Project & Contract Manager

Overview

Louisville Gas and Electric Company and Kentucky Utilities Company, part of the PPL Corporation (NYSE: PPL) family of companies, are regulated utilities serving more than 1.3 million customers and consistently ranking among the best companies for customer service in the United States. LG&E serves 334,000 natural gas and 433,000 electric customers in Louisville and 16 surrounding counties. KU serves 569,000 customers in 77 Kentucky counties and five counties in Virginia. Both companies are major employers and active supporters of the communities they serve.

Job Purpose

The Project and Contract Manager position is responsible for managing a portfolio of approximately $500 million in large LG&E and KU Electric Transmission capital projects (Transmission Lines and T & D Substations). The role involves ensuring the successful delivery of these projects, from planning to closeout, and managing contractor commitments to meet scope, schedule, and budget requirements.

Responsibilities

• Plans and manages the successful delivery of assigned project portfolio, utilizing resources of the project management office and project management teams.
• Manages large project budgets, with complexity ranging from low to extreme, and durations from several months to several years.
• Reviews solicitations and prepares responses for proposals, bids, and contract modifications.
• Monitors contractor performance and output, including direct oversight for contracted project managers.
• Manages prompt resolution of contractor issues and change order submittals, including analyzing claims and disputes, and consulting with management to resolve or negotiate claims and disputes associated with contracts.
• Maintains communication with upper management to ensure smooth project running.
• Advise leadership about the project portfolio, status, budget, and resource planning for delivering strategic business projects.
• Establish and nurture positive relationships with customer organizations.
• Develops, executes, and maintains the project plan for each assigned project, including scope, schedule, cost, quality, communication, resource, issues, risks, change control, and contractor management plans.
• Applies LG&E and KU PM methodology and enforces project standards.
• Collaborates with project teams to manage deliverables such as design packages, contractor contracts, and other relevant project deliverables.
• Manages project to Key Milestone dates and through "gate" reviews.
• Manages day-to-day operational aspects of a project and scope.
• Ensures project changes (scope, budget, and schedule) are managed through the project governance structure.
• Proactively identifies risks and mitigation plans, monitors project status, recognizes negative trends and project variances, and coordinates corrective action.
• Ensures project documents are complete, current, and stored appropriately.
• Manages project budget and variances, determines appropriate revenue recognition, ensures timely and accurate invoicing, and monitors receivables for project.
• Accurately forecasts project cost and accrues unbilled work to completion.
• Supports team members, including contractor resources, to help them achieve individual expectations and deliverables.
• Adapts to and leads change, and coaches others in the acceptance and support of change.
• Develops and maintains Project Management support policies, standards, and procedures.
• Provides ongoing reconciliation between long-term goals and short-term actions.
• Initiates and implements new technologies, methodologies, processes, and procedures that support LG&E and KU’s long-term and short-term goals.
• May be assigned an emergency and storm role during storms and other emergencies, requiring the need to work after-hours, outside of the normal schedule.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree and 7+ years experience with project management, contract management, and/or construction management responsibilities.
• Experience in project budgeting, project cost control, project scheduling, and project reporting.
• Preferred qualifications include a Bachelor's degree in Business, Engineering, Construction Management, or related discipline, project management certification by a recognized organization, familiarity with electric utilities equipment and processes, prior utility infrastructure project management experience, strong written, oral, presentation, and organizational skills, customer interface experience, demonstrated initiative and leadership skills, skills in critical path and scheduling best practices, and skills in schedule and cost risk assessment and management.