Program Manager, Power Grid Automation

Program Manager Power Grid Automation•Bolingbrook, IL

3d•$85,963 - $111,783•Onsite

About The Position

Reporting to the Director, Power Grid Automation, this position is responsible for the operational coordination, workflow planning, and process improvement of the Power Grid Automation engineering team. The person in this role sets the day-to-day approach to scheduling, prioritization, and process questions for the department, bringing in the Director, Power Grid Automation on the calls that carry real risk to cost, timing, or customer commitments. The role keeps engineering resources organized and aligned across concurrent orders and projects, maintains visibility into the department�s project portfolio, and partners with Application Engineering, Operations, and Aftermarket Support to standardize and continuously improve the processes that move automation solutions from order intake through delivery. This is a non-engineering, program- and process-focused role; it does not perform protective relay programming, logic design, or other technical subject-matter work.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in business, engineering management, operations, or a related field – or equivalent work experience.
5+ years of program/project coordination, operations, or process-improvement experience, preferably in an engineering, manufacturing, or technical environment.
Demonstrated ability to organize and coordinate the work of technical teams and manage multiple concurrent projects.
Strong cross-functional collaboration, facilitation, and communication skills – strong written and verbal communication a must.
Documented ability to drive process improvement and to resolve issues and competing priorities independently.
General technical aptitude is sufficient to understand engineering workflows and communicate effectively with engineers (this role is not required to perform engineering work).
Demonstrated ability to work through scheduling, prioritization, and process questions independently
Expert knowledge of the Microsoft suite – Word, Excel, Outlook, and Project – and proficiency with project/portfolio tracking tools such as Smartsheets.
Ability to travel occasionally, up to approximately 15%-25%, including occasional weekends as needed.

Nice To Haves

PMP or equivalent project/program management certification.
Lean Six Sigma certification or demonstrated continuous-improvement experience.
Experience with SharePoint, Salesforce, and JDE software programs.
Familiarity with the power/utility industry or electrical equipment manufacturing.

Responsibilities

Coordinate and maintain the Power Grid Automation engineering workload – tracking order and project intake, ownership, milestones, and status – so that work is organized, visible, and progressing on schedule, while aligning with the Manager, Automation Engineering.
Decides how competing orders get sequenced when demand outpaces capacity, bringing the Manager, Automation Engineering in only on tradeoffs that would materially affect a customer commitment.
Own and maintain the master schedule and capacity view across all active Power Grid Automation projects, weighing competing priorities, conflicts, bottlenecks, and at-risk milestones and proposing a plan of action to department leadership before delivery is impacted.
Develop operational metrics and KPIs (on-time delivery, cycle time, backlog, and utilization), interpreting what the trends mean for the department and proposing corrective action to department leadership and cross-functional stakeholders.
Lead cross-functional process improvement initiatives with Application Engineering, Operations, and Aftermarket Support to streamline handoffs, reduce rework, and improve on-time, defect-free delivery.
Determine how functional project workflows, templates, checklists, and documentation practices should work, then develop, implement, and standardize them; lead the adoption of improved processes and tools across the engineering team, including selecting and configuring the project-management platforms used to support them.
Serve as the internal point of coordination among Power Grid Automation engineers, project managers, and cross-functional teams – facilitating cadence meetings, removing roadblocks, and ensuring alignment on scope, schedule, and deliverables.
Coordinate complex order intake and handoffs from Sales and Application Engineering into the engineering team, ensuring requirements and documentation are complete before technical work begins.
Lead the resolution of cross-functional issues and escalations that affect engineering throughput, determines resolution and partners with Aftermarket Support and Operations as needed.
Facilitate project kickoff, status, and closeout reviews, turning lessons learned into concrete changes the team actually adopts.
Lead capacity and resources planning, weighing competing project demands against available engineering capacity and proposing how resources should be allocated to the Manager, Automation Engineering.
Lead and support continuous improvement (Lean / Six Sigma) initiatives within the department and across cross-functional partners.
Champion consistent, on-time, high-quality delivery to internal and external customers – through coordination and process leadership rather than performance of the technical engineering work.