Project Manager

Southwest Power Pool • Little Rock, AR

1d • $87,950 - $112,190 • Hybrid

About The Position

The Project Manager leads the delivery of technology, regulatory, and business process initiatives that are critical to Southwest Power Pool’s operations and strategic objectives. This role manages projects across the full project management lifecycle, partnering with cross-functional teams, vendors, and consultants to deliver solutions that support reliable system operations and create meaningful economic value for SPP and its member companies.

Working with guidance from PMO leadership and business owners, the Project Manager provides day-to-day leadership for assigned projects, contributes to key project deliverables, and ensures projects are executed in alignment with PMO standards, timelines, and quality expectations. The Project Manager may also support stakeholder committees, represent SPP in industry forums, and provide procedural mentoring to junior PMO staff as needed.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Information Technology, Project Management, or related field; or Project Management Professional Certification plus two(2) years of project management experience may be considered in lieu of educational requirement
• Four (4) years of project management experience or closely related discipline (in excess of educational requirements stated above
• Demonstrated excellent written, verbal and communication skills
• Strong organizational skills
• Maintain a professional attitude and appearance
• Demonstrated experience with the Microsoft Office Suite (i.e. SharePoint, MS Project, Word, Excel, Visio, PowerPoint) software or other comparable software

Nice To Haves

• Project Management Professional (PMP) certification
• Experience with project management methodologies, tools and systems
• Specific knowledge of existing SPP Technology and SPP business and operating procedures
• Track record as Agile Project Manager and Scrum Master. Preferred 2 years
• PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) or Agile certification and Scrum.org (PSM) + PSM II) or Scrum Alliance (Certified Scrum Master)

Responsibilities

• Independently manage multiple medium complex projects within established PMO standards and approved scope, budget, timelines, escalating enterprise-level or cross-project risks as appropriate. Requiring cross-functional coordination, stakeholder engagement, and vendor management to ensure alignment on project goals and objectives.
• Track progress and review project tasks to make certain deadlines are met appropriately
• Demonstrate sense of ownership and provide leadership to the project team by driving quality and timely results
• Recognize when to challenge and/or escalate decisions or actions that could adversely impact the project and respond appropriately to the circumstances
• Identify and document project scope, milestones, deliverables, and budget
• Oversee all aspects of project management, including scope, issues, risk, action items, dependencies, quality, cost, financial forecasting, change management, and scheduling, while ensuring adherence to budget and timelines.
• Lead and coordinate cross-functional project teams of engineers, technical specialists, and vendors, ensuring successful execution of engineering tasks and design deliverables within established deadlines and quality standards.
• Facilitate effective communication and collaboration among project team members
• Maintain comprehensive project documentation and records
• Regularly maintain RAID logs so they can be referenced by any stakeholder
• Proactively identify, communicate and manage project status, risks and issues, escalating where necessary
• Conduct regular status meetings with all stakeholders and vendors, keeping the stakeholder’s needs and requirements continuously in view.
• Ensure project deliverables are fit for purpose
• Manage project scope and use the Change Control process for new or changed scope
• Develop a project schedule based on project scope, deliverables, and resource plan
• Monitor and control the project by, including but not limited to: 1) measuring project performance, 2) managing changes to project scope, schedule, and budget, 3) identifying and minimizing the impact of negative risk, 4) ensuring project deliverables conform to established quality standards/expectations, and 5) communicating project status to key stakeholders
• Ensure the successful execution of project, i.e., achieving the project deliverables within budget and schedule. Unless otherwise waived by the PMO manager, explanations for variances (% to be determined by Project Manager and Business Owner) shall be documented; and collaborate with SPP Departments and project teams to identify, facilitate, and implement business process improvements, and document benefits derived from the implemented business process improvements.
• Close out the project by, including but not limited to, obtaining final acceptance of the project deliverables, collating lessons learned, and archiving project documents and other materials
• Understand and comply with SPP Policies and Procedures
• Follow SPP ePMO project management and methodology policies and procedures
• Create project resource plan.
• Ensure that actual work matches the planned effort.
• Actively maintain resource requests and allocations.
• Identify and resolve resource overallocations and resource assignments.
• Review of all project resources and identify allocation issues
• Actively manage vendor resources and deliverables per the project SOW
• Maintain accurate project financial forecasts
• Cost control and budget transparency
• Ensure adherence to the approved project budget
• Monthly review of project invoices and purchase orders with stakeholders and vendors.
• Manage project financials within approved thresholds and escalate material variances in accordance with PMO governance
• Understand and manage the different types of SOWs including Time and Material (T&M), fixed pricing or milestone-based payments.
• Review and understand project vendors SOWs. Identify project scope, SPP deliverables vs. Vendor deliverables, timelines, costs and compliance requirements.
• Ensure that applicable items in the SOW are reflected in the project schedule and/or RAID log.
• Ensure risk mitigation and compliance across all vendors
• Proactively identify and manage potential cost overruns and communicate to stakeholders

Benefits

• Competitive pay with bonus opportunities
• Excellent insurance package including three great medical plans to choose from, employer-paid short term disability, long term disability, and life insurance
• Relocation assistance
• Flexible working environment for positions that are eligible where employees have the flexibility to work from home and come in where collaborative in person work is needed.
• Fantastic contributions to your retirement through a 401(k) savings plan with employer-match benefits and a defined benefit plan fully funded by SPP

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level