Program Manager

Summary

Spire is seeking an experienced, collaborative Program Manager to work in our St. Louis office. This position will manage programs and projects with a focus on strategic alignment, optimizing value creation, cross-functional resource optimization, and project synergies. It is accountable for executing the PMO program and portfolio strategy, prioritizing projects, and ensuring project execution in alignment with strategic objectives. A successful candidate will form strong partnerships with department leadership to elevate and optimize strategic project results, develop a strong team, and bring complex projects to successful completion, primarily focusing on quality, cost, synergies, and schedule. This role works with business sponsors to ensure that initiatives and potential projects are defined as part of the annual business planning cycle.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Plan, forecast, and manage portfolio of projects through the program and project lifecycles including those with the highest level of complexity, risk, and strategic impact
• Conduct and lead the annual business planning process for the domains allocated, with a focus on defining initiatives to support strategies as well as lead initiatives definition through lean business cases
• Manage program and project plan integration with a focus on company strategy, cross-project, and cross-functional impacts
• Set and apply program and project management governance and standards in collaboration with department leadership and monitor performance across project teams to support a consistent approach
• Apply Lean Portfolio Management concepts to the assigned portfolio, managing programs and maximizing results at the portfolio level
• Support the development and maintenance of the project portfolio management tool to drive consistency across projects and provide analytics for reporting and improvement
• Use judgment in flexible application of various project methodologies to best fit specific project needs, from waterfall to agile and hybrid methods; recommend innovative ways to solve problems and encourage project managers and project teams to apply creative solutions to business challenges
• Drive project engagements as a technical, facilitative and analytical expert; consult with project teams, coach project management personnel, and implement data-driven and quality improvements across programs and projects
• Manage activities to ensure successful program and project results through clear ownership and roles, inclusion of change management elements throughout project plans and across programs, and concluding with strong business handoff process
• Identify program and project risks early, with specific focus on higher level and cross-project dependencies; develop mitigation strategies, and elevate to project and company leadership as appropriate
• Create transparency through proactive reporting and program/portfolio tracking to meet cost, quality, and time constraints, as well as optimize strategic goal achievement; develop and report standard program status update materials for key stakeholders including Leadership Council and Board of Directors
• Analyze project portfolio for strategic goal achievement, prioritization, resource optimization, connections across projects, and change management themes
• Measure project portfolio success and enable data-driven decision making through identification, implementation and ongoing measurement of KPIs
• Coordinate with Innovation, Continuous Improvement, and other Project Management leadership on continuous and annual standard process of collecting project proposals, evaluating and prioritizing, socializing for approval, ensuring alignment with budget and forecast processes, and assigning resources
• All other duties as assigned

Essential Characteristics

Supervisory Responsibilities

Required Education (certifications, licenses)

Bachelor’s degree from an accredited university in an analytical field (i.e. Engineering, Science, Business, IT) required; Master’s degree preferred

Project Management Professional (PMP) or other recognized project management curriculum required ; Change management certification preferred

Other accreditations, such as PMI-PgMP, PMI-PBA, PMI-ACP, SAFe Program Consultant, Lean Six Sigma, are valued

Required knowledge, skill and abilities

• Minimum ten years of related experience required , including leading large-scale cross-functional projects; prior experience driving technology solutions is preferred
• 5-7 years of experience managing project managers and coordinators required
• Knowledge and skills described in the foundational principles of Project Management described in the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) required
• Experience with Agile development and project management techniques required
• Lean portfolio management experience and program management experience required
• Demonstrated experience leveraging existing and new technologies to support new processes and ways of working Skilled in budget preparation, work scheduling and management applications, meeting management, technical reporting, contract management
• Ability to lead by example, define roles/responsibilities, motivate and set strategy Extensive knowledge of Microsoft Office applications

Physical demands, environment and schedule

• Normal Work Environment – Work is normally performed in a shared office environment
• Typically, 8 hours a day, Monday through Friday
• Eligible for Hybrid work arrangement (3 days/week onsite, 2 days/week remote)
• May require work during nonstandard business hours
• Some travel required

Company Overview

We are committed to understanding the needs of the homes and businesses we serve. That's why we're always looking for driven, collaborative people to join our team. Because we believe that offering our customers the best service means bringing together the best people.

And we find the best by hiring those who share our values of safety, inclusion and integrity, and demonstrate the competencies that bring the Spire vision, mission and culture to life:

• Adaptability: We embrace change, continuously seeking opportunities for improvement while remaining open-minded and flexible in response to evolving conditions and customer, stakeholder and company needs.
• Collaboration: We achieve more together through a foundation of respect, embracing healthy conflict, actively seeking and providing actionable feedback and fostering an environment where everyone’s input is welcomed.
• Ownership: We see things through, demonstrate accountability, honor commitments, take responsibility for outcomes and demonstrate initiative.

By living our values and competencies, we strive to create an environment where employees feel welcome, respected and valued.

Posting Requirements

Spire accepts online applications through our career site at jobs.spireenergy.com

Posting requirements: The above posting description is intended to describe the general nature of the level of work being performed by people assigned to this classification. They are not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties and skills required of personnel so classified. To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each duty and responsibility satisfactorily. The requirements listed above are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. 

Spire, Inc., and its subsidiaries are Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity employer. 

We are committed to providing equal employment opportunity in all areas, including but not necessarily limited to, recruitment, selection, training, education, compensation, benefits, promotion, job transfer, upgrading, separation and recall regardless of the individual’s race, color, sex, age, religion, national origin, genetics, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, veteran status, and/or other protected categories under all Federal, State, and local laws. For more information, please view our Integrity and Inclusion pages of our career site.