Douglas Electric Cooperative (DEC) is a local, not-for-profit, community-focused electric utility owned by the people we serve. It was established to provide its 11,000 members with the most reliable electric service at an affordable price. DEC’s service area covers 2500 square miles in stunning western and northern Douglas County, with small portions in northeast and southeast Coos County and south Lane County.
As an electric cooperative, we don’t have traditional customers, we have members, and we work for them. To provide power to our members, DEC hires talented employees that not only build, maintain, and inspect our electrical distribution system, they also carry out the essential business functions that help keep the lights on. As you can see below, we provide a number of different career opportunities.
DEC is first and foremost, an electric utility and we rely heavily on our Line workers to keep our distribution system up and running. There is currently a nationwide shortage of lineman, which provides a great career opportunity for young men and women to enter the trade through the apprenticeship program.
Typically, a person starts their lineman career at DEC as a Groundman who is responsible for supporting the line crew at the direction of the crew foreman. After 12 months they can apply to become an Apprentice Lineman and if they are selected, they will begin their apprenticeship training. It generally takes 3-4 years to complete the necessary on-the-job training and formal coursework to become a Journeyman Lineman.
A Journeyman Lineman has completed the required training, coursework, and testing to be certified as a Journeyman and as such is qualified to maintain and repair the electrical distribution system at DEC. An employee must be a Journeyman Lineman to become a crew foreman.
DEC is owned by its members and we want to make their interactions with us as convenient and efficient as possible and to accomplish this we use a number of different avenues to communicate and interact with them and that requires flexible friendly team members. Our Member Services Representatives (MSR) must be able to communicate well, face-to-face, over the phone, and via email in order to provide the best level of service.
MSRs are the first point of contact for members with service questions, billing issues, and general phone calls so they have to be able to use the systems provided to either answer the member's questions or put them in touch with the correct person at DEC.
If you enjoy working with people in a team environment, Member Services may be a good fit for you.
Just like any other business, DEC has financial requirements that must be met in order to stay operational. In order to do that, we have to have a Finance and Accounting team that is highly skilled and well versed in operating a not-for-profit business.
This includes a Chief Financial Officer (CFO), and staff accountants that handle payroll, accounts payable, accounts receivable, banking, billing, and other accounting duties. The Accounting and Finance teams helps DEC make better business decisions by evaluating financial risk and performing rate studies to ensure that operating costs and revenues remain in balance. They are also responsible for managing the Cooperative's loans and credit lines.
If you enjoy crunching numbers and analyzing financial data, you may be well suited for a career in Finance and Accounting.
At DEC we heavily leverage technology to provide a better experience for both our members and our field crew and those systems require a high level of expertise to manage and maintain. Members can pay their bill, view their usage, report an outage, check the status of that outage, and manage their DEC account all from their PC, smart phone, or tablet 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
In addition, DEC takes the protection of their member’s data very seriously, so we constantly monitor our systems in real-time, patch accordingly, and have third-party experts test our cyber readiness.
To accomplish all of this, we have team members with experience in Information technology, Cyber Security, and Geographical Information Systems (GIS).
As with every other business, DEC has team members that make sure the day-to-day administrative and management tasks are accomplished.
The General Manager is responsible for the general management of the cooperative consistent with policies, procedures, budgets, and the strategic plan set by the Board of Directors.
The Assistant General Manager is responsible for overseeing the Information Technology Department, Member Services, and assisting the General Manager.
The Operations Superintendent manages the line workers and the daily operations of the Cooperative. They are also in charge of managing large-scale outages.
The Right of Way Coordinator manages contract tree trimming crews, ensuring the utility right-of-way is cleared per cooperative policy and member easement.
The Executive Assistant provides administrative support to Board of Directors, the General Manager, and the Assistant General Manager.
Current Openings
There are no available job openings at this time.