Utilities PMO Director

Core Responsibilities

• Serve as TSG’s primary executive Utilities interface and single point of accountability to program leadership and steering committee for all PMO governance, delivery performance, and strategic alignment
• Establish and oversee governance structure, decision-making authority, escalation protocols, and formal governance forums across all active program pillars
• Lead steering committee briefings and executive reporting—presenting program status, risks, escalations, and critical decisions requiring leadership action
• Conduct Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) with stakeholders; deliver presentations in advance and capture action items for incorporation before the next review cycle
• Host monthly leadership meetings covering resource status, team performance, improvement plans, and upcoming portfolio pipeline
• Maintain portfolio baseline and ongoing tracking across all program pillars—initiative inventory, scope boundaries, milestone schedules, capital and operating spend, and cross-pillar dependency mapping
• Drive execution acceleration; work with pillar leads to identify critical path accelerators, parallel workstreams, and near-term schedule opportunities to maintain program momentum
• Establish decision-readiness protocols ensuring steering committee receives complete analysis, options, trade-offs, and TSG recommendations to enable rapid decision-making without delay loops
• Manage all scope modifications through formal change control—evaluate change impact against program objectives, document clearly, implement with full transparency, and track implications across schedule, budget, and resources
• Lead daily risk and issue management; maintain centralized risk/issue log, escalate top risks to steering committee with recommended mitigations, identify systemic patterns and recommend preventive actions
• Forecast resource needs before gaps occur; scale TSG team composition up or down based on validated portfolio findings and evolving program scope without disrupting delivery
• Direct TSG’s on-site delivery team (Project Managers, Cost Engineers, Schedulers) and coordinate remote SME resources aligned to program scope and complexity
• Manage key personnel continuity; provide DTE with advanced notice and obtain approval before any changes to key team members
• Cook with DTE finance and pillar stakeholders on capital tracking, spend forecasting, and budget management aligned to initiative execution
• Actively measure delivery performance, solicit stakeholder feedback, and drive continuous improvement through regular business reviews throughout the engagement lifecycle

Qualifications

• 20+ years of program and project management experience in complex, regulated environments (utilities, energy, infrastructure, or similar), including operational leadership experience
• 15+ years of PMO leadership experience, including standing up PMOs from scratch, establishing governance frameworks, and managing multi-pillar/multi-initiative portfolios
• Demonstrated experience managing $500M+ capital program portfolios with complex stakeholder coordination, regulatory compliance requirements, and multi-year project lifecycles
• Proven ability to work directly with C-suite executives, steering committees, and board-level decision-makers in high-stakes operational environments
• Experience with rapid PMO activation and emergency/post-event recovery program management
• Strong portfolio management discipline including initiative prioritization, dependency mapping, risk/issue management, and governance enforcement
• Experience with portfolio management tools (Smartsheet, Maximo, Hyperion, or similar) and enterprise reporting systems
• Expertise in capital program delivery, project controls, schedule management, and cost/budget forecasting
• Understanding of utility industry operations, regulatory frameworks (NERC, state public utility commissions), and infrastructure asset management
• Project Management Professional (PMP) or Program Management Professional (PgMP) certification preferred
• Executive presence and credibility with C-suite and board-level stakeholders
• Operational discipline and governance enforcement without bureaucratic overhead
• Complex stakeholder management across engineering, operations, finance, and executive teams
• Strategic thinking with focus on execution and results delivery
• Rapid decision-making and problem-solving under compressed timelines
• Strong communication and presentation skills for executive-level reporting
• Team leadership and ability to scale teams based on actual demand
• Risk management and escalation protocol discipline
• Change management and organizational effectiveness in crisis/post-event environments