Manager, Load Forecasting

The Manager, Load Forecasting is a key leadership role within the Forecasting and Analytics team in the Planning and Regulatory Support organization. This role leads the team responsible for Southern Company’s official short- and long-term energy, peak demand, and revenue forecasts for the retail electric operating companies, including organic load growth and large-load segments. The position serves as the Director of Forecasting and Analytics’ primary forecasting deputy, or knowledge lieutenant, ensuring that forecasting methods, assumptions, outputs, documentation, and explanations are analytically sound, transparent, repeatable, and defensible for planning, financial, executive, and regulatory uses. The role supports the Director in major regulatory proceedings and may serve as a company witness in smaller or targeted proceedings as appropriate. This leader manages team leads and technical professionals, develops forecasting talent and future leaders, and coordinates across operating companies and enterprise functions. The role is accountable for crafting the annual forecasting and planning cycle while ensuring that monthly and quarterly economic monitoring and sales variance explanations remain aligned with the annual forecast models and assumptions without pulling the forecasting team into recurring short-cycle reporting ownership. The ideal candidate combines analytical and statistical capability, utility planning knowledge, disciplined model governance, regulatory judgment, executive communication skills, intellectual curiosity, and a demonstrated ability to develop people. The role should be viewed as a development platform for broader enterprise forecasting, analytics, and regulatory leadership. Job Requirements Education Bachelor’s degree in Statistics, Economics, Analytics, Finance, Engineering, Mathematics, Decision Sciences, Data Science, or a complementary discipline required. Master’s degree, Ph.D., or other advanced technical or business degree preferred. Experience and Knowledge Minimum 7 years of experience in utility planning, forecasting, analytics, economics, finance, regulatory support, engineering, consulting, or related functions is required. Demonstrated experience leading technical professionals, senior analysts, team leads, or cross-functional analytical workstreams. Experience managing managers or team leads preferred. Strong understanding of forecasting, statistics, econometrics, customer usage analysis, economic drivers, planning processes, or comparable analytical disciplines. Utility experience strongly preferred, including exposure to load forecasting, integrated resource planning, financial planning, rate cases, regulatory filings, load research, pricing, demand-side management, large-load analysis, or system planning. Experience supporting regulatory filings, discovery responses, technical conferences, witness preparation, or testimony preferred. Prior witness experience is a differentiator, not an absolute requirement. Experience developing, improving, documenting, validating, benchmarking, and defending analytical models, assumptions, tools, and results Strong MS Office skills (Powerpoint, Excel, Word) is required. Major Job Responsibilities 1. Lead the Annual Forecasting and Planning Cadence Lead completion of official energy, peak demand, and revenue forecasts for Southern Company and its retail electric operating companies. Own the annual forecasting process that supports resource planning, financial planning, capital planning, budgets, IRP and rate case inputs, and executive decision-making. Coordinate timelines, assumptions, deliverables, and stakeholder review points to ensure forecast outputs are accurate, timely and transparent to support the Company planning processes. 2. Govern Forecasting Methodologies, Models, Tools, and Assumptions Oversee development, improvement, documentation, benchmarking, validation, and implementation of forecasting models,