Kathryn Bigler

• Kathryn is a Lead Solar Designer
• A fun fact about Kathryn is that she is legally blind, which is interesting due to her detailed work! 
• She has been with the company for 4 years! 

Can you tell me about your role as a Lead Solar Designer at Kokosing? 

• “I am a designer. I design the plan sets and ensure they’ll function electrically and structurally.” 

How did you get into the Solar industry? 

• “I went to school for drafting. I originally wanted to go into architecture and focus on sustainability, and I saw that I needed to understand electricity for sustainability to make sense to me. So, I got lucky and saw that there was a position open. I took it on, and it has been 4 years now.” 

What is interesting about your role? 

• “There’s a lot of change—my work is consistently changing because there are different jurisdictions and utility companies with different rules, so I am constantly learning and adapting. And I like that.” 

How does your role help in keeping the company successful? 

• “The industry is constantly changing. I have to learn new technologies and see how we can implement them in the company. Every job is permitted and inspected so I have to make sure that the plan sets are drawn to the manufacturers’ specifications and the national electric code for us to even, for the project to happen. My role is to ensure it passes inspection and design the system to function well. ” 

What does a typical day look like for your position? 

• “So, I review what the sales team created as far as contracted jobs go, I review site visits, and then I design the plan set based on those constraints and constraints existing at the house. I also do some estimating, so I consult the sales team if they have questions or concerns. I look at new products for us to sell and support our service department with troubleshooting issues.” 

What’s the best thing about working for Kokosing? What stands out?  

• “Having reliable coworkers, that’s really great, having a great leadership team that supports me, they make me feel heard and valued. It’s really cool that it’s family-owned and union-strong and still growing, and the growth is sustainable. That’s really cool. I would call them a powerhouse and feel really happy about being a part of it.” 

How would you describe Kokosing’s culture? 

• “Fair, practical, it all makes a lot of since I think, yeah, there’s no funny business, it all just makes sense.”  

How does Kokosing align with your personal values? 

• “I just think it’s very fair and practical. My values are about keeping myself happy, healthy and successful and I think Kokosing does the same. They want safety, so there’s the success aspect. They want to give to the community. I just think that all those things just make a lot of sense.”