Director, BESS Services

Job Description
Description & Requirements
AESC is seeking a senior service leader to build and operate the U.S. service organization for its growing battery energy storage system (BESS) business. This leader will own the installed-base customer experience and the safe, reliable, and profitable delivery of commissioning support, long-term service agreements (LTSAs), field service, warranty, remote support, spare parts, and lifecycle performance.
The role spans the full post-sale lifecycle, from design-for-serviceability and commissioning readiness through commercial operation, planned and corrective maintenance, major incident response, upgrades, warranty closeout, and contract renewal. It requires a hands-on builder who can establish a geographically distributed team and partner network while serving as the senior escalation point for customers and internal executives.
Core mandate: Build a safety-first, scalable U.S. BESS service platform that protects customers, maximizes fleet availability, fulfills contractual commitments, converts field learning into product improvement, and develops service into a durable source of revenue and margin.
About AESC
AESC is a global battery technology company developing and manufacturing high-performance batteries for electric vehicles and energy storage systems. AESC reports more than 100 GWh of shipped capacity for battery energy systems across more than 60 countries. The U.S. BESS Service Lead will help translate AESC's technology and manufacturing capabilities into dependable, long-term operating outcomes for North American customers.
Key Responsibilities
Service strategy and organization. Define the U.S. service operating model, organization, regional coverage, make-versus-buy strategy, headcount plan, partner network, systems, procedures, and multi-year capability roadmap. Recruit, develop, and retain commissioning, field service, technical support, performance, and service-operations talent.
Safety leadership. Own the service safety culture and field execution standards. Establish governance for LOTO, energized work, switching, arc-flash controls, permit-to-work, job hazard analysis, emergency response, stop-work authority, contractor safety, incident reporting, and lessons learned.
Commissioning-to-service transition. Establish service-readiness gates, handover criteria, punch-list closure, documentation, training, asset registration, baseline performance, warranty activation, spare-parts readiness, and customer acceptance requirements before commercial operation.
Field service and fleet reliability. Lead preventive, predictive, and corrective maintenance across utility-scale BESS assets. Plan outages, deploy resources, supervise service partners, standardize work execution, and continuously improve system availability, capacity, reliability, first-time fix rate, and mean time to repair.
Technical escalation and incident management. Direct 24/7 escalation coverage for critical events. Lead structured troubleshooting, containment, root-cause analysis, corrective and preventive action (CAPA), management of change, recovery plans, executive communications, and closure of repeat-failure mechanisms.
Remote operations and performance. Build remote monitoring, alarm triage, fleet analytics, condition-based maintenance, performance reporting, and case-management capabilities. Use BMS, PCS, EMS/SCADA, controls, communications, thermal management, and fire-system data to identify risk and improve lifecycle performance.
Warranty, spares, and supplier recovery. Own warranty administration, claims, RMA/return processes, failure evidence, cost recovery, field campaigns, spare-parts forecasting, regional inventory, repair strategy, obsolescence planning, and supplier/OEM escalation.
LTSA and commercial performance. Ensure compliance with SLAs, availability and capacity guarantees, response times, reporting obligations, maintenance scope, and liquidated-damages exposure. Own the regional service budget/cost center and, as assigned, service P&L, pricing inputs, lifecycle cost models, change orders, renewals, and service growth.
Customer leadership. Serve as the executive service owner for strategic customers. Establish governance, performance reviews, escalation protocols, transparent communications, recovery plans, and a consistent experience that supports satisfaction, retention, references, and repeat business.
Quality and product feedback. Partner with Engineering, Product, Quality, Project Delivery, Supply Chain, Software, Sales, Finance, and Legal to improve serviceability, reliability, documentation, training, warranty terms, contract assumptions, and future product design based on field evidence.
Operating discipline. Implement CMMS and case-management workflows, asset hierarchy, work orders, controlled procedures, skills certification, service bulletins, audit routines, KPI dashboards, financial controls, data quality, and executive reporting.
Qualifications
Experience. 10+ years of progressively responsible experience in BESS, electric utility generation, renewable power, power conversion, critical power, industrial field service, or adjacent high-voltage asset operations, including at least 5 years leading service or O&M teams.
BESS lifecycle depth. Direct leadership experience with utility-scale BESS commissioning, post-COD support, preventive and corrective maintenance, warranty, root-cause investigations, and long-term service delivery.
Distributed operations. Proven success building or leading a geographically dispersed field organization and managing third-party service providers across multiple sites and jurisdictions.
Technical credibility. Working knowledge of battery racks/containers, BMS, PCS/inverters, medium-voltage equipment, transformers, switchgear, protection, EMS/SCADA, PLCs, communications, HVAC/thermal management, fire detection/suppression, and grid-interface functions.
Safety and compliance. Demonstrated leadership of operational safety programs and working familiarity with applicable OSHA requirements, NFPA 70E, NEC, NFPA 855, LOTO, arc-flash, electrical switching, emergency response, and relevant U.S. codes and standards.
Commercial accountability. Experience managing service budgets, forecasts, cost centers or P&L; interpreting LTSAs, warranties, SLAs, performance guarantees, and LD exposure; and negotiating or administering third-party service contracts.
Customer and crisis leadership. Ability to lead complex technical escalations and communicate calmly and credibly with site teams, asset owners, utilities, insurers, authorities having jurisdiction, and senior executives.
Business systems. Experience with CMMS/EAM, ERP, financial reporting, case-management, document-control, and fleet-performance systems; disciplined use of data and structured problem-solving methods.
Education and mobility. Bachelor's degree in electrical, mechanical, controls, energy systems, or another relevant engineering/technical discipline, or equivalent experience; valid driver's license and ability to travel up to 50%, including urgent field response when necessary.
Preferred Qualifications
15+ years of relevant experience and 7+ years leading multi-site service, O&M, commissioning, or asset-performance organizations.
Experience supporting a large utility-scale BESS fleet under availability, capacity, response-time, or performance guarantees.
Experience with LFP battery systems, containerized BESS, grid-forming or advanced inverter controls, and U.S. utility interconnection/commissioning requirements.
Demonstrated success launching a regional service organization, control/monitoring center, technical support function, or new service business line.
Professional Engineer (PE), PMP, OSHA 30, NFPA 70E, NERC, electrical license, or equivalent relevant credential; master's degree or MBA is a plus.
Experience collaborating across U.S. and global engineering, manufacturing, quality, and supply-chain teams in a fast-growing matrix organization.
Performance Measures
Safety: leading indicators, training/certification completion, audit closure, recordable incidents, high-potential events, and contractor performance.
Fleet: availability, capacity/performance guarantee attainment, alarm recurrence, forced outage hours, MTTR, first-time fix rate, and preventive-maintenance compliance.
Customer: SLA response, escalation aging, reporting timeliness, acceptance/closure rate, satisfaction, references, renewals, and repeat business.
Quality and warranty: repeat failures, RCA/CAPA cycle time and effectiveness, warranty cost, supplier recovery, field campaign completion, and technical-document quality.
Financial and operational: service revenue and gross margin, cost per site/MWh, budget accuracy, overtime and travel efficiency, spare-parts availability/turns, backlog, and workforce utilization.
What Success Looks Like
First 90 days. Assess the installed base, contracts, open issues, safety risks, team capability, partners, spares, systems, and customer commitments; establish escalation governance and a prioritized U.S. service roadmap.
Within 12 months. Implement standard service-readiness, maintenance, incident, warranty, spares, training, CMMS, customer-reporting, and KPI processes; close critical capability gaps; improve response and fleet performance; and produce a credible service budget and staffing plan

Work arrangement
Yes