Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Wind Turbine Officer

🎯 Role Definition

The Wind Turbine Officer leads day-to-day operations and maintenance activities for wind turbine assets, ensuring maximum availability, safety and compliance. This role coordinates field technicians and contractors, analyzes condition monitoring and SCADA data to prioritize interventions, executes planned and unplanned maintenance tasks, and implements reliability-focused initiatives. The Officer acts as the primary on-site technical authority, interface with asset management and commercial teams, and supports commissioning, decommissioning and continuous improvement programs for wind turbine fleets.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Junior Wind Turbine Technician / Wind Technician I
Electrical/Mechanical Technician with wind industry experience
Field Service Technician (renewable energy or industrial rotating equipment)

Advancement To:

Senior Wind Turbine Officer / Lead O&M Officer
Wind Farm Operations Supervisor / Shift Lead
Asset Manager / Reliability Engineer

Lateral Moves:

SCADA & Condition Monitoring Specialist
Health, Safety & Environment (HSE) Officer for Renewable Sites
Project Commissioning Engineer (wind)

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Serve as the on-site technical lead for wind turbine operations and maintenance, taking ownership of daily O&M activities, ensuring turbine availability targets and minimizing unplanned downtime.
Plan, schedule and supervise preventive maintenance (PM) and corrective maintenance work packages on turbine drivetrains, gearboxes, generators, pitch systems, yaw systems and control systems in accordance with manufacturer recommendations.
Diagnose and troubleshoot complex mechanical and electrical faults using SCADA trends, vibration analysis, oil debris monitoring, thermography and hands-on testing to determine root cause and corrective action.
Coordinate and prioritize work orders using the CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management System), ensuring accurate job logging, parts requisition, and time capture for efficient supply chain and inventory management.
Lead commissioning, handover and start-up activities for new turbine installations or refurbished units, including functional testing, protection settings verification and documentation handover to operations.
Manage contractors and third-party service providers on site—define scopes, oversee execution, enforce safety standards, evaluate performance and ensure contract deliverables meet quality and schedule expectations.
Implement and continuously improve asset reliability programs, including reliability-centered maintenance (RCM), failure mode effects analysis (FMEA) and lifecycle cost optimization for turbine components.
Execute emergency response and troubleshooting during turbine faults or incidents, making rapid technical decisions to isolate faults, protect equipment and restore generation while preserving personnel safety.
Perform detailed inspections and planned visual/auditory/instrumented checks of blades, towers, hubs, gearboxes, generators and electrical rooms to detect wear, corrosion, overheating or structural defects.
Review SCADA alarms, event logs and turbine performance metrics daily to identify anomalies, losses, and potential optimization opportunities; escalate recurring issues to engineering or OEM as required.
Oversee condition monitoring systems (CMS) including vibration sensors, oil and debris sensors and SCADA-based alarms; interpret outputs and initiate maintenance actions based on thresholds and trends.
Manage spares inventory strategy and technical parts lifecycle—forecast critical part needs, implement kitting for planned outages and reduce lead-time impacts on outage duration.
Ensure all maintenance and operations are completed in strict compliance with HSE, local regulations and company EHS policies; lead toolbox talks, safety audits and permit-to-work processes for turbine access.
Provide technical support for blade repairs, rope access inspection teams and external specialist contractors during major corrective works or scheduled blade maintenance.
Lead outage planning and execution for scheduled major works (nacelle replacements, gearbox exchanges, major component overhauls), including logistics, lifting plans, crane management and offshore mobilization where applicable.
Maintain and update technical documentation, as-built records, maintenance procedures and OEM manuals; ensure knowledge transfer and run-books are current and accessible to field teams.
Analyze performance loss and energy production variances, produce turbine-specific KPIs (availability, AEP loss, MTTR, MTBF) and present actionable recommendations to the Asset Management team.
Participate in warranty claims, OEM escalations and technical dispute resolution—compile failure evidence, support inspections, and liaise with legal/commercial as required.
Facilitate continuous training and competency development for site technicians—deliver technical briefings, assess competency against job role matrices and maintain training records.
Support remote monitoring and control initiatives—work with SCADA engineers to implement alarms, improve telemetry quality and enable predictive maintenance strategies.
Drive cost control initiatives for O&M through productivity improvements, efficient outage delivery and optimization of spares and contractor spend.

Secondary Functions

Support cross-functional data requests by providing operational data, incident reports and maintenance histories for analytics and performance modeling.
Contribute to the wind farm life-cycle planning by feeding technical insights into capex planning, refurbishment windows and end-of-life strategies.
Collaborate with procurement to evaluate technical proposals for spare parts, service contracts and OEM supply agreements ensuring technical compliance.
Participate in continuous improvement projects such as blade erosion mitigation, pitch system upgrades, or turbine firmware rollouts.
Assist in community and stakeholder relations during major works by providing technical briefings and mitigating local impacts.
Maintain emergency preparedness by participating in drills, updating response plans and coordinating with emergency services and port authorities for offshore sites.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Proven expertise in wind turbine O&M, including hands-on work with drivetrains, gearboxes, pitch/yaw systems, generators and blade repair.
Strong SCADA and turbine control system familiarity (trend analysis, alarm triage, setpoint verification).
Condition monitoring and vibration analysis experience; ability to interpret CMS reports and implement corrective actions.
Electrical fault finding and protection systems knowledge (LV/HV switching, transformers, switchgear, relays).
Experience with CMMS and maintenance planning software (e.g., SAP PM, Infor EAM, Maximo).
Competence in outage planning, crane operations, lifting plans and mechanical swapping procedures.
Knowledge of hydraulic and pneumatic systems as used in pitch and yaw systems.
Experience applying reliability methodologies (RCM, root cause analysis, FMEA).
Understanding of wind turbine certification standards and regulatory frameworks (IEC 61400, local grid codes).
Familiarity with offshore and onshore logistics, permitting and mobilization requirements where relevant.
Proficiency in Microsoft Excel, reporting tools and basic data analysis to extract performance insights.
Technical drawing reading and interpretation skills (schematics, wiring diagrams, P&IDs).

Soft Skills

Strong problem-solving mindset with the ability to prioritize interventions under operational pressure.
Clear communicator with experience leading multi-disciplinary teams and coordinating contractors.
Leadership and mentoring skills to build technician capability and enforce accountability.
Excellent organizational skills for managing complex outage schedules and parts logistics.
High personal resilience and adaptability to work in remote, variable weather and shift environments.
Strong safety leadership and the ability to influence a safety-first culture across contractors and employees.
Collaborative mindset to work effectively with asset managers, engineers, procurement and commercial teams.
Detail-oriented with a focus on compliance, accurate record-keeping and knowledge transfer.
Customer-focused approach when interfacing with stakeholders, local authorities and OEMs.
Analytical mindset to convert performance data into actionable reliability improvements.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

High school diploma or vocational qualification (technical/mechanical/electrical) with relevant industry training and licenses.

Preferred Education:

Associate degree, diploma or bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Renewable Energy Technology, or a related technical field.
Formal certifications in wind turbine technology, asset management or reliability engineering.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Mechanical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Renewable Energy Technology
Industrial Maintenance
Reliability Engineering

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 3 - 8 years in wind turbine operations, maintenance or field service roles, including hands-on turbine work and supervisory responsibility.

Preferred:

4+ years specific experience with wind turbine fleets (onshore or offshore).
Experience managing contractors and leading outages.
Certifications such as working at heights, confined space entry, first aid, HV switching authorization, and OEM-specific training (e.g., Vestas, Siemens Gamesa, GE).
Demonstrated track record of delivering availability improvements, reducing downtime and implementing reliability initiatives.