Project Manager, Operations

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 Indexfor 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.

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.
• Prepares 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 outcome. 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.Experience/Education
• 3 years or greater practical business experience in functional or operational role with regulated utility or comparable business organization.
• A 4-year undergraduate degree is preferred.
• Engineering experience is preferred.Knowledge/Skills
• Advanced knowledge and use of office productivity tools (MS Office, Lotus Notes, etc.) Enterprise systems knowledge, SAP preferred, Statistical package experience (Minitab, SAS, SPSS or similar).
• General knowledge of operations and customer billing practices, project management and 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. Travel Requirements
• 20% but could be more or less depending on the project demands which will vary. Work Environment
• Typical office environment but will vary based upon project demands

Hours/Schedule:

• Full-time
• Monday-FridayCompetenciesChampions safetyCustomer obsessedCultivates innovationNimble learningDrives ResultsCollaborates

New Jersey American Water is seeking a Project Manager of Operations to join our team in Lawnside, NJ. This role will work on a variety of projects in the region, while partnering with different, local business functions including maintenance, water and/or wastewater production, distribution, and more. As the Project Manager, you will help lead acquisitions to ensure operational consistency is being met. The ideal candidate will be date-driven, detail-oriented, and a self-starter who is eager to learn.