Head of Power Operations & Maintenance

About the role

Black Pearl Consult is seeking an experienced Head of Power Operations & Maintenance to lead the strategic and operational management of power utility assets across generation, transmission and distribution. This is a senior leadership opportunity for a power utility professional with deep technical and operational expertise and a proven track record of leading large-scale O&M functions.

Key responsibilities

• Develop and execute the overall O&M strategy for power assets in line with organisational objectives.
• Provide senior leadership across power generation, transmission and distribution operations and maintenance.
• Lead system operations to ensure safe, reliable and efficient power delivery.
• Oversee the operation and maintenance of substations, transformers, switchgear and transmission and distribution assets.
• Drive preventive, corrective, predictive and condition-based maintenance programmes.
• Ensure high asset availability and reliability while minimising outages and downtime.
• Establish and monitor operational KPIs, performance targets and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Lead emergency, outage, equipment failure and system restoration management.
• Oversee asset lifecycle management, upgrades, retrofits and capital improvements.
• Manage annual O&M plans, budgets and resource requirements, and identify cost optimisation opportunities.
• Ensure compliance with regulatory, safety, environmental and technical standards.
• Lead risk management and oversee procurement and vendor management.
• Build and develop technical and operational teams, promote safety and continuous improvement, and support workforce development and Emiratisation.

Required profile

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering (mandatory).
• Minimum 15 years of relevant experience in the power utility sector.
• Minimum 5 years in senior leadership roles within power operations, O&M or a closely related utility function.
• Proven experience managing large-scale power O&M strategies and programmes.
• Strong financial, budgeting, procurement and vendor-management capabilities.

Required skills

• Power transmission and distribution operations and protection systems.
• Substation operations and maintenance.
• Transformers, switchgear and protection systems.
• Preventive, corrective, predictive and condition-based maintenance.
• Operational risk management, outage and emergency response.