Project Manager, Operations

Requisition ID : 106920

Share Our Purpose. Be Yourself. Feel Valued.

People are the heart of our business. As an American Water employee, you will be offered a competitive salary and health benefits package, along with opportunities to develop, grow, and evolve your career.

Our benefits packages focus on key areas such as health & wellness, emotional & well-being, and savings for current & future goals.

We are Beautifully Different . We strongly believe having diversity across our company makes us more successful and helps us provide essential services to our customers.

We are stronger because we embrace different ideas, viewpoints, experiences, and backgrounds. American Water is the best choice for your next role! Click here for more information on our inclusion, diversity, and equity journey.

About American Water

American Water (NYSE : AWK) is the largest regulated water and wastewater utility company in the United States. With a history dating back to 1886, We Keep Life Flowing® by providing safe, clean, reliable and affordable drinking water and wastewater services to more than 14 million people across 14 regulated jurisdictions and 18 military installations.

American Water’s 6,500 talented professionals leverage their significant expertise and the company’s national size and scale to achieve excellent outcomes for the benefit of customers, employees, investors and other stakeholders.

As one of the fastest growing utilities in the U.S., American Water expects to invest $30 to $34 billion in infrastructure repairs and replacement, system resiliency and regulated acquisitions over the next 10 years.

The company has a long-standing history of executing its core operations, aligned with sustainable best practices, through its commitments to safety, affordability, customer service, protecting the environment, an inclusive workforce and strengthening communities.

American Water has been recognized on the 2023 Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index for the fifth consecutive year, ranked 18th on Barron’s 100 Most Sustainable U.

S. Companies 2023 List, earned the U.S. Department of Homeland Security SAFETY Act designation and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s WaterSense® Excellence Award, among additional state, local and national recognitions.

For more information, visit amwater.com and join American Water on LinkedIn , Facebook , Twitter and Instagram .

Missouri American Water is seeking a self-motivated and experienced Project Manager to join our team in Joplin, MO. This versatile role will be involved in a variety of operational activities including business development, acquisitions and local customer account management.

Primary Role

Support the operations and functional areas by managing projects that support investment, growth and continuous improvement.

Key Accountabilities

• Proactively build and maintain strong customer relationships; maintain consistent communication, manage customer needs and expectations by meeting project timelines.
• Prepare correspondence / provides information for distribution and / or presentation to other agencies, municipal departments, general public, special interest groups, property owners, consultants.
• Manage relationships with assigned areas of the company for the purpose of driving continuous improvement and delivering projects.
• Support activities at all stages of new acquisitions, including relationship building, research, review of proposals, polling, due diligence, public communication, asset control development, customer integration and other related activities which may include after hours work.
• Work with assigned business areas to identify opportunities, prioritize, select / assign and execute projects to successful completion by working with management and project teams.
• Use critical thinking methods to demonstrate opportunity and execute for continuous improvement.
• Identify opportunities, charter (establish goals and scope) and execute projects to successful outcomes.
• Work with business leaders as sponsors and process owners to realize goals of projects.
• Lead project teams and manage performance in a matrix organization.
• Perform complex data analysis, gather data through SAP / BI and develop process controls through analytics and statistical methods.
• Ensuring that appropriate Safety Management systems are established and implemented for all projects.

Knowledge / Skills

• Advanced knowledge and use of office productivity tools (MS Office, Excel, etc.)
• Enterprise systems knowledge, SAP preferred
• Statistical package experience (Minitab, SAS, SPSS or similar).
• Good knowledge of operations and customer billing practices.
• Project management, construction management practices and contract administration.
• Knowledge of applicable state and federal regulations.
• Knowledge of company procedures, policies and operations.
• Strong project management skills (e.g. planning, organizing, directing, monitoring and reporting on project activities).
• A strong sense of organization and schedule, ability to self-direct and prioritize a large number of often non-sequential tasks on multiple concurrent projects.
• Project planning skills : Good verbal and written communication skills (e.g. , presentation, listening, report writing).
• Computer literacy. Competent in the use of word processing, spreadsheets, flow-charting, project scheduling. SAP experience preferred.
• Financial analysis skill, including budget management, business modeling, and basic accounting knowledge.

Experience / Education

• 12+ years of practical business experience in functional or operational roles with regulated utility or comparable business organization.
• Four-year undergraduate degree preferred. Work experience in lieu of college degree will be considered at the discretion of the Management.

Work Environment

Typical office environment but will vary based upon project demands.

Work Schedule

• Full-time
• Monday-Friday, daylight hours
• Availability to attend occasional evening meetings

Travel Requirements

20% but could be more or less depending on the project demands which will vary.

Competencies

Champions safety

Customer obsessed

Cultivates innovation

Nimble learning

Drives Results

Collaborates

Join American Water... We Keep Life Flowing ™

American Water is firmly committed to Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and prohibits employment discrimination for employees and applicants based on his or her age, race, color, pregnancy, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, marital status, citizenship, or because they are an individual with a disability, protected veteran or other status protected by federal, state, and local laws.