Utility IT and engineering hiring glossary

CC&BOracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing

Oracle's customer information and billing system for utilities. It holds accounts, premises and service agreements, calculates bills from rate configuration, and manages payments, credit and collections. Hiring note: ask which version a candidate supported and which parts of the configuration they personally maintained in production. See the CC&B hiring guide.

CCSOracle Utilities Customer Cloud Service

Oracle's cloud service for utility customer, billing and meter data functions. Oracle runs the environment, so the utility's own team spends its time on configuration, testing and release readiness rather than infrastructure.

C2MOracle Utilities Customer to Meter

An Oracle Utilities product that combines customer care and billing with meter data management on one platform, so one team holds the whole path from meter read to bill. Hiring note: look for people comfortable on both sides of that path, not only the billing side.

MDMOracle Utilities Meter Data Management

Receives meter reads and interval data from AMI head-end systems, applies validation, estimation and editing, and passes billing-ready usage to the billing system.

OUAFOracle Utilities Application Framework

The common framework beneath CC&B, C2M, MDM, WAM and related Oracle Utilities products. Business objects, algorithms, scripts, batch processes and service interfaces are built on it. Hiring note: strong OUAF developers know when to configure instead of writing custom code, because custom code has to survive every upgrade.

WAM and WACSWork and Asset Management, Work and Asset Cloud Service

Oracle Utilities products for managing assets, maintenance plans, inspections and work orders, connected to field crews and reliability reporting.

NMSOracle Utilities Network Management System

Oracle's outage management and distribution operations system, used in the control room to track outages and guide restoration.

ORMBOracle Revenue Management and Billing

An Oracle billing product built on the same framework, used where pricing and billing are more complex than standard rate structures handle.

OICOracle Integration Cloud

Oracle's integration platform for connecting cloud and on-premises applications, such as a customer system, an ERP and outside service providers.

More on Oracle Utilities recruitment.

CISCustomer information system

A utility's system of record for customers, premises, service, billing and payments. CC&B and SAP IS-U are both CIS platforms. See utility CIS hiring.

AMIAdvanced metering infrastructure

Smart meters, the communications network that connects them, and the head-end system that collects their data.

Head-end system

The software that talks to meters over the AMI network. It collects reads and events and sends commands such as remote connect and disconnect, then hands the data to meter data management.

VEEValidation, estimation and editing

The rules a meter data system applies to check reads, fill gaps and correct errors before usage is billed. Problems in VEE tend to show up later as billing exceptions.

Interval data

Usage recorded in fixed time blocks, commonly 15 or 60 minutes, instead of one read per billing cycle. It makes time-of-use rates possible and multiplies the data a utility has to process.

Rate case

A utility's formal request to its state regulator to change the rates it charges. An approved rate case usually ends as billing configuration work with a fixed effective date.

Data conversion

Moving customer, account, meter and balance data from a legacy system into a new one. Choices made during conversion shape how the data behaves for years afterward.

Go-live

The point when a new system takes over from the old one in production.

Hypercare

The period of extra support right after go-live, before the system moves to normal operations. It is often the last time the full program team is in the room, which is why we think it's the deadline for hiring permanent owners. See knowledge continuity in utility IT.

Protection and controls engineering

The discipline that designs, sets and tests the relay schemes and control systems that detect faults and isolate equipment before damage spreads. Hiring note: confirm the relay platforms, voltage levels and whether the role includes field testing and commissioning.

Protective relay

A device that detects abnormal conditions, such as a fault, and signals a circuit breaker to open.

Substation engineering

The physical and electrical design of substations, including equipment layout, bus design and grounding, and in some roles commissioning.

Transmission planning

Studying the high-voltage network's future needs with power flow, contingency and stability analysis, so the grid stays reliable as load and generation change.

Power flow studyAlso called load flow

An analysis of how power moves through the network under set conditions, used to find overloaded lines and voltage problems.

Contingency analysis

Testing whether the grid stays within limits when a line, transformer or generator is lost. N-1 means the system has to withstand the loss of any single element.

System impact study

A study of the network changes needed to connect a new generator or large load.

Distribution engineering

Planning and design of the lower-voltage network that delivers power to customers: feeders, transformers, line extensions and new service.

Large load

A single new customer with very high electrical demand, such as a data center. See data-center growth and utility engineering hiring.

Grid operations engineering

Engineering support for running the network day to day: switching plans, operating studies and the tools the control room relies on.

Distribution automation

Sensors, automated switches and control logic that detect problems on distribution feeders and restore service to as many customers as possible without a crew.

Civil and structural engineering

In utilities, the design of foundations, structures, sites and access for transmission lines, substations and other infrastructure.

Environmental permitting

Securing and complying with the environmental approvals utility projects and operations need, such as for wetlands, water discharges, air emissions and land use.

Nuclear engineering

Engineering for nuclear generating plants, including plant systems and the licensing work the Nuclear Regulatory Commission requires.

Pipeline integrity

The ongoing program of inspection, assessment and repair that keeps gas pipelines safe under federal pipeline safety rules.

Gas compression

The compressor stations that keep gas moving through transmission pipelines at the required pressure.

Water and wastewater engineering

Design and operation of water treatment plants and distribution systems, and of wastewater collection and treatment, for water utilities and districts.

More on utility engineering recruitment.

Permanent recruitingAlso called direct hire

Recruiting employees who join the client's payroll, as opposed to contractors. MakoHire recruits for permanent roles only.

Retained Search

A committed, prioritized search for leadership and business-critical roles, with a dedicated Talent Partner, a defined delivery timeline, a market map, a qualified shortlist and structured updates until the role is filled.

Engaged Search

A lighter commitment than retained for specialist roles that have been open too long, with the same focused sourcing effort.

Talent Pipeline

Ongoing recruiting capacity for teams that hire steadily, or a fixed-term engagement scoped to a defined set of roles, on a fixed monthly fee with no placement fee. It also builds the applicant pool for organizations that hire through civil service exams. See engagement models and civil service recruiting.

Civil service examination

A competitive exam many public employers use to hire. Candidates apply during a filing period, sit the exam, and are ranked on an eligible list the employer selects from. Rules such as veterans' preference apply.

Recruitment outreachAlso called candidate sourcing or partial recruitment

Finding and contacting qualified people and encouraging them to apply, while the employer keeps the selection process. Public agencies often list it as a scope item in recruiting RFPs. The MakoHire Talent Pipeline is recruitment outreach for civil service agencies.

Filing period

The window, often short and fixed, when candidates can apply for a civil service examination.

Eligible list

The ranked list of candidates who passed a civil service examination, which the employer hires from, often for a set number of years.

Class specification

A public employer's official definition of a job classification: its duties and the minimum license, education and experience requirements a candidate must meet.

Contract-to-hire

A contractor who may convert to an employee later. MakoHire refers contract and contract-to-hire needs to its parent company, Mako Professionals.

Talent Partner

What MakoHire calls the recruiter who runs a Search.

Search

A hiring need a Client asks MakoHire to fill.

Market map

A view of where the people who fit a role work today and what the market for them looks like, prepared early in a Search.

Submittal

A screened candidate presented to the Client for a specific role.

Placement

A successful hire: the candidate accepts the offer and joins the Client.

See how a search works.