Corporate Project Manager

General Summary

Establish and leads Rayburn Country Electric Cooperative, Inc.’s (Rayburn) project management. The position maintains a current view of all significant projects across the cooperative; administers the process by which projects are tracked, reviewed, and closed. Directly manages a limited number of high-priority, cross-functional projects. The Project Manager is intended to bring consistent structure, accountability, and visibility to Rayburn’s project work, while preserving the cooperative’s ability to make decisions and act quickly. Practices introduced by this position are expected to be proportionate to the size and complexity of each project.

Principal Duties And Responsibilities/Knowledge

Portfolio Management and Reporting

• Establish and maintain Rayburn’s project inventory, including project owner, sponsor, objectives, status, budget, schedule, checkpoints, and date of last substantive progress.
• Prepare and facilitate a monthly portfolio review with the President and CEO and the leadership team, presenting portfolio status in a concise, decision-oriented format.
• Identify projects that are stalled, off schedule, over budget or at risk and escalate them promptly with a recommended course of action.
• Track resource commitments across projects and identify conflicts in staffing, budget or timing before they affect delivery.
• Maintain a record of portfolio decisions, including projects approved, changed, paused, merged or stopped and the rationale for each.
• Provide periodic portfolio summaries suitable for executive leadership.

Project Intake and Governance

• Ensure each approved project documents, at a minimum: a named owner, defined scope, measurable success criteria, a Member value measure, the data the project will produce and where it will be maintained, estimated cost and schedule, and the conditions under which the project will be stopped.
• Schedule and conduct 90-day and six-month checkpoint reviews, at which projects are formally continued, revised, or stopped.
• Account for risks associated with the project.
• Maintain a separate, streamlined path for small improvements below the approval threshold so that the full intake process is applied only where warranted.
• Lead a review of all existing projects within the first 90 days of employment and recommend which should continue, receive additional support, be paused, merged, or stopped.
• Recommend refinements to governance practices as the portfolio and the organization grow.

Project Delivery

• Develop and maintain project plans, schedules, budgets, risk and issue logs, and stakeholder communications for directly managed projects.
• Coordinate the work of internal staff, contractors, and vendors, including scope, deliverables, and acceptance.
• Conduct closeout reviews that document results against success criteria and lessons learned.

Standards, Methods and Tools

• Develop project management templates, procedures and guidelines scaled to Rayburn’s size and project mix, and retire those that do not provide value.
• Evaluate, recommend, implement and administer a project and portfolio management tool appropriate to Rayburn’s needs.
• Define and maintain consistent standards for project status reporting, change control and documentation.
• Ensure project records support internal audit, regulatory compliance and records retention requirements, including those that apply to NERC-related and capital projects.

Data, Metrics, and Decision Support

• Maintain accurate, structured project data, suitable for use in management reporting and in Rayburn’s internal analytics and decision-support tools.
• Define and track portfolio-level measures, such as on-time and on-budget performance, project throughput, time to decision, and the share of projects with defined success criteria.
• Work with project owners to ensure each project’s Member value measure is defined, tracked and reported.

Stakeholder Engagement and Capability Building

• Advise and coach project owners and department managers on planning, tracing and reporting with the aim of building project management capability across Rayburn.
• Develop and deliver training on Rayburn’s project practices for new and existing staff.
• Serve as a point of coordination among departments on cross-functional projects and between Rayburn and Member cooperatives where projects affect them.

Key Accountabilities

• Complies with all policies, procedures, and confidentiality agreements effective as a result of employment with Rayburn.
• Shares information with Rayburn management and staff, contractors, and other third parties in a timely manner, as required.
• Delegates jobs and tasks to appropriate employees, providing complete information and resources to properly complete such jobs and tasks.
• Provides Rayburn management with updates and/or reports on work and tasks as requested or required.
• Performs other duties as assigned by supervisor or executive management.

Job Specifications/Skills Required

Education: Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field or an equivalent combination of education and experience.

Experience:

• 5 years experience managing projects or programs that involve multiple departments/functions required.
• Demonstrated experience establishing or operating portfolio management, project intake, or a project management office required.
• 7+ years experience working in electrical utilities, energy, engineering, construction, or another operations-intensive industry preferred.

Certifications:

• Project Management PRofessional (PMP) or Program Management Professional (PgMP) preferred.
• Thorough knowledge of project and portfolio management principles, methods, and practices, including scope, schedule, budget, risk and change management
• Ability to design processes that are proportionate to the work and to simplify or discontinue them when they no longer serve their purpose
• Ability to present candid assessments of project status to senior leaders and project owners and to maintain productive working relationships while doing so.
• Proficiency in defining measures, maintaining accurate data and presenting information clearly to support decisions.
• Strong facilitation, written, verbal communication and interpersonal skills.
• Proficiency with project and portfolio management software, Microsoft office, and other various standard office applications.
• Aptitude for organizing tasks, managing time, prioritizing projects and work effectively with limited supervision.
• Able to work effectively in a team environment; willing to assist others
• Ability to develop strong relationships with other internal departments.
• Must possess and maintain a valad Driver's License.
  

Physical Demands

• Ability to perform repetitive motions in order to use a computer keyboard, test equipment and operate hand tools.
• Must be able to lift 50 lbs.
• Ability to occasionally travel to Rayburn facilities, construction sites, and Member cooperative locations. Visits may requrie personal protective equipment and adherence to safety procedures.

Decision-Making Authority

As directed by supervisor and/or executive management.