Storm-Response Field Operations Recovery Leader — Electricity Distribution

The mandate

Two major storms revealed that network control, damage assessors, field contractors and customer teams hold different pictures of fault extent and safe access. Crews were dispatched repeatedly to blocked sites while critical-community priorities changed without visible tradeoffs. The field operations leader was dismissed after restoration estimates understated vegetation, materials and switching constraints for several consecutive days.

The interim enters within two weeks for twelve months, taking the field-response seat through one full storm season. The first eight weeks rebuild readiness, resource truth and command interfaces; the middle period tests district capability and hardens logistics. A permanent search begins after the operating doctrine is approved, with eight weeks of shadow command, six exercises and one live-event handover.

Handover requires event levels, damage-assessment standards, crew and contractor readiness, switching interfaces, material caches, access intelligence, restoration priorities, estimate confidence and public-update triggers. Success is demonstrated when the successor commands a severe scenario and material live event, restoring safely with traceable priorities and credible forecasts without interim contact or hidden contractor escalation.

The leader may stage and reallocate field resources, activate emergency contracts, reserve critical materials, set restoration sequences within approved priority policy, replace event leads and release NZ$95 million of authorised response spend. Energisation, switching, safety-rule exceptions, permanent contracting and capital above delegation remain with accountable officers or the board. Emergency agencies retain public powers.

Long-term network planning, tariff matters, vegetation policy reform, collective bargaining, control-system replacement and asset-regulation submissions are outside scope. The interim cannot energise, direct work around safety holds, promise individual restoration times unsupported by evidence, conceal inaccessible faults or favour visible communities outside approved priority logic. Temporary resource exceptions expire after each declared event.

Why this seat is open

The former leader left after an independent review found that forecast errors were rooted in command and evidence, not storm severity alone. Temporary authority is needed before the next season while the utility recruits a permanent operator experienced in field safety, contractor scale and public accountability.

What you will own

• Reconstruct recent storms across damage discovery, access, switching, crew, materials, priority, forecast and customer consequence.
• Define event levels, command roles, information minimums, decision clocks and escalation triggers for each level.
• Stage internal crews, contractors, assessors, vegetation resources and logistics against forecast scenarios.
• Decide restoration sequencing within safety, critical-service, customer-number, access and network-stability constraints.
• Establish forecast-confidence and public-update rules tied to verified damage and resource progress.
• Command six exercises spanning communications loss, blocked access, material shortage, contractor injury and cascading faults.
• Transfer field command after the successor leads one severe exercise and material live restoration event.

Candidate qualifications

• Held electricity-distribution field or emergency-restoration authority through severe, multi-day weather events.
• Directed damage assessment, line crews, contractors, vegetation, logistics and customer-priority interfaces safely.
• Produced credible public restoration forecasts under incomplete fault, access and resource information during severe regional events repeatedly.
• Understood switching, energisation and electrical-safety boundaries without overriding licensed or accountable roles.
• Rebuilt contractor mobilisation and materials readiness across geographically diverse urban, coastal and rural operating conditions.
• Handed emergency command to permanent leadership through severe simulation and a live event.

Non-negotiables

• Available within two weeks for Auckland residence, eight districts and six exercises.
• Direct distribution-storm command is required; general infrastructure resilience experience is insufficient.
• Will disclose utilities, contractors, equipment suppliers, emergency agencies, regulators and engineering advisers.
• Will not energise, override safety rules, alter tariff policy or make unsupported restoration promises.

1. 49 words maximum. Describe a storm where access or materials, rather than crew count, controlled restoration.
2. 49 words maximum. How did you communicate restoration confidence before complete damage assessment?
3. 49 words maximum. State your Auckland availability and the largest field response you commanded.