Director - Project Assurance

Job Description

The Project Director provides executive leadership and overall accountability for delivery of single large/mega projects or multiple complex project programs. This role focuses on program and construction execution, commercial contracting, project controls, schedule and cost performance, risk mitigation, stakeholder engagement and safe, compliant handover to operations. The Project Director leads project managers and delivery teams (internal and external) to achieve contractual commitments, financial targets and quality expectations.

Responsibilities

Primary responsibilities

• Develop, own, and continuously improve Tallgrass’ project assurance framework, including governance expectations, stage-gate requirements, and standard assurance practices across the project lifecycle.
• Establish and maintain project management and project engineering deliverable standards, including templates, minimum content requirements, reporting structures, and tool expectations to drive consistency and quality across projects.
• Lead Project Management Process (PMP) enhancements, including incorporation of TPCO2 Knowledge Earned Actions, development and maintenance of a PMP Toolkit and Best Practices, and implementation support across the project portfolio.
• Partner with Projects and Operations Engineering to develop and maintain best practices for engineering specifications and best-practice equipment catalogues (standard “go-by” practices) to drive repeatability, operability, maintainability, and efficiencies that support detailed engineering design, operations readiness, and turnover performance.
• Plan and execute assurance activities across the portfolio, including assurance plans aligned to the PMP and QMP and periodic assessments calibrated to project size, complexity, and risk.
• Lead stage-gate readiness assessments; validate gate deliverables and provide recommendations, findings, and risk-based observations to project and executive leadership.
• Perform independent project health assessments focused on governance adherence, schedule realism (including critical path integrity where applicable), cost/estimate quality, forecast discipline, contingency usage rationale, and risk and opportunity management effectiveness.
• Review change control practices, including Project Change Notices (PCNs), trend analysis by category/bucket, and identification of systemic drivers of late changes and rework.
• Establish and maintain a portfolio assurance dashboard and KPIs, including (as applicable) gate pass rates, forecast accuracy indicators (populated by project teams), NCR trends, change metrics, audit coverage, and corrective action performance.
• Review and challenge risk and opportunity registers for completeness, quality of mitigations, ownership, and timeliness; verify key risks are reflected in plans and forecasts.
• Assist Quality Director to strengthen, standardize, and roll out the Quality Management Plan (QMP) toolkit and best practices across the capital project lifecycle, including:
• Engineering contractor selection, management, oversight, and closeout
• Fabrication and construction quality assurance and oversight
• Commissioning and handover quality assurance and sign-off expectations
• Facilitate and track corrective action plans (CAPs) to closure; escalate overdue or ineffective actions and support removal of systemic barriers to completion.
• Support and advise leadership and stakeholders (PMO/Project Management, Commercial, Engineering, Quality, Finance, Operations, Legal as applicable) by providing objective insights, consistent performance reporting, and recommendations to improve execution outcomes.
• Interface with Project Management, Project Engineering, and third-party engineering and/or EPC partners to assess adherence to agreed execution plans, contractual deliverables (as applicable to assurance), and Tallgrass standards.
• Identify systemic performance trends across the portfolio and lead continuous improvement initiatives to strengthen governance, planning discipline, and deliverable quality.
• Build and lead the Capital Projects Assurance organization, including hiring and development of future positions and coordinator support; establish a performance culture through coaching, mentoring, and clear expectations.
• Develop and manage the Project Assurance budget as assigned, including any external assurance support, tools, and related services.
• Communicate regularly with executive leadership regarding portfolio health, key risks, emerging issues, and recommended actions; prepare clear written reports and presentations.
• Demonstrate a high regard for personal safety, the safety of company assets and employees, and the general public.
• Maintain regular, dependable attendance and performance; work non-traditional hours and travel as needed.
• Perform other duties as assigned.
  

Qualifications

Minimum requirements:

Education

• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution in Engineering, Construction Management, Business, or equivalent combination of education and experience.
  
  

Experience/Specific Knowledge

• 10 years of relevant Oil and Gas, Decarbonization, or Clean Energy experience
• Demonstrated experience supporting or overseeing projects in the approximate range of $20MM to Multi-Billion dollar CAPEX projects
• 5 years of relevant experience with executing or supporting projects with $100MM TIC value and total portfolio value greater than $500MM TIC.
• Demonstrated experience with project governance and stage-gate processes, schedule and cost assurance practices, change control, and risk and opportunity management.
• Ability to develop and implement standardized practices, deliverables, and reporting to drive consistent execution across a portfolio.
• Working knowledge of estimating and forecasting fundamentals, contingency practices, and drivers of cost/schedule performance.
• Experience working multi-functional, multi-cultural teams.
• Experience and knowledge of Oil, Gas, CO2 and the integration with supporting unit operations (compression, storage) and utilities (water, power, etc).
• Intermediate proficiency level in MS Office applications that may include but is not limited to Teams, Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook.
• Understanding of PHMSA and FERC regulations as they pertain to design, construction, and implementation
• Job level commensurate with experience and skill sets; position will be filled depending on qualifications, experience and skill sets of the successful candidate.
  
  

Certifications, Licenses & Registrations

• Must possess and maintain a valid driver’s license and a driving record satisfactory to the company and its insurers (for travel).
• Professional Engineering (P.E.) License in at least one state preferred.
  
  

Competencies, Skills & Abilities

• Must be able to understand the needs of the business unit(s) for which work is being performed.
• Ability to organize and prioritize daily work, including tracking and managing large projects, and see projects to completion while maintaining strict confidentiality (as necessary).
• Strong understanding of project lifecycle execution practices (feasibility/FEL, FEED, detailed design, procurement, construction, and turnover) and how governance and deliverables support predictable outcomes.
• Ability to assess schedule and cost health using practical, risk-based judgment; ability to identify leading indicators of performance issues and recommend corrective actions.
• Strong facilitation skills to conduct reviews, gate assessments, and issue resolution sessions with cross-functional leaders.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to produce dashboards, KPIs, executive summaries, and recommendations suitable for leadership decision-making.
• Ability to drive continuous improvement by identifying systemic gaps and implementing scalable, user-friendly standards, tools, and templates.
• Ability to effectively deal with international companies, diverse nationalities, and individuals with varying disciplines, backgrounds, and experience levels.
• Ability to identify and establish expectations in an employee/employer relationship (subordinate/manager).
• Solid leadership, communication, motivation and interpersonal skills, and the ability to manage projects(s).
• Strong project coordination, prioritization, planning and management skills.
• Strong analytical skills and logical thought processes, with the ability to identify and resolve complex issues/problems.
• High integrity, self-accountability, and sound professional judgment, including willingness to escalate material concerns without disrupting delivery authority.
• Excellent customer service skills and ability to work with all levels of management as well as employees in corporate and field offices.
• Strong leadership skills with a history of leading teams to complete projects. A history of executing projects with challenging circumstances is preferred.
• Self-motivated and willing to learn new and changing technologies.
• Strong organizational skills.
• Must be able to perform all essential and marginal functions of the job.
• Strong analytical skills and logical thought processes, with the ability to identify and resolve complex issues/problems.
• Understanding of the need and ability to respond quickly to requests.
• Must be able to perform all essential and marginal functions of the job.
  
  

Physical Demands

All of the physical requirements listed below are those that may be necessary for an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Sitting; standing; walking or moving throughout facility; driving; talking; seeing (specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and ability to adjust focus); hearing; feeling; bending or stooping; squatting or crouching; reaching; kneeling; pushing; pulling; lifting up to 25 lbs.
• Minimal safety hazards; general office working conditions.
• Must be able to sit for prolonged periods of time.
  
  

Working Conditions

• Position requires up to 25% travel to site
• Travel is required and is anticipated as 25% of the time.
• Primarily an office environment with frequent travel to field locations including outdoor facilities.
• Required to carry a cell phone and be available to respond during working and non-working hours.
• The successful candidate will be required to clear a drug screen and a complete background check, including a credit report for certain positions, after an offer has been extended and prior to being employed.
  
  

Supervisory Responsibility

• Yes.
  
  

Preferred Education, Experience, Certifications, Competencies, Skills, & Abilities

Above the minimum requirements; not required but advantageous in this position:

• Direct experience implementing or operating stage-gate governance within a capital project portfolio.
• Experience developing project execution standards, templates, and enterprise deliverable frameworks.
• Experience establishing and operating portfolio dashboards and KPI systems tied to gate performance, forecast quality, change trends, NCR trends, and corrective action closure performance.
• Familiarity with Tallgrass-relevant regulatory and compliance expectations as they relate to project execution and quality (as applicable to role scope).
• Experience partnering with Operations to develop standard equipment “go-by” practices that improve maintainability, operability, and readiness outcomes.