Sr. Project Manager

Southwest Power Pool (SPP) is about more than power. We’re about the power of relationships. Our employees have the opportunity to work together to ensure electricity is delivered reliably and affordably to the millions of people living in our service territory. We have been voted one of Arkansas’ Best Places to work by Arkansas Business and we are looking for a member of our team who is passionate about our mission to keep the lights on!

We have a core ideology here at SPP that we stand by: Do the right thing, for the right reason, in the right way.

We believe in supporting our employees through a fantastic benefits package:

• 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

PLEASE NOTE: SPP is not able to sponsor employment visas or student-work authorizations (STEM OPT) for this position. Please ensure you are eligible to work in the U.S. without sponsorship prior to applying.

COMPENSATION INFORMATION
The salary range(s) represents our good faith estimate for the role at this time. While we strive to provide competitive and transparent compensation, there may be circumstances where an offer is above or outside of the listed range. We are open to discussing salary expectations with qualified candidates considering factors such as the candidate's qualifications, skills, competencies, experience and geographic location will all be considered during the hiring process.

Senior Project Manager | Pay Range: $97,580.00 - $126,795.00

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.

What You'll Do

Project Planning and Control

• 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.

Resource Management

• 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).

Forecasting and Financial Control

• 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.

Vendor Management

• 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.

Leadership, Compliance, and Continuous Improvement

• 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.

To be successful as a Sr. Project Manager, we're looking for

Educations 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

Experience Requirements:

• Six (6) years of project management experience or closely related discipline (in excess of educational requirements stated above)

Required Skills:

• 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

Preferred:

• 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)

Work Environment: 

• This job operates in a professional office environment. This role routinely uses standard office equipment.

Physical Demands: 

The physical and mental demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to perform the essential functions of this job successfully.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to make decisions, interpret data, and problem solve.
The employee frequently is required to stand or sit for extended periods; use hands to operate a computer keyboard and standard office equipment.
The employee must occasionally lift and move up to 10 pounds.
Requires the ability to work and collaborate with managers and employees at all levels to exchange ideas, information, and opinions to facilitate the task.
Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, and ability to adjust focus.

Position Type and Expected Hours of Work: 

• This is a full-time position. Days and hours of workweek are Monday through Friday; 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Working extended hours may be required. Participation in on-call rotation.

Travel Requirement: 

• This position requires minimal travel (approximately 5%).

SPP is an Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Employer of individuals with disabilities and protected veterans and is committed to excellence. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please contact us at HR@spp.org and let us know the nature of your request. We will only respond to messages left that involve a request for a reasonable accommodation in the application process. We will accommodate the needs of any qualified candidate who requests a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

At SPP we believe in a culture of belonging. Learn more here: Culture of Belonging - Southwest Power Pool.