Sr. Project Manager

Southwest Power Pool • Little Rock, AR

1d • Hybrid

About The Position

Join our Project Management Office as a Senior Project Manager! Step into a high-impact leadership role where you’ll drive the delivery of transformative business and technology initiatives across Southwest Power Pool. As a Senior Project Manager, you will lead large-scale programs that implement new application systems, improve business processes, modernize existing technology, support regulatory requirements, and advance strategic priorities. This role is designed for an experienced Project Manager who thrives in complexity and can successfully lead enterprise-critical programs with budgets exceeding $50 million and timelines spanning multiple years. You’ll guide globally distributed teams, manage vendor partnerships, and align cross-functional stakeholders to deliver meaningful results. The ideal candidate brings proven success leading large transformation initiatives using waterfall, agile, and hybrid delivery models. You will oversee end-to-end program execution, financial governance, stakeholder engagement, vendor coordination, and realization of measurable business value. Success in this position also requires strong expertise in technology, application development, and infrastructure, along with an understanding of the operational, technical, and regulatory environment within the utilities industry. You’ll collaborate closely with engineering, field operations, and compliance teams, support member committees and working groups, and may represent Southwest Power Pool and its members within North American Electric Reliability Corporation committees and industry forums. Working with a high degree of autonomy and support from PMO leadership, you will also mentor Associate Project Managers and Project Analysts while helping strengthen project management excellence across the organization.

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
• Six (6) years of project management experience or closely related discipline (in excess of educational requirements stated above)
• Demonstrated excellent written, verbal and communication skills
• Maintain a professional attitude and appearance
• Demonstrated experience in managing large, complex, high priority projects
• Demonstrated experience with the Microsoft Office Suite software (i.e., SharePoint, MS Project, Word, Excel, Visio, PowerPoint), or other comparable software
• Strong organizational skills
• Understanding of and compliance with SPP Policies and Procedures

Nice To Haves

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology or Engineering
• 10+ years of progressive experience in project and program management, with at least 5 years leading large-scale, multi-year, multi vendors programs over $50M in budget.
• Experience in managing programs across regulated industries (e.g., Utility, financial services, government) is a plus.
• Exceptional leadership and stakeholder management skills, including the ability to influence without authority.
• Strong communication skills, including executive-level reporting and presentations.
• Deep understanding of enterprise governance, financial management, and vendor oversight.
• Outstanding problem-solving and conflict resolution skills in complex and politically sensitive environments.
• Ability to translate between business objectives and technical project requirements in utility or energy-related programs
• Project Management Professional (PMP) certification
• Track record as Agile Project Manager and Scrum Master.
• Preferred 3+ years PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) or Scrum.org (PSM) + PSM II) or Scrum Alliance (Certified Scrum Master), SAFe®.
• ITIL, Lean Six Sigma, or other relevant certifications (preferred)

Responsibilities

• Understand and comply with the SPP Project Management Office (PMO) Project Management Processes and Procedures when managing assigned projects and performing related efforts.
• Lead and manage complex, high-value programs with strategic impact, involving multiple projects, cross-functional teams, and external vendors across geographies.
• Define program vision, roadmap, success criteria, and measurable benefits aligned with enterprise goals.
• Collaborate with executive sponsors and stakeholders to translate strategy into executable plans.
• Serve as the single point of accountability for program performance, risk mitigation, scope integrity, and delivery outcomes.
• Track progress and review project tasks to make certain deadlines are met appropriately.
• 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.
• Direct a multi-disciplinary team of engineers, technical specialists, Operations, Markets, 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 stakeholder 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 project schedules based on project scope, deliverables, and resource plans.
• Monitor and control projects by measuring performance, managing changes to scope, schedule, and budget, minimizing the impact of negative risk, ensuring deliverables conform to quality standards, and communicating status to key stakeholders.
• Ensure successful execution of projects by achieving deliverables within budget and schedule.
• Collaborate with SPP departments and project teams to identify, facilitate, and implement business process improvements, and document benefits derived from implemented improvements.
• Close out projects by obtaining final acceptance of deliverables, collating lessons learned, and archiving project documents and other materials.
• Manage the overall delivery of a group of projects.
• Coordinate and prioritize changes to Integrated Marketplace major product group systems resulting from the implementation of individual projects.
• Coordinate, maintain, and oversee changes to PMO processes, procedures, and templates.
• Follow SPP ePMO project management and methodology policies and procedures.
• Create project resource plans.
• Ensure that actual work matches planned effort.
• Actively maintain resource requests and allocations.
• Identify and resolve resource overallocations and resource assignments.
• Review all project resources and identify allocation issues.
• Actively manage vendor resources and deliverables per the project Statement of Work (SOW).
• Maintain accurate project financial forecasts.
• Manage cost control and budget transparency.
• Ensure adherence to the approved project budget.
• Conduct monthly reviews of project invoices and purchase orders with stakeholders and vendors.
• Understand and manage different types of Statements of Work (SOWs), including Time and Material (T&M), fixed pricing, or milestone-based payments.
• Review and understand vendor SOWs, including project scope, SPP deliverables versus vendor deliverables, timelines, costs, and compliance requirements.
• Ensure applicable items in the SOW are reflected in project schedules and/or RAID logs.
• Ensure risk mitigation and compliance across all vendors.
• Proactively identify and manage potential cost overruns and communicate impacts to stakeholders.
• Apply proficient decision-making skills when confronted with ambiguity and less than desirable circumstances, including making reasonable assumptions, identifying issues, identifying potential solutions, and recommending preferred solutions.
• Understand the business and business processes performed by assigned functional areas.
• Develop and manage processes that proactively support and promote compliance with the PMO’s SOC1 control objectives.
• Enhance overall effectiveness and productivity of SPP resources, and the PMO in particular, by providing leadership and direction to PMO staff and assigned functional area resources.
• Foster team-building within the PMO and provide coaching and mentoring to Project Managers and Project Analysts.
• Embrace and promote the SPP PMO’s mission, vision, long-term goals, and strategic initiatives.
• Embrace and promote SPP’s mission, value propositions, core ideology, culture drivers, and core values.

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: Senior
• Number of Employees: 251-500 employees