Generation Management System Specialist

FirstEnergy Corp. is a diversified energy company headquartered in Akron, Ohio. A Fortune 250 company, FirstEnergy' subsidiaries and affiliates are involved in the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity, as well as energy management and other energy-related services. Its seven electric utility operating companies comprise the nations fifth largest investor-owned electric system, based on 4.4 million customers served within a 36,100-square-mile area of Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

We are seeking an individual to work at FirstEnergy's Ghent Road Facility with a small team of Technical Specialists in support of the Generation Management System (GMS). The GMS system is a critical, real-time, 7x24 vendor purchased application that is used to capture real time information from FirstEnergy's Generation Plants and control the Units at the Plants.  This role will offer increased responsibility and reward, with the opportunity for advancement doing a mix of project and production support work.

 

This opportunity is for you if:

 

-You understand, enjoy and respect the application development lifecycle and how it applies to supporting vendor software and  managing technical risk of changes to an application

-You have a desire to learn and work closely with the business users of the GMS system and assist them in their understanding of the technology and how to apply that

  technology to their processes

-You enjoy and thrive on troubleshooting and problem solving and have a strong desire to dig in and figure things out to solve issues

-You have the discipline to adhere to prescribed procedures and the change control process to ensure adherence to regulatory and IT standards

-You have good communication skills and are able to build relationships with a variety of other roles and positions within the IT organization and leverage the expertise of those roles

-You enjoy multi-tasking, taking on new challenges and working on different tasks every day with a small, but collaborative, team

-You want to be part of a team that directly impacts a key First Energy goal to Maximize generation output

 

Duties include, but are not limited to:

 

-Provide system integration for real-time systems.  Includes software management, patches, upgrade projects; supporting real-time data acquisition, database support; maintaining integration and interfaces between systems; system administration.

-Work in conjunction with other IT personnel and vendor technical support to investigate and resolve problems with supported applications. Requires close work with Infrastructure Operations, Network Services, and other teams within the Real Time Systems department. 

-Enhance working relationships with the software vendors, participating in user groups and product enhancement sessions.

-Coordinate change control processes with other IT groups and with the clients.

-Create and execute comprehensive test plans, develop test cases, assist with integration tests, stress tests, disaster recovery tests.

-Develop expertise in the systems and develop relationships with Business Units to be able to advise clients in the use of the system and suggest process improvements.

-Develop a solid understanding of processes in the FirstEnergy Asset Utilization, Regulated Commodity Sourcing and Transmission Operations

-Make recommendations for cost-effective improvements to system management processes. Identify common tools/processes  that can be shared among systems. Identify ways to extend the functionality of the system to other processes.

-Ensure compliance of systems infrastructure and operational processes with the requirements of cyber security requirements such as the NERC Critical Infrastructure Protection initiative.

-Maintain an extensive knowledge of IT standards, processes, and methodologies and ensure that the team adheres to company and department policies and procedures.

 

Required:

 

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, MIS, Engineering or the equivalent.

Knowledge and Experience with Software Management techniques and the Application Development Life cycle.

Experience supporting and administering vendor business application packages.

Experience working with relational databases, preferably Oracle

Understanding of the Windows operating environment (Vista knowledge is a plus)

Proven trouble shooting capabilities and the ability to assess technical risk of changes being implemented into an application environment.

Demonstrated analytical skills to effectively resolve technical problems.

Highly motivated; experience in working independently with a high level of productivity.

Ability to effectively use standard PC software, including MS Windows and Office products, web-based systems, e-mail, relational database query tools.

Good  oral and written communication skills, and strong interpersonal skills to work effectively with people at all levels and with varying backgrounds.

Experience in providing responsive and effective customer service.

Proven team player, contributes to team goals, encourages and supports team members.

Demonstrated ability to effectively prioritize and plan work, work on multiple concurrent tasks, and meet deadlines.

Willingness to undertake assignments involving unfamiliar subjects, aptitude to learn quickly and pass knowledge on to teammates.

Ability and willingness to travel to Company sites, work flexible hours, and be available for call-in and after-hours support (7x24 operations).