical, verbal and written communication and documentation skills required, with a demonstrated attention to detail
• Ability to use pattern recognition, deductive reasoning, and analytical thinking with sound judgement and decision-making skills
• Must be self-starting and willing and able to work independently in a dynamic corporate organization under pressure of tight deadlines and aggressive expectations
• Self-motivated, problem solving skills and the ability to influence others without direct authority

The pay range for this position is $40.56 - $67.61 / hour.