Principal Consultant - Market Modeling & Analysis

Wood Mackenzie is the global leader in analytics, insights and proprietary data across the entire energy and natural resources landscape.
For over 50 years our work has guided the decisions of the world’s most influential energy producers, utilities companies, financial institutions and governments.
Now, with the world’s energy system more complex and interconnected than ever before, sector-specific views are no longer enough. That’s why we’ve redefined what’s possible with Intelligence Connected.
By fusing our unparalleled proprietary data with the sharpest analytical minds, all supercharged by Synoptic AI, we deliver a clear, interconnected view of the entire value chain. Our trusted team of 2,700 experts across 30 countries breaks siloes and connects industries, markets and regions across the globe.
This empowers our customers to identify risk sooner, spot opportunities faster and recalibrate strategy with confidence – whether planning days, weeks, months or decades ahead.
Wood Mackenzie
Intelligence Connected
WoodMac.com
Wood Mackenzie Brand Video
Wood Mackenzie Values
Inclusive – we succeed together
Trusting – we choose to trust each other
Customer committed – we put customers at the heart of our decisions
Future Focused – we accelerate change
Curious – we turn knowledge into action
Role Description
At Wood Mackenzie, our competitive advantage lies in the depth and analytical rigor of our market‑leading research, and in the combined expertise of our dedicated consultants who specialize in energy and natural resources. As a Principal Consultant on the Power Market Modelling and Analysis team within the Americas Power & Renewables Consulting team, you will play a key role in our growing consulting practice leading the management and delivery of a wide range of commercial, transaction and strategic consulting projects. You will be a front-line leader involved in all aspects of the consulting process, from shaping the opportunity, performing the analysis, managing the project, and working closely with clients and Wood Mackenzie experts to develop insights to support critical client commercial and strategic decisions.
The Principal Consultant will be instrumental in developing the power market analytics for the North American power markets, running fundamental production cost models to generate regional, zonal and nodal power price forecasts, building scenario analysis, and supporting strategy, commercial advisory and portfolio/asset due diligence engagements. The role combines strong modelling execution with well-organized, fully documented deliverables and growing client responsibility.
This role requires strong execution and workstream management to deliver client mandates, with active coaching of the junior team members. The Principal Consultant is expected to work as part of a project team under the guidance of senior team members and forms a critical part of the project delivery team at Wood Mackenzie while increasing visibility with clients.
This role requires a high level of creative thinking, analytical and problem-solving abilities, and the application of detailed North American power market knowledge and experience to a broad range of consulting projects and client situations. These capabilities must be accompanied by a strong command of oral and written communication skills in both internal as well as external and client-facing environments. Additionally, outstanding team and project management capabilities, in a consulting context, are required for the purpose of this role.
Main Responsibilities
Project Management:
Plan and manage project workstreams or parts of a bigger and more complex project against scope, timeline and budget, clarify priorities with the project team and keep all team members aligned
Lead and manage the full life cycle of power market modelling engagements
Plan and prioritise own workload and that of team members to ensure project objectives and deadlines are met
Track progress against the project plan and flag risks, delays and scope changes early to the project director
Keep clients and the project director updated on progress, and act as day-to-day client contact
Oversee and review the contribution of junior team members and researchers to ensure high-quality deliverables, completed on time and within budget
Support project close-out (project review, participant feedback, final deliverable and audit file archiving)
Identify follow-up opportunities and raise them with the senior project team members
Business Development:
Support senior team members in business development across the North American power markets, including proposals, scopes, modelling approach, effort estimates and in preparing a pitch deck
Build a strong working-level relationship with our client base and support the pursuit of consulting opportunities
Contribute to the development of North American power market modelling offerings and share best practices with the global sector teams
Thought Leadership:
Generating innovative ideas and approaches to industry issues, both within the assignments and to the consulting practice as a whole
Develop subject matter expertise in fundamental power market and production cost modeling and serve as a thought leader
Develop quantitative models as needed to solve the business needs of the client
Contribute to thought leadership through preparation of data, research, articles, webinars and conference presentations
Analysis:
Lead, support and coach the project team in building, running, calibrating and validating results from production cost models (PCM) such as PLEXOS, AURORA, PROMOD, GridView, EnCompass etc.
Develop a process to organize, QA/QC and interpret model results into clear dashboards, tables, charts and summaries that support the client scope
Support preparation of client deliverables such as PowerPoint presentations, reports and Excel outputs with a clear storyline and results
Review the work of junior staff members for accuracy, consistency and quality, and coach them on modelling and deliverables
Extract and analyse data from internal and external sources such as ISO/RTO databases, websites, industry interviews and Wood Mackenzie proprietary data and products
Demonstrate high standards of professionalism and attention to detail to ensure the highest quality analysis is delivered
Take ownership for the analysis undertaken, and explain it to clients and project leads in a coherent and credible manner
Fundamental Power Market Modelling & Advisory:
Develop long-term power price forecasts (energy, capacity, ancillary services) using capacity expansion and PCM simulations, and run scenario and sensitivity analyses summarizing the key value drivers
Apply in-depth knowledge of regulated and deregulated North American power markets (ISO/RTO market design, policy and regulation) for PCM model setup, evaluating policy and regulatory framework to run scenario and sensitivity analyses explaining key value drivers and interpretation of study results
Support nodal price forecast and with the ability to clearly explain key concepts, such as,