Utility & Partnerships Manager

What You’ll Do

As an Utility Business Development Manager, you will play a pivotal role in accelerating Giga Energy’s data center expansion by identifying and securing grid capacity across the U.S. Your focus will be building and managing relationships with small-to-mid-size utilities, cooperatives, and municipal providers — often working directly with utility economic development teams to identify sites, secure capacity, and navigate interconnection processes. This is a high-impact role that blends business development, technical understanding, and trusted partnerships to help power Giga’s growth.

Where You’ll Work

If based outside of our Houston or San Francisco hubs, this role will be based remotely from your home office. You must be willing to frequently travel to job sites, customer meetings and our hub offices when necessary.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain strong relationships with utility contacts, including cooperatives, municipal utilities, and regional providers, to identify and secure available power capacity for future data center projects.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for utilities throughout the interconnection and service request process.
• Collaborate with utility economic development teams to identify prospective sites and secure land and power commitments.
• Interpret and navigate utility tariffs, service policies, and cost responsibilities (e.g., CIAC, FEA).
• Coordinate closely with internal teams (engineering, construction, land acquisition) and external partners to advance project timelines.
• Evaluate technical feasibility of interconnection opportunities, translating utility plans, engineering drawings, and construction schedules into actionable internal updates.
• Manage multiple simultaneous interconnection efforts, ensuring timely progress across various markets.
• Operate comfortably in ambiguous or unstructured environments, solving problems where established processes may not yet exist.
• Travel up to 30% to utility meetings, project sites, and industry events.

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience in electrical infrastructure, utility coordination, business development, or grid interconnection.
• Strong understanding of power systems architecture, electrical design, and interconnection processes.
• Demonstrated experience working directly with utilities to secure interconnection points or expand grid capacity.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to engage technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Strong project management skills; capable of managing multiple concurrent interconnection efforts.
• Familiarity with data center infrastructure and site development processes.
• Willingness to travel as needed to build relationships and advance projects.

Bonus Points

• Experience working with cooperative utilities, municipal utilities, or regional power providers.
• Familiarity with utility economic development processes.
• Understanding of utility planning, extensions, upgrades, and interconnection timelines.
• Knowledge of regulated vs. deregulated energy markets.
• Experience with utility rate modeling, cost impact assessments, or load forecasting.
• Familiarity with NERC, FERC, ISO/RTO standards or interconnection protocols.
• Experience supporting hyperscale or modular data center developments.
• Hands-on, practical approach to problem-solving in power infrastructure or utility-facing roles.

Benefits

• Subsidized health, dental, and vision insurance
• Equity (options) in a rapidly growing startup
• 401(k) with 4% employer match
• Unlimited PTO
• Parental leave
• Healthcare and Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) or Health Savings Account (HSA)
• Commuter benefits
• Monthly team onsites where all offices come in-person to collaborate