Description

Resource Innovations is seeking an Energy Advisor (Energy Manager / Outreach Engineer) to join our growing team in Northern, IL (Chicagoland). We are seeking a highly skilled and motivated Energy Advisor with a strong background in energy efficiency to join our dynamic team. As an Energy Advisor (Energy Manager / Outreach Engineer) with Resource Innovations, you will serve as a senior strategic and technical advisor to commercial and industrial customers, helping organizations identify, prioritize, and advance high-value energy efficiency and facility optimization initiatives.

This energy consulting role is for an experienced professional who will combine technical expertise, consultative sales skills, and strong business acumen to influence customer investment decisions and move complex projects from opportunity identification through implementation.

In this highly consultative and results-driven role, you will lead customers through the full project development lifecycle, including but not limited to strategic energy planning, opportunity assessment, business-case development, technical evaluation, financial considerations, and implementation. You will be expected to navigate complex customer organizations to identify, engage, and influence key decision-makers, overcome barriers, and build a strong pipeline of actionable energy efficiency projects that deliver measurable energy savings and value to customers.

You will also develop and manage trusted relationships with commercial and industrial utility customer facility leaders, engineers, energy managers, sustainability professionals, financial decision-makers, and executive stakeholders. This customer engagement will lead to a comprehensive understanding of their operational priorities, capital planning objectives, and energy goals. Leveraging these insights, you will identify and develop opportunities across all the utility energy efficiency program offerings.

A successful Energy Advisor will operate independently, with technical credibility, a strategic account ownership skillset, and leverage data analytics to convert opportunities into savings.

Resource Innovations (RI) is a women-led energy transformation firm focused on impact. Building on our expertise in energy efficiency, we're constantly expanding our portfolio of clean energy solutions to guide utilities through increasingly complex, connected challenges. Load flexibility. Electrification. Carbon reduction. With every step, we're leading the charge to power change.

Key Responsibilities

Customer Engagement, Account Management, and Program Growth

• Serve as customers’ strategic energy management partner, identifying and prioritizing opportunities that align with their operational, financial, and sustainability objectives.
• Influence customer energy management strategies by delivering data-driven recommendations and actionable implementation plans.
• Anticipate customer and program needs and deliver solutions that create measurable value.
• Champion the broader mission of energy efficiency by helping customers understand the operational, financial, and environmental benefits of energy-saving investments.
• Develop and execute territory and account strategies that maximize participation, project conversion, and achieve energy savings targets.
• Build trusted relationships with utility representatives, facility engineers and operators, contractors, and key decision-makers to drive long-term engagement and project adoption.
• Serve as the primary liaison and relationship manager between customers, utility, contractors, engineering teams, and program leadership to ensure a seamless customer experience.
• Maintain accurate customer activity, opportunity pipelines, and project forecasts within CRM systems while identifying stalled opportunities, engaging stakeholders, and implementing recovery plans to move projects forward.

Leverage Assessments and Data Analytics to Drive Technical Solutions

• Conduct consultative discussions with customers to uncover operational challenges, capital planning initiatives, and energy-saving opportunities.
• Evaluate facilities, systems, and operational practices through site visits, technical reviews, and analysis of available documentation, including BAS screenshots, control sequences, P&IDs, drawings, and equipment data.
• Develop, manage, and maintain an Energy Management Action Plan for each customer, a history and “living roadmap” recapping short- and long-term opportunities and energy management priorities, decisions, and progress.
• Support customers from opportunity identification through project completion to ensure successful energy savings outcomes.
• Identify and qualify energy efficiency opportunities while assessing technical feasibility, customer readiness, and program eligibility.
• Clearly articulate the business case, financial benefits, operational impacts, and energy savings potential of recommended projects.
• Guide customers through project evaluation, prioritization, and implementation planning.
• Collaborate with engineering specialists to develop solutions for complex systems and high-value customer opportunities.
• Remove implementation barriers by coordinating resources, resolving issues, and facilitating stakeholder alignment.
• Perform other responsibilities as assigned.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering or a related technical field, or equivalent professional experience.
• Five or more years of experience in energy efficiency consulting, technical sales, engineering consulting, facility optimization, or a related field.
• Strong understanding of industrial and/or commercial facilities and energy-saving technologies and strategies, including HVAC, lighting, motors, compressed air, refrigeration, and process systems.
• Experience supporting utility-sponsored energy efficiency programs.
• Demonstrated ability to influence customer decisions through consultative selling, relationship management, and solution development.
• Passion for sustainability and helping organizations achieve operational and environmental goals.
• Ability to translate complex technical concepts into clear, compelling recommendations for both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Excellent communication, presentation, and stakeholder engagement skills.
• Proven ability to build credibility quickly and develop lasting customer relationships.
• Strong organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple projects, priorities, budgets, and deadlines in a remote environment.
• Ability to travel locally to customer sites, up to approximately 50% of the time.
• Proficiency with Microsoft 365 applications. 

Preferred skills, education and experience

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering.
• Application engineering, sales, or customer service experience.
• Certified Energy Manager (CEM), Certified Energy Auditor (CEA), Certified Building Commissioning Professional (CBCP), or similar credentials.
• Professional Engineer (PE) license, preferably in Mechanical Engineering, HVAC and Refrigeration, or Thermal and Fluid Systems.
• Experience leveraging CRM platforms, pipeline management tools, and performance reporting systems.
• Demonstrated success developing customer accounts, generating project pipelines, and driving implementation of energy efficiency initiatives.