O&M Operations Coordinator at SolarAfrica in Irene, Gauteng

O&M Operations Coordinator

Location: Irene, Gauteng

To operate the daily O&M administrative workflow that converts maintenance plans, site/contractor requirements, handover deliverables, service reports, warranty events and management decisions into ready work, controlled evidence, timely escalation and verified closure across SolarAfrica’s onsite and utility-scale portfolios.

Position of the job in the organisation: The O&M Operations Coordinator reports to the O&M Planning & Operations Support Manager.

Principal responsibilities:

Maintenance Scheduling, Work Orders & Dispatch Readiness

• Maintain the 12-month preventive/statutory maintenance calendar and create work orders at least 3 months ahead.
• Ensure work orders are linked to the correct site, asset, contract, contractor, scope and service level.
• Complete readiness checks covering access, permits, H&S files, resources, tools, spares, instructions, outage approvals and dispatch packs.

Contractor Reports, Actions & Evidence Closure

• Receive, log and quality-check maintenance reports; route for technical review and update actions with owners and due dates.
• Prevent closure without the required reports, photos, test results, time/cost records, site confirmation and approvals.
• Track ageing items, repeat visits, no-access events, rejected reports, overdue actions and contractor scorecard inputs.

Access, Compliance, Competence & Contractor Records

• Maintain staff and contractor records, including onboarding, scope/rates, insurance, competence, training, medical fitness, inductions, H&S documents, access and expiries.
• Coordinate customer/site compliance packs, retain proof of acceptance and maintain site-specific permit, environmental, emergency and access requirements.
• Escalate critical expiries or missing evidence before mobilisation or dispatch.

Handover, Documents, Master Data & Change Records

• Maintain the Projects-to-O&M handover register, evidence dossier, decision trail, defect actions and 90-day hypercare log.
• Control current as-builts, manuals, warranties, commissioning records, site plans, emergency procedures, contracts and work history.
• Maintain master data, owners, permissions, evidence links, audit trails and approved change records in Dynamics, Simpro and SharePoint.

Contract, Warranty & Commercial Workflow Support

• Maintain obligation dates, service-authority status, fee/invoicing profiles, renewals, expiries and commercial owners.
• Log ASRs, quotations, variations, claims, warranty events, OEM correspondence, replacements and recovery status.
• Compile warranty, ASR and invoice evidence packs for manager review and track decisions that create an O&M obligation, risk or change.

Procurement, Payment & Vendor Administration

• Raise and track approved purchase requisitions, purchase orders, approval workflows and invoice approvals.
• Compile contractor/supplier payment-support packs and verify invoices against work orders, reports, delivery notes, quotations and goods-received evidence.
• Coordinate supplier/contractor onboarding, vetting and compliance-document follow-up.

Inventory & Materials Coordination

• Maintain inventory transaction records, stock movements and approved consumable master data.
• Coordinate stock issues, returns, transfers and allocations between stores, sites and contractors.
• Support Procurement with inventory accuracy, reconciliations, critical spare availability and shortage escalations.

Contract Administration & Renewal Coordination

• Maintain the contract-renewal, notice, expiry and critical milestone register.
• Coordinate renewal workflows between O&M, Legal, Procurement, Asset Management and suppliers.
• Follow up reviews, signatures, approvals and supporting documents until executed agreements, amendments and schedules are filed.

Reporting, Audit Support & Continuous Improvement

• Prepare weekly exception and monthly control reports from agreed sources and definitions.
• Assemble indexed evidence for customer, lender, insurer, regulator, due-diligence and audit requests.
• Complete quality checks, identify repeat issues, duplicate entries and automation opportunities, and maintain leave-cover checklists.

Experience & Skills

• 3–5 years in O&M coordination, maintenance planning, service operations, facilities/field-service administration, contract administration or document control in an asset-intensive environment.
• Renewable-energy, utilities, telecoms, facilities, manufacturing or multi-site field-service experience; solar PV/BESS exposure advantageous rather than mandatory.
• Demonstrated use of a CMMS/field-service system to create and track work orders, schedules, service reports, evidence and closure.
• Experience administering contractor compliance, access packs, competence/expiry records, controlled documents or handover dossiers.
• Strong ERP/CMMS/document-management and Excel capability; Dynamics 365, Simpro, SharePoint and Power Automate experience advantageous.
• National Diploma or equivalent NQF 5/6 qualification in Business Administration, Project Management, Supply Chain, Maintenance Planning, Document Control or a related field; equivalent relevant experience considered.
• Valid driver’s licence and willingness to travel to distributed and utility-scale sites.

Specific attributes:

• Relentless follow-through and disciplined prioritisation in a high-volume environment.
• High accuracy and evidence orientation; comfortable rejecting incomplete submissions.
• Calm, clear communication with technicians, contractors, customers and corporate functions.
• Able to distinguish an urgent safety/commercial exception from routine administration.
• Systems-minded and willing to simplify or automate repetitive work.
• Comfortable escalating early while preserving constructive working relationships.

What Does Success Look Like?

By 3 Months

• I will understand every recurring workflow, service level, owner, approver and escalation route.
• I will have cleansed the critical site, contractor, access, obligation, warranty and work-order records assigned to me.
• I will operate the 14-day/7-day readiness checks, report-to-action workflow and “no evidence, no closure” rule consistently.

By 6 Months

• I will sustain the rolling schedule and agreed work-order, report-review, access and record-control service levels.
• I will maintain complete handover/hypercare dossiers and warranty/ASR/invoice evidence packs for manager review.
• I will have reduced aged assigned actions and unsupported closures by at least 50% from the 3-month baseline.

By 12 Months

• I will sustain the three role KPIs with audit-ready evidence and no unreported critical control misses.
• I will have documented standard work and leave-cover checklists for every critical recurring control.
• I will provide accurate workload, cycle-time, rework and exception data for the annual capacity review.

Core Values:

We hire, reward, and recognise our team against these values. It is imperative that you believe in these values and demonstrate them consistently.

• We are passionate and proud of what we do.
• We communicate candidly, especially when it is difficult
• We take the initiative, share our mistakes, and grow together
• We are dependable and take accountability
• No one person is bigger than the solution - no egos.

We are currently only considering candidates based in South Africa with valid working rights. Unfortunately, we are unable to consider applications from outside the country at this time.