Director of Utility & Infrastructure Coordination

About the Role

The Director of Utility & Infrastructure Coordination owns dry utility coordination – electric, gas, and telecommunications – across all active LGE Design Build projects in Arizona. This role is a hands-on, technical liaison position focused on identifying and resolving utility-related risks months before they threaten project schedules. Success is measured by problems caught and resolved early, not by team size or oversight. The right candidate is comfortable working directly with utility companies and project teams, treating late discoveries as personal failures.

This role is intentionally not a delegator or oversight function. Impact comes from direct technical engagement: plan review, utility company relationships, and daily schedule tracking across every Arizona project. There is no initial team; the mandate is hands-on ownership of utility risk across the entire portfolio.

Main Critical Outcome

Zero project delays attributable to dry utility availability – every Arizona project reaches temporary and permanent energization/service activation on or ahead of the APS/SRP/Southwest Gas/telecom-provider-confirmed schedule.

Performance Obsessions

• Utility Risk Surfaced Early, Never Late: Power, gas, and telecom capacity, queue position, and service/energization timelines confirmed with APS, SRP, Southwest Gas, and telecom/fiber providers at site selection/entitlement, not discovered near completion.
• Zero Surprises at Closeout: No Arizona project reaches substantial completion without a confirmed, documented energization/service-activation date on file for every dry utility.
• The Utility Company Knows Our Name: Proactive, named relationships with APS, SRP, Southwest Gas, and telecom/fiber provider planning/engineering contacts, maintained continuously – not built from scratch under deadline pressure.
• One Schedule, No Translation Gaps: Utility milestones – electric, gas, and telecom – live inside the master project schedule; PMs, supers, owners, and developers are never guessing what any utility’s timeline means for theirs.
• Documented, Not Tribal Knowledge: A standardized utility tracker and process exists across every Arizona project and every utility type, independent of any one person’s memory or contact list.

Responsibilities

Dry Utility Coordination & Risk Management (55%)

• Engage APS/SRP, Southwest Gas, and telecom/fiber providers at the earliest possible project stage (ideally site selection/entitlement) to confirm capacity (transformer/service, gas main/meter, telecom conduit/fiber), queue position, and realistic service/energization timelines.
• Own and maintain a live utility-status tracker across all active Arizona projects and all utility types (electric, gas, telecom), flagging schedule risks well ahead of substantial completion.
• Serve as the primary liaison between APS/SRP/Southwest Gas/telecom providers, LGE preconstruction/construction teams, and owner/developer stakeholders on all dry-utility matters.
• Manage submission and follow-through of utility applications, easements, transformer/pad orders, gas service/meter orders, telecom conduit/vault agreements, meter sets, and utility agreements across all utility types.
• Escalate and drive resolution of utility delays directly with utility company project managers/engineers, across electric, gas, and telecom providers.
• Maintain current, detailed knowledge of APS, SRP, Southwest Gas, and major Arizona telecom/fiber providers’ processes, typical lead times, tariffs, and capacity constraints by submarket/service territory.
• Coordinate relocation, abandonment, and removal of existing overhead/underground dry-utility infrastructure that conflicts with new construction, working with the applicable utility company and civil/electrical designers.

Schedule Integration & Design Coordination (30%)

• Integrate utility milestones – electric, gas, and telecom – into the master schedule for every Arizona project; flag conflicts before they erode float.
• Attend kickoff, OAC, and progress meetings as needed to represent utility status across all dry-utility types.
• Partner with Preconstruction and Design to confirm utility capacity before entitlement/permit submittal, not after.
• Coordinate with civil engineers and electrical/MEP designers on service sizing, points of connection, and joint-trench/conduit coordination across dry utility types.

Reporting & Process Development (15%)

• Build and maintain a standardized utility coordination checklist/process usable across all Arizona projects and all dry-utility types, with an eye toward portability to Texas/Florida and expansion into other utility types as volume justifies.
• Provide regular utility-risk status reporting to the Regional Vice President – Arizona.
• Capture lessons learned from past delays to build institutional knowledge and utility-side relationships that outlast any single project.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Construction Management, Civil Engineering, or related field preferred; equivalent experience considered in lieu.
• 5+ years in utility coordination, civil engineering, land development, or construction project management in Arizona, with direct working experience with APS and/or SRP; experience coordinating with Southwest Gas and/or major Arizona telecom/fiber providers strongly preferred.
• Existing relationships with APS/SRP planning, engineering, or project management contacts strongly preferred; existing relationships with Southwest Gas and/or major Arizona telecom/fiber providers a plus.
• Working knowledge of utility service processes across electric, gas, and telecom: applications, easements, transformer/pad orders, capacity requests, energization/service-activation sequencing, and relocation/abandonment coordination.
• Strong cross-functional communicator – able to translate utility timelines/constraints into construction-schedule impact for internal teams and owners.
• Highly organized and proactive by nature – this role exists to surface problems early, not to react well to late ones.
• Familiarity with construction project management software.

Reporting & Evaluation

Reports directly to the Regional Vice President – Arizona. Regular (bi-weekly recommended) check-ins covering utility status across the active Arizona project portfolio, escalations in progress, and any emerging risks.

Annual review by the Regional VP – Arizona, measured directly against the Main Critical Outcome and the Obsessions defined above:

• MCO: Count/severity of dry-utility-caused delays (electric, gas, telecom) across the Arizona portfolio versus prior year.
• Early Identification: Utility risk – across all dry-utility types – confirmed by site selection/entitlement, not discovered later, across all active projects.
• Relationship Management: Depth and responsiveness of APS/SRP, Southwest Gas, and telecom/fiber provider contacts; escalation turnaround time.
• Schedule Integration: Utility milestones – electric, gas, and telecom – present and current in every Arizona project schedule.
• Documentation: Tracker completeness and usability across the portfolio and across utility types.

A positive attitude, proactive communication, and team spirit are part of the overall review but are evaluated through the lens of the MCO and Obsessions above.