Project Manager (Customer Choice)

Southern Company•Atlanta, GA

About The Position

The Project Manager leads the planning, development, execution, and closeout of Customer Choice projects within the Transmission Project Management Organization. The role is accountable for project scope, schedule, budget, risk, stakeholder engagement, and overall performance, with the goal of delivering projects safely and efficiently in line with customer commitments and company objectives. The Project Manager is the primary customer contact and leads cross-functional teams while maintaining quality and customer satisfaction. The role coordinates design, engineering, procurement, land acquisition, and construction activities across multiple projects. It requires balancing project costs and schedules with environmental, regulatory, community, and transmission-system requirements. The Project Manager monitors project progress and expenditures, manages changes and approvals, communicates project status and risks, and oversees closeout activities. The position is responsible for multi-million-dollar, multi-year capital projects; O&M budget responsibility is minimal. Occasional after-hours response may be required due to customer needs, project scheduling, storm restoration activities, or other unforeseen circumstances.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in engineering or engineering technology is preferred.
Familiarity with project management principles and techniques, including the Gated Process.
Experience working directly with customers, customer representatives, or customer-facing stakeholders.
Experience managing customer expectations, project commitments, and stakeholder communications throughout the project lifecycle.
Ability to coordinate project activities across multiple organizations while maintaining customer satisfaction.
Strong analytical skills to evaluate progress, identify problem areas, assess alternatives, and determine viable solutions.
Experience analyzing, projecting, and controlling project costs over time.
Demonstrated focus on safety.
Demonstrated leadership competency in areas such as business acumen, business execution, communication, leading people and organizations, organizational savvy, or other effective-leadership attributes.
Knowledge of the transmission system and customer-focused interpersonal skills.
Ability to lead team efforts, identify critical paths, and resolve conflict.
Ability to build and maintain professional relationships with internal stakeholders, external customers and representatives, contractors, and business partners.
Ability to lead projects involving multiple work groups and departments.
Strong communication and presentation skills for audiences at all levels, internally and externally.
Ability to conduct financial analysis, manage capital budgets, and provide accurate budget projections.
Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills.
Ability to develop and manage multiple project schedules, work plans, and budgets.
Knowledge of contract administration.
Ability to make difficult decisions, adapt to internal and external demands, develop creative solutions, balance company and public needs, resolve conflict, cultivate teamwork, and exercise diplomacy with customers.
Ability to work cohesively with a Transmission Analyst and build trust so the analyst can represent the Project Manager in their absence.
Willingness to respond occasionally after hours for customer needs, project scheduling, storm restoration activities, or other unforeseen reasons.

Nice To Haves

Strong transmission or electric utility experience.
Experience in Protection and Control Field Services, Transmission Operations, or Transmission Design, including estimating, physical design, control, or protection and control applications.
PE certification.
PMP or other project management certification.
Experience with STOMP, TEAMS (Transmission Estimating and Management System), and/or P6/Primavera.

Responsibilities

Maintain safety and quality throughout the project life cycle.
Coordinate design, engineering, procurement, land acquisition, and construction activities for multiple Customer Choice projects.
Provide regular project updates to management, customers, customer representatives, regional leadership, and project stakeholders.
Communicate proactively about issues that may affect scope, schedule, budget, customer commitments, or stakeholder expectations.
Serve as the primary customer contact throughout project execution and provide regular updates on status, risks, schedule changes, and major milestones.
Develop customer relationships through proactive engagement, responsiveness, and effective issue resolution.
Facilitate stakeholder alignment and manage customer expectations regarding scope, schedule, cost, and outcomes.
Identify, assess, and manage project risks with consideration for customer commitments and service requirements.
Monitor and analyze expenditures and provide projected monthly, year-end, and total project costs to management.
Manage scope changes and obtain required approval before construction.
Identify project tasks, milestones, and resource requirements.
Balance cost and schedule constraints with environmental, regulatory, community, and transmission-system requirements to meet project need dates.
Monitor project progress, negotiate changes with internal and external parties, and adjust work plans and resource requirements as needed.
Implement the change management process and route paperwork promptly to obtain budget approvals.
Manage project closeout, including documentation, lessons learned, financial reconciliation, customer communications, and confirmation that project and customer objectives were achieved.