Mathew Smith

Managed the end to end commissioning process for the BESS, from construction handover through to EIPC Grid Compliance testing, and Commercial Operation • Developed Commissioning Execution Strategy for Contact Energy's first Grid Connected BESS, including Balance of Plant Commissioning, Tesla Megapack Commissioning, Transpower EIPC Hold Point Commissioning • Developed Staged Commissioning Process based on international best practices • Built Commissioning Team to support commissioning processes • Developed Commissioning Schedule and identified critical interfaces, risks, and dependencies • Led Commissioning Team • Managed interfaces between the project and the trading, corporate data, technology, and master data teams.

Manager of Commissioning and Engineering workstreams; Project Engineer for Control Systems and Tesla BESS units • Led the closeout of the detailed design for the Glenbrook Ohurua BESS project, across multiple engineering disciplines. • Turned around the Grid Connection workstream, mitigating critical project risks and paving a path to power export. • Developed a comprehensive site control system to detailed functional description, facilitating operational flexibility through automation of startup and dispatch processes. • Provided technical oversight of the Tesla BESS contract, ensuring compliance with OEM requirements and commercial objectives. • Led the Commissioning of the project, including the planning and management of the commissioning phase

Manager of Utility Scale and Community Scale Renewable Energy Initiatives • Contributed to project & programme management capabilities at New Zealand's largest privately owned electrical contracting company with a focus on renewables. • Oversaw the construction phase of Aotearoa’s first 100MW BESS, ensuring quality and risk management. • Managed detailed designs and construction phases of utility-scale solar projects ranging from 7MW - 30MW • Secured contracts for significant solar initiatives, driving decarbonization efforts and project quality processes.

Acting Manager for Renewable Energy Division at one of New Zealand’s leading electrical contracting companies • Oversaw McKay’s Renewables division, driving project delivery and team growth from 2 to 6 employees. • Developed and managed successful tender responses, enhancing contract acquisition through strategic non-price attributes. • Achieved profitability three months ahead of forecast while holding P&L responsibility and delivering monthly board reports.

Manager of multi-million dollar CAPEX projects at one of New Zealand’s largest gentailers • Led cross-disciplinary energy infrastructure projects with multi-million-dollar budgets at Contact Energy Ltd. • Managed development and execution phases of projects, ensuring alignment across engineering, commercial, and legal teams. • Developed and presented investment cases for significant projects, facilitating decisions on up to ~$20M investments. • Fostered strong relationships with stakeholders to drive project success and maintain progress.

As a Ground Systems Engineer with Rocket Lab, I provided engineering for the systems which help Rocket Lab go to Space. My role within the Instrumentation and Control Engineering sub-team was focused upon the development and ongoing support of the instrumentation, control and monitoring systems that allow for the test and launch at Rocket Lab's unique sites. This included developing novel software solutions for industrialised hardware, managing electrical and instrumentation installation, and provision of project delivery to company requirements and best industry practice. I utilised object oriented programming methods to deliver elegant control software, as well as carrying out integration between multiple systems. This included writing codebase to log historical data within InfluxDB via its API, and developing a framework for automation of a rocket engine test facility, including all abstraction layers, object oriented state patterns, and messaging services to integrate with the GUI

During my time with Schneider Electric, I provided engineering expertise supporting the New Zealand Digital Energy Division, with a focus on Buildings. I developed technical and sales focused documentation supporting the successful bid for a data center project and went on to carry out the detailed design for this project. I also carried out smaller projects which required knowledge of Schneider's legacy products and provided services to existing customers with a strong focus upon professionalism and punctuality.

Provided engineering support for industrial projects in both proposal and project phases. - Network and Cybersecurity Solutions - Site Audits, surveying and completion of FEED studies - Documentation and acceptance testing planning - Functional Design Specification development - Customer Liaison

Led this undergraduate team to be selected to launch a CubeSat into orbit with the Auckland Programme for Space Systems. Formulated a proposal based on a strategy which showcased our idea, as well as our team. Provided technical direction and leadership for this stage, and consequential stages. The mission focuses more on social impact than new science, with an overarching goal of inspiring the next generation of Astronauts, Engineers, Scientists, Mathematicians and Critical Thinkers to pursue their dreams.

This role focused upon the optimisation of building control systems through the use of cloud based analytics tools. As part of this I coordinated and executed the deployment and tuning of many Connected Services sites through careful management of remote teams, customers, IT representatives, and also all associated internal stakeholders, as well as being responsible for the technical aspects of a successful deployment. Created methodologies to enable more effective work outputs from remote engineering teams and trained local field technicians on the use of the new technologies.

During the two and a half years in this role, I quickly rose to be a highly valued member of the Honeywell Service team within the upper North Island. I was relied on to deliver engineering technical and often complex projects, as well as build customer relationships, and carry out day to day service work. This work was all the way from the initial pre-engineering documentation, control system programming, HMI headend graphics design, and finally commissioning and functional testing, including As-Built documentation for the completed system. During my time with the service team, it was imperative to develop effective time management skills and become very adaptive due to the fast-paced nature of the work. Things change quickly, and the ability to react quickly, often out of instinct, was essential. Working on diverse projects has allowed further development of skills quickly, becoming adept in the deployment of Honeywell control systems, SCADA systems, and third party network security devices including Cisco ASAs and managed network switches. Inclusive with this is proficiency working with Schneider PLCs and many Honeywell field controllers. These projects have also resulted in an excellent working knowledge of various communications protocols such as Modbus, M-Bus and BACnet, and third-party integration with our control systems and headend.

Carried out component level repairs on a wide range of commercial and industrial electronic devices, often without service information. Developed and maintained a catalogue of spare parts. Developed strong customer focused skills around service and communication.

I completed this qualification whilst working full-time. This provided a sound foundation in the principles of waterfall (PMBOK/PMI) and agile methodologies of Project Management and further rounded out skills which I had developed during previous roles PRMGT300 - Business Operations in Project Management - A- PRMGT301 - Fundamentals of Project Management - A PRMGT302 - Project Management in Practice - A PRMGT303 - Applied Project Management - A

I took a year to evaluate the Earth Sciences as a potential career pathway. The time reignited my passion and curiosity for the world around us, and reinforced the skills which I have in the engineering field. I chose to return to an engineering focus as I felt I could provide more value within that field, and could build upon previous roles and skills more easily. This degree is currently incomplete Courses taken: BIOSCI 100G - Antarctica: The Frozen Continent - B CHEM 150 - Concepts in Chemistry - B+ EARTHSCI 102 - Foundation for Earth Sciences - A EARTHSCI 120 - Planet Earth - A- GEOG 101 - Earth Surface Processes and Landforms - A- PHYSICS 107 - Planets, Stars and Galaxies - A- SCIGEN 201 - Innovating in a Knowledge Society - B STATS 101 - Introduction to Statistics - B+

Level 4 National Certificate in Industrial Measurement and Control Systems