Functional Project Manager Jobs in Arkansas (NOW HIRING)

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.

Project Manager | Pay Range: $87,950.00 - $112,190.00

Join Our Project Management Office as a Project Manager!

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.

What You'll Do

Project Planning and Control:

• 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

Resources Management:

• 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

Forecasting and Financial Control:

• 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

Vendor Management:

• 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

To be successful as a 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:

• Four (4) 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

• 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

Preferred:

• 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)

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. 

Travel Requirement: 

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

SPP is an equal opportunity employer that makes employment decisions without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, citizenship, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, veteran status, age, disability status or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. Further, SPP makes good faith efforts to employ and advance in employment qualified protected veterans and qualified individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application 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.

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