Assistant Project Manager – Transmission & Distribution Program Support

About the role

CARIAN is a purpose-driven, woman-owned consulting and advisory firm dedicated exclusively to the power sector. We partner with leading electric and gas utilities to provide strategic advisory and disciplined execution across program management, business intelligence, and field execution oversight. Guided by integrity, trust, excellence, and accountability, our team helps deliver complex capital programs and build the resilient energy infrastructure that communities depend on.

Responsibilities

• Support Senior Project Managers with planning, execution, monitoring, and closeout of transmission, substation, and related utility infrastructure projects.
• Aid in scope review, project work plan development, and coordination with engineering, client stakeholders, construction teams, and subject matter experts.
• Coordinate with engineering teams to support material planning, major and minor equipment procurement, and project readiness.
• Support environmental and non-environmental permitting review, tracking, and submittal coordination.
• Aid in the development of RFP packages for construction bid events, including scopes of work, baseline schedules, permitting packages, and supporting documentation.
• Assist with contractor bid evaluation, recommendation packages, and award coordination as needed.
• Participate in pre-construction meetings, progress meetings, and regular project coordination discussions.
• Support updates and maintenance of detailed Primavera P6 project schedules.
• Support project budget management, financial forecast updates, accrual tracking, and cost reporting.
• Track project action items, deliverables, milestones, risks, issues, procurement concerns, and open decisions.
• Support contract administration activities, including invoice review support, change order tracking, field change documentation, and contractor coordination.
• Navigate client systems for financial updates, contract management, project documentation, reporting, and project controls support.
• Prepare and support internal and client-facing project reports, meeting materials, dashboards, and status updates.
• Report on construction progress, cost and schedule metrics, procurement issues, safety or environmental concerns, design questions, potential impacts, and items requiring escalation.
• Maintain organized project files, logs, trackers, reports, and closeout documentation.
• Support project closeout activities, including pre-energization support, final documentation, punch list tracking, lessons learned, and turnover packages.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Construction Management, Business, Project Management, or a related field required.
• 2+ years of experience supporting construction project management, utility projects, infrastructure projects, engineering projects, project controls, or capital project delivery.
• 2–5 years of experience in a construction project management or utility project support role preferred.
• Experience with high-voltage transmission line, substation, distribution, utility, or energy infrastructure projects preferred but not required.
• Strong interest in developing deeper knowledge of substations, transmission lines, networks, telecommunications, and utility construction.
• Strong understanding of project coordination, documentation management, cost tracking, scheduling support, reporting, and stakeholder communication.
• Ability to support project managers across multiple active projects and priorities.
• Ability to work effectively with project managers, engineers, schedulers, contractors, construction staff, client representatives, and other stakeholders.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong analytical, organizational, and problem-solving skills.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office, including Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook.
• Experience with project management, scheduling, document control, financial, or client reporting systems preferred.
• PMP, CAPM, or similar project management certification is a plus but not required.
• Utility client or consulting experience is a plus.
• Valid driver’s license required.
• Ability to travel to project sites as needed, typically within a reasonable distance from the reporting location.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment and adapt to changing project needs.