Project Controls Specialist-Senior-Principal

American Electric Power•New Albany, IN

2d•$87,633 - $128,689•Onsite

About The Position

The Project Controls Specialist supports the successful execution of utility capital projects by designing, operating, and continuously improving the controls that govern cost, schedule, and quality. This role is accountable for building measurable, repeatable controls and performance insights—translating project data into actionable decisions that reduce risk, prevent overruns, and improve delivery efficiency across the portfolio.

Requirements

An Associate's degree or higher is required.
Qualified degrees must be in a related field from an accredited university or college and could include Accounting, Business, Construction Management, Engineering, Technology, or Project Management.
With a High School Diploma or GED, four (4) years' experience as a Financial Controls Analyst (grade 006) or Project Coordinator Sr (grade 007).
With a qualified Associate's degree, six (6) years' qualified experience (Senior) or eight (8) years' qualified experience (Principal).
With a qualified Bachelor's degree, four (4) years' qualified experience (Senior) or six (6) years' qualified experience (Principal) required.
Qualified experience includes utility specific operations knowledge/experience with a good working knowledge of work processes and procedures.
Experience should be in design, operations, planning, project management, cost tracking analysis, forecasting, project budgets, working with accounting principles, and/or construction or maintenance of systems and/or equipment.
Experience implementing Earned Value (EVM)
Familiarity with energy/utility delivery models (outage constraints, permitting, material lead times, right-of-way impacts, commissioning/energization milestones).
Proficiency in common tools: Primavera P6 and/or Microsoft Project, Excel (advanced), Power BI/Tableau, Enterprise Asset Management systems (e.g., Maximo), Project management platforms (e.g., EcoSys).

Nice To Haves

A professional or trade certification such as a CCMP, CETa, IQCP, PMP, RMP, etc. is not required at this level.
A certification is required to progress to the principal (grade 008) level of this job family if you have a high school diploma/GED or non-qualified higher education degree. Otherwise, a certification is preferred at the Principal level.
Certifications (nice-to-have): AACE, PMP, EVP/EVM training, Lean/Six Sigma

Responsibilities

Establish and maintain cost controls that provide early visibility into variances, forecasts, and cost drivers—enabling proactive corrective action.
Build and own cost performance KPIs and dashboards that drive efficiency and cost containment, including: Cost Variance (CV), Cost Performance Index (CPI), Forecast at Completion (EAC) accuracy and trend stability, Commitment vs. Actual burn rates, Change order cycle time and change cost growth.
Measure schedule health and adherence with clear leading/lagging indicators, ensuring credible forecasts and actionable recovery plans.
Create and operate a Schedule Health Matrix and/or schedule quality checks (e.g., logic, constraints, float, critical path stability).
Build schedule performance KPIs, including: Schedule Variance (SV), Schedule Performance Index (SPI), Milestone adherence / slippage trends, Critical path and near-critical path stability, Lookahead plan reliability (e.g., PPC—Percent Plan Complete) where appropriate, Re-plan frequency and schedule churn.
Create measurable quality controls that reduce rework, improve first-time-right delivery, and strengthen turnover readiness.
Turnover package completeness and timeliness, Material receiving/traceability and installation verification, Commissioning readiness and as-built documentation quality.
Build a repeatable, scalable controls system and improve it continuously based on performance insights, audit findings, and user feedback.
Create improvements that reduce cycle time, improve forecast accuracy, and increase data reliability.
Standardize “definition of done” for status updates and progress measurement.