SFCC Seeks Microgrid Faculty

Santa Fe Community College (SFCC), an MSL founding member, seeks a qualified full-time faculty member to lead its Smart and Microgrid Training Center. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first position and program of its kind at an undergraduate institution. The job description is as follows: 

SFCC is developing the Smart and Microgrid Training Center as part of the National Science Foundation funded New Mexico SMART Grid Center. The center is based upon a “nanogrid”, currently under construction, that will power the school’s training greenhouse and will include the entire campus microgrid in the near future. The school is in collaboration with the Distributed Energy Systems Technician-Education Network Initiative to establish a national credential for modern grid technicians. The SFCC microgrid center is for testing and deploying microgrid technologies in addition to technician training and the college plans to continue to be a national leader in the field.

This is a grant funded five-year position, which can be extended as funding allows. The lead faculty for Distributed Energy Technologies (DET lead faculty) is directly responsible for leading SFCC’s activities in modern smartgrid (“Grid 3.0”) education and workforce development.

Faculty responsibilities include developing and updating curricula, certificate and AS/AAS degree programs relevant to smartgrid, microgrid and energy storage technologies, as well as teaching classroom and laboratory curricula in these subject areas. In this position, the DET Lead Faculty will work with the department chair and SFCC’s government and industrial project partners to establish an advisory committee consistent with SFCC policy. The position will require working collaboratively with SFCC Plant Operations and Maintenance as well as physical systems implementation of the campus microgrid.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, physics or related discipline.
• Minimum 2 years’ experience teaching in a college setting ideally in an energy related field.
• Ability to speak and write fluently in English;
• A record of teaching excellence and scholarly achievement at an accredited institution;
• Advanced interpersonal verbal and written communication skills; and
• Demonstrated ability to successfully lead professionals in an academic organization

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master’s degree (MS or MEmg) in electrical engineering or related discipline.
• ABET experience as a faculty member, department/college administrator or program evaluator.
• Candidate should be able to successfully operate in a fun, innovative, hard working and kind work environment.
• Minimum of three (3) years’ experience in at least one (1) of the following areas:
  o Electric utility systems planning and operations
  o Energy project development
  o Building energy and facilities management
  o Microgrid and energy storage system design and implementation
  o SCADA operations
  o A related industrial field
• Current Professional Engineer’s (PE) license
• Published research and/or at least two years’ employment in distributed energy technologies.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Willingness and ability to build relationships and work with faculty and project partners to facilitate and support the updating and development of AAS and AS degrees and coursework relevant to smart- and micro-grid technologies.
• Possess the technical knowledge to ensure program alignment with utility requirements, grid technology compatibility, as well as, research developments in the electrical industry and the workforce needs of that industry.
• Knowledge of academic requirements for transfer to four-year undergraduate institutions.
• Ability to readily learn and apply new building automation systems (BAS) systems and software and the ability to transfer this experience/knowledge to an experiential teaching and learning environment.
• Working experience the low- and medium-voltage systems. Working knowledge of high-voltage systems and the ability to transfer this experience/knowledge of these systems to an experiential teaching and learning environment.
• Ability to create and foster a collaborative, trusting and supportive environment among students and faculty.
• Motivation and self-discipline to organize and develop a center of excellence in distributed energy and micro-grid technology and SFCC.

Apply for the position here.