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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Wind Turbine Program Manager

💰 $ - $

EngineeringRenewable EnergyProgram Management

🎯 Role Definition

The Wind Turbine Program Manager leads end-to-end delivery of wind turbine programs—from early engineering and procurement through construction, commissioning, and handover to operations and maintenance. This role owns program scope, schedule, budget and risk, coordinates OEMs, EPC contractors and internal stakeholders, ensures compliance with HSE and regulatory requirements, and drives technical and commercial performance to meet project milestones, power performance guarantees, and long-term asset reliability.

Key SEO keywords: Wind Turbine Program Manager, wind farm project manager, wind project delivery, wind turbine commissioning, OEM coordination, EPC, SCADA, O&M, wind energy program management.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Senior Project Engineer (Wind Turbines / Renewables)
  • Construction Manager or Commissioning Lead (Renewables)
  • OEM Technical Manager or Site Manager

Advancement To:

  • Head of Wind Programs / Director of Project Delivery
  • Senior Program Director, Renewables
  • VP of Construction & Asset Delivery

Lateral Moves:

  • Commercial Program Manager (PPAs / EPC contracts)
  • Asset Manager, Wind Fleet
  • Director of Operations & Maintenance (O&M)

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  1. Develop and own the overall program delivery plan for large-scale wind turbine projects, defining scope, milestones, critical paths, resource needs, and budget to achieve on-time, on-budget delivery of turbines and balance-of-plant.
  2. Lead cross-functional teams (engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning, HSE, commercial) and act as primary point of accountability for turbine supplier (OEM) and EPC contractor performance, ensuring alignment to contractual obligations, KPIs, and technical specifications.
  3. Manage program budgets and forecasts, track cost-to-complete, drive cost controls and value-engineering initiatives, approve major expenditures, and report financial status to senior leadership and investors.
  4. Negotiate, administer and enforce contracts and commercial agreements (EPC, O&M, supply, logistics, transportation, warranties), escalating and resolving contract claims, change orders, and performance disputes.
  5. Coordinate turbine procurement and delivery logistics, including factory acceptance tests (FAT), transport planning, port handling, customs clearance, storage, and site mobilization to maintain delivery cadence.
  6. Own the commissioning strategy and execution for turbine installation, mechanical and electrical testing, SCADA integration, acceptance testing (SAT), and handover to operations, ensuring performance and safety acceptance criteria are met.
  7. Develop and implement comprehensive risk management plans, perform program-level risk identification, quantification and mitigation activities, and maintain a program risk register with action owners and timelines.
  8. Ensure compliance with HSE policies, industry standards and local regulatory requirements across construction and commissioning, conducting safety reviews, toolbox talks, incident investigations and continuous HSE improvement.
  9. Drive technical governance for turbine scope—oversee design reviews, technical queries (RFI management), design change control, and ensure engineering deliverables meet wind turbine OEM and grid interconnection requirements.
  10. Lead interface management between turbines, civil works, electrical balance-of-plant, HV/HVDC substations, and grid connection parties to prevent scope gaps and schedule conflicts.
  11. Coordinate and validate performance testing including power curve verification, availability guarantees, SCADA analytics and acceptance criteria tied to commercial performance guarantees.
  12. Manage warranty and service escalation processes with OEMs, coordinate root cause analysis for failures, and supervise corrective action plans to protect asset value and reduce downtime.
  13. Establish quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) programs for supplier deliverables, construction works and commissioning activities, including inspection plans, hold points and non-conformance management.
  14. Oversee resource planning and subcontractor selection, including pre-qualification, tender evaluation, performance management and on-site supervision to ensure capability and compliance.
  15. Maintain stakeholder relationships across landowners, local authorities, utilities, grid operators, investors and community representatives to facilitate permitting, access and social license to operate.
  16. Drive technical and commercial reporting—prepare board-level program updates, investor reports, monthly earned-value analyses, and regulatory submissions as required.
  17. Manage commissioning spares, tools and special equipment strategies to minimize potential delays and maximize first-time-right commissioning rates.
  18. Lead continuous improvement and lessons-learned programs post-project or following significant incidents to refine standards, playbooks and processes for future wind turbine programs.
  19. Oversee data management and handover of as-built documentation, asset models, OEM manuals, and SCADA/OT configurations to O&M teams for successful lifecycle support.
  20. Champion sustainability and environmental compliance during construction and commissioning, ensuring mitigation measures are implemented and monitored according to environmental impact assessments and permits.
  21. Plan and execute supplier performance reviews and scorecards; implement corrective actions and contract remedies when performance or quality targets are not met.
  22. Lead interface testing and integration activities with electrical service providers, substation contractors and grid operators to ensure successful grid synchronization and commissioning milestones.
  23. Coordinate outage and maintenance windows with O&M teams to balance warranty obligations, operational availability and safety during commissioning or early operations support.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc technical and commercial analyses to inform strategic decisions (e.g., life-cycle cost modelling, LCoE impact of component choices).
  • Mentor and develop junior project managers, engineers and commissioning leads; establish standard operating procedures and program templates.
  • Participate in pre-feasibility and early-stage tender development to ensure constructability, cost realism and schedule feasibility are embedded early.
  • Facilitate cross-project knowledge sharing, including best practices for logistics, heavy-lift operations, blade handling, and seabed/foundation lessons for offshore projects.
  • Collaborate with digital teams to enable SCADA configuration, remote diagnostics, and predictive maintenance use cases through effective handover of telemetry and metadata.
  • Provide subject matter expertise for insurance underwriting discussions, performance guarantees and force majeure assessments.
  • Support corporate sustainability and reporting initiatives by providing program-level emissions and waste metrics during construction.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Proven program and project management for multi-MW wind turbine projects (onshore and/or offshore) with complex multi-contractor environments.
  • Contract negotiation and commercial management: EPC, OEM, logistics, transport, warranty and service agreements.
  • Construction and commissioning knowledge: erection, bolting, torqueing, electrical hook-up, grounding, transformer and substation commissioning.
  • Turbine OEM interface and technical scope management: nacelle, hub, blade, pitch systems, drivetrain, yaw, turbine control systems.
  • SCADA/OT systems familiarity, SCADA integration and telemetry configuration for performance monitoring and remote operations.
  • Grid interconnection and power systems experience: HV/MV substations, protection settings, SCADA integration, grid code compliance and commissioning.
  • Logistics and heavy-lift planning including port operations, OOG transport, road/sea transport permits, and staging strategies.
  • Quality assurance / quality control (QA/QC) and inspection planning, FAT/SAT management and non-conformance control.
  • Health, Safety & Environmental (HSE) leadership with knowledge of local regulatory permitting, environmental mitigation and safety management systems.
  • Financial acumen: budgeting, earned value management (EVM), CAPEX/OPEX forecasting and commercial reporting.
  • Risk management and mitigation planning, including contingency planning and scenario analysis.
  • Familiarity with project scheduling tools (MS Project, Primavera P6) and program dashboards; ability to generate and interpret critical path analyses.
  • Experience with turbine performance testing protocols, power curve verification and availability measurement methodologies.
  • Familiarity with standards and certifications: IEC 61400 series, ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and relevant local grid codes.

Soft Skills

  • Strong leadership and people management—ability to align diverse technical teams and external contractors to program objectives.
  • Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills for investors, authorities, OEMs and community groups.
  • Negotiation and conflict resolution to settle technical-commercial disputes and manage claims.
  • Decision-making under pressure, prioritization and trade-off analysis during schedule or budget crises.
  • Strategic thinking with attention to operational detail—balancing long-term asset value and near-term delivery targets.
  • Problem-solving and analytical mindset, comfortable with complex technical and commercial interfaces.
  • Adaptability and resilience in dynamic, weather- and logistics-driven project environments.
  • Coaching and mentoring capability to raise team competency and institutionalize best practices.
  • Cultural sensitivity and stakeholder diplomacy for multi-jurisdictional projects and local community engagement.
  • Strong written reporting skills for executive summaries, board updates and regulatory submissions.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Renewable Energy Engineering, or related technical discipline.

Preferred Education:

  • Master’s degree in Engineering, Project Management, Business Administration (MBA), or an advanced technical degree with renewable energy focus.
  • Professional certifications such as PMP, Prince2, or equivalent program management credentials.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Mechanical / Electrical / Civil Engineering
  • Renewable Energy / Wind Engineering
  • Project Management / Construction Management
  • Power Systems Engineering
  • Marine Engineering (for offshore roles)

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 8–15+ years of professional experience in energy or heavy-industrial project delivery, with progressive responsibility in project or program management.

Preferred:

  • 5+ years directly managing wind turbine programs or large-scale wind farm projects (onshore and/or offshore).
  • Proven track record managing OEM relationships, EPC contractors, logistics providers and utilities.
  • Demonstrated experience delivering projects with budgets in the multi-million to multi-hundred-million dollar range and meeting performance guarantees.

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