Manager, Regional and Community Engagement

Date: January 6, 2026

Location: Toronto, ON

Requisition ID: 20819

Status: Regular

Business Unit: Corporate Relations, Engagement and Strategy

Grade/Band: Band 5A

Annual Pay Range: For standard 35-hour work week

$131,820 - $164,760

The successful placement within the range will depend on qualifications, relevant work experience, and other applicable considerations.

Why join us?

The IESO is committed to ensuring Ontario’s electricity system meets the province’s needs today and into the future. We are charged with purpose, delivering reliable, affordable, and sustainable electricity for homes, businesses, and communities across the province. We are energized to grow, embracing opportunities to shape the future of a dynamic and evolving energy sector while advancing our careers. We are powered by teamwork, supported by diverse and passionate colleagues who foster respect, celebrate successes, and thrive on shared achievements. At the IESO, it’s not just what we do—it’s who we are! 

Who we are

Our central role includes managing the provincial power grid in real-time, overseeing and evolving Ontario’s electricity market, engaging with government, municipalities and Indigenous communities, and planning for Ontario’s future electricity needs. Our employees play a key role in driving grid innovation, protecting the system from threats, advancing the province’s energy conservation programs, and forecasting and procuring the electricity resources we’ll need in the decades to come. 

This role falls within the Regional and Community Engagement Division of the Corporate Relations, Engagement and Strategy business unit.

What makes this role exciting

This role offers the opportunity to shape and lead municipal and stakeholder engagement strategies that directly influence IESO’s relationships with communities. The successful candidate will provide leadership in shaping and delivering Municipal, community engagement and conference strategies, ensuring consistent, effective outreach that supports organizational objectives and stakeholder confidence. With responsibility for conference strategies, including municipal focused events, policy implementation, and training programs, you’ll play a key role in advancing stakeholder engagement and fostering collaboration across the energy sector. Leading and coaching a team adds an exciting leadership dimension, making this position central to IESO’s mission of building strong, informed partnerships.

What you’ll do

In this role, you’ll make a meaningful impact by contributing to the IESO team and supporting the electricity needs of the province through:

Leadership

• Provide feedback to management on employee competency and performance evaluation of employees in stakeholder engagement and training. Oversee all aspects of hiring, development, training, performance objectives, performance reviews, coaching, and all matters of performance management including, if necessary, termination. Keep the Sr. Manager and leadership informed of progress, recommend staffing needs, select and implement staff needs, select and implement staff changes, and ensure job training and development.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Develop and lead all Municipal and Community engagement strategies, processes, and assessment of stakeholder engagement plans. Establish mechanisms to support and guide stakeholder engagement activities within the company and the conduct of both the IESO and stakeholder participants. Lead cross-functional initiatives and major events working with leadership, IESO business units, and external stakeholders. Share the plans and strategies with the Regional & Community Engagement team for day-to-day implementation.
• Lead the development and implementation of the IESO’s municipal conference strategy, ensuring effective participation in key municipal and sector events. Identify strategic opportunities for engagement, coordinate IESO participation and messaging, and leverage conferences to advance IESO’s municipal engagement objectives.
• Develop and foster strong relationships with key municipal associations, including AMO, ROMA, NOMA, and FONOM, serving as one of IESO’s liaison. The Manager will work to strengthen collaboration, identify emerging municipal priorities, coordinate participation in key association events and conferences and ensure municipal perspectives are meaningfully reflected in IESO planning and engagement activities
• Develop and assess stakeholder engagement approaches for the continuous improvement to business processes and associated costs based on the ongoing assessment of stakeholder and IESO business needs.  Develop success criteria and establish monitoring and measurement processes and practices to assess the value of stakeholder engagement activities, identify reputational risks, and identify future opportunities. Lead cultural change across the IESO by creating unique approaches and courses of action to meet stakeholder engagement requirements. Build opportunities for work-integrated learning to track the success of our existing and evolving stakeholder engagement approaches.
• Seek opportunities to establish and maintain long-lasting relationships with key municipal influencers and community groups assessing developments and industry trends affecting stakeholders and recommend corporate policies, and procedures to ensure the needs for stakeholder engagement are met. Report on the status of engagement opportunities to IESO leadership and stakeholder.
• Provide leadership and ensure effective processes integrate line organizations and stakeholder engagement activities into project schedules.  Ensure timely, accessible, accurate and coordinated communication in support of stakeholder engagement processes. Develop appropriate control processes and project management that meet regulated requirements and IESO objectives. Develop, implement and monitor appropriate systems to meet due diligence requirements and to ensure stakeholder processes and data confidentiality.
• Lead and coach the team in their facilitation of engagement initiatives. Develop strategies to help staff build stakeholder engagement expertise. Assign work and/or areas of responsibility; provide guidance, and ensure the quality and accuracy of performance and output of the group is aligned with workload demands and efficient and economic practices.  Establish and foster strong communication and effective collaboration within the team as well as with other business units across the organization.
• Develop procedures and protocols to support stakeholder
  engagement activities relating to policy implementation/operations initiatives that align with stakeholder engagement principles and legislative requirements.
  
  

Training

• Monitor and evaluate training program effectiveness, including training trends, blended training environments, operational goals and best practices. Define success metrics, measure and report on the results and the overall impact of the training academy program and services. Identify and assess future and current training needs through stakeholder analysis and business unit consultation. Manage training budget and seek ongoing refinements Training Academy development, including stakeholder management.
• Provide leadership to collaborate with other business units and continuously cultivate internal and stakeholder relationships. Collaborate with internal business units and stakeholders to understand learning opportunities and enhance the learning and development experiences for customers aligned with IESO’s strategic objectives. Define learning needs tied to business objectives, assist in developing annual learning plans to help drive culture and behavioural change with customers, and create communications plan concerning learning and development opportunities and resources. Maintain current knowledge of best practices in adult learning theory, instructional design practices, and learning technology delivery solutions and keep current with innovative trends.

Role Requirements

 
Our team consists of experts from diverse backgrounds, each bringing their unique perspectives and skills. 
To succeed in this role, you’ll need: 

• A good knowledge of business administration or commerce to plan, risk identification and management, strategy management, process improvements, direct, coordinate, and support stakeholder engagement processes and operational mechanisms across the IESO. 
• Strong communication skills to deal with stakeholders, government representatives, various Committee members, and to establish and manage timely, accurate and coordinated communication in support of stakeholder engagement processes as well as training to customers.

This knowledge is normally acquired through the successful completion of 4 years of University training, or the equivalent.

Experience:

• Experience to acquire a thorough understanding of the role of stakeholder development, stakeholder involvement and social impact, to deal with special interest groups, the design and delivery of stakeholder involvement and assessment of planning initiatives.
• Broad experience within the company to acquire sound insight and understanding of all facets of engaging diverse stakeholder groups.
• Experience to acquire a good understanding of company objectives, policies, procedures and practices, the legislative and regulatory requirements governing the Ontario Electricity Marketplace, and the external business operations as they relate to company commitments.
• Experience in the analysis of policies, risk identification and management, decisions, corporate business development and plans and assessment of current issues in order to recommend strategies, plans and processes.
• Experience in setting goals, developing plans and tracking performance.
• Experience in project administration and project management to acquire a good understanding of management reporting, interrelationships of teams with clients, contract terms, conditions, regulations, driving innovative learning and development, etc associated with projects/programs.
• Strong critical thinking, judgement and decision-making skills.
• Experience in managing staff.
• Ability to maintain current knowledge of best practices in adult learning theory, instructional design practices, and learning technology delivery solutions and keep current with innovative trends

A period of over 10 years, up to and including 12 years of experience, is considered necessary to gain this experience.

How We Support You

From a comprehensive total rewards program to dynamic learning and development opportunities—including job rotations to broaden your expertise—we empower you to define and shape your own success. When you join the IESO, here’s what you can expect:

• Best-in-class benefits and long-term support in the form of a defined benefit pension plan. 
• Work in a dynamic and evolving sector that offers exciting opportunities and the chance to explore new career paths.
• Leadership that values meaningful discussions, welcomes feedback, and prioritizes career development. 
• A strong, inclusive culture and a collaborative team environment with a shared passion for impactful work.
• Compensation packages that are regularly reviewed to remain competitive and to best accommodate the diverse needs of our employees. 

Deadline

January 27, 2026. For future reference, please save a copy of the job posting as it will no longer be available once the posting closes.

Thank you for your interest in a career at the IESO. Only candidates selected for an interview will be contacted. Please note that the successful candidate must be legally eligible to work in Canada and will be subject to applicable background checks. 

IESO will not conduct interviews or offer positions via online, text, chat or social media platforms. We will not gather personal information directly from candidates or potential candidates. Selected candidates will work with our Talent Acquisition team to ensure their application is processed.

The IESO will be transitioning to a 3-day in-office work week effective January 2026. Over the course of 2026, the IESO will advance plans to acquire additional office space to accommodate more in-office time. While the timeline for moving to a full 5-day in-office model has not yet been established, we are committed to keeping employees and candidates informed as plans progress and give them as much advance notice as possible to prepare for any changes.

We believe in opportunities for everyone. 

At the IESO, we know that achieving great results depends on embracing diversity by attracting, developing, and retaining people from a wide variety of backgrounds. We do this by ensuring our recruitment and advancement policies are fair and equitable, and by creating an accessible and inclusive environment—one that values every team member’s unique skills and experiences and ensures they have the support they need to achieve their potential. If you require accommodation during the recruitment process, please let us know. We’re proud to say we’ve been recognized as a supportive, inclusive employer. 

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