Director of Utility & Infrastructure Coordination

LGE•Phoenix, AZ

13d

About The Position

The Director of Utility & Infrastructure Coordination owns dry utility coordination – electric, gas, and telecommunications – across all active LGE Design Build projects in Arizona. This role exists because utility availability has repeatedly surfaced as a critical-path risk late in project delivery – discovered only near completion rather than managed from the outset. Unlike a builder or business-development role, this is a hands-on, technical liaison position: success is measured by problems caught and resolved months before they threaten a schedule, not by scale of team built. The right person is equally comfortable in a utility company's engineering office and in a project trailer, and treats “we found out late” as a personal failure condition. This role is intentionally NOT a delegator or oversight function. Unlike a director role that manages primarily through a team, this position's impact comes from direct technical engagement – plan review, utility company relationships, and daily schedule tracking across every AZ project. There is no team to build initially; the mandate is hands-on ownership of utility risk across the entire portfolio, not oversight of others doing that work.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Construction Management, Civil Engineering, or related field preferred; equivalent experience considered in lieu.
5+ years in utility coordination, civil engineering, land development, or construction project management in Arizona, with direct working experience with APS and/or SRP; experience coordinating with Southwest Gas and/or major AZ telecom/fiber providers strongly preferred.
Existing relationships with APS/SRP planning, engineering, or project management contacts strongly preferred; existing relationships with Southwest Gas and/or major AZ telecom/fiber providers a plus.
Working knowledge of utility service processes across electric, gas, and telecom: applications, easements, transformer/pad orders, capacity requests, energization/service-activation sequencing, and relocation/abandonment coordination.
Strong cross-functional communicator – able to translate utility timelines/constraints into construction-schedule impact for internal teams and owners.
Highly organized and proactive by nature – this role exists to surface problems early, not to react well to late ones.
Familiarity with construction project management software.

Nice To Haves

Existing relationships with Southwest Gas and/or major AZ telecom/fiber providers a plus.

Responsibilities

Engage APS/SRP, Southwest Gas, and telecom/fiber providers at the earliest possible project stage – ideally site selection/entitlement – to confirm capacity (transformer/service, gas main/meter, telecom conduit/fiber), queue position, and realistic service/energization timeline.
Own and maintain a live utility-status tracker across all active AZ projects and all utility types (electric, gas, telecom), flagging schedule risk well ahead of substantial completion.
Serve as the primary liaison between APS/SRP/Southwest Gas/telecom providers, LGE preconstruction/construction teams, and owner/developer stakeholders on all dry-utility matters.
Manage submission and follow-through of utility applications, easements, transformer/pad orders, gas service/meter orders, telecom conduit/vault agreements, meter sets, and utility agreements across all utility types.
Escalate and drive resolution of utility delays directly with utility company project managers/engineers, across electric, gas, and telecom providers.
Maintain current, detailed knowledge of APS, SRP, Southwest Gas, and major AZ telecom/fiber providers' processes, typical lead times, tariffs, and capacity constraints by submarket/service territory.
Coordinate relocation, abandonment, and removal of existing overhead/underground dry-utility infrastructure that conflicts with new construction, working with the applicable utility company and civil/electrical designers.
Integrate utility milestones – electric, gas, and telecom – into the master schedule for every AZ project; flag conflicts before they erode float.
Attend kickoff, OAC, and progress meetings as needed to represent utility status across all dry-utility types.
Partner with Preconstruction and Design so utility capacity is confirmed before entitlement/permit submittal, not after.
Coordinate with civil engineers and electrical/MEP designers on service sizing, points of connection, and joint-trench/conduit coordination across dry utility types.
Build and maintain a standardized utility coordination checklist/process usable across all AZ projects and all dry-utility types, with an eye toward portability to TX/FL and expansion into other utility types as volume justifies.
Provide regular utility-risk status reporting to the Regional VP – AZ.
Capture lessons learned from past delays to build institutional knowledge and utility-side relationships that outlast any single project.