Senior Manager, Practice Operations

Job Title: Senior Manager, Practice Operations (Utilities/Digital Transformation)
Location: remote (work from home eligible)
Travel: Ability to travel to client sites (domestic and(or) international) as required and defined per project requirements
Salary: $160,000-$180,000 DOE

Company Overview: Celerity is a consulting firm specializing in utilities and energy sectors. We empower organizations by converting complex data into actionable intelligence to mitigate risk, optimize assets, and maximize project outcomes. Our background and expertise enable us to drive and deliver transformation and operational excellence for our clients.
Practice Overview: The Business Integration Services (BIS) practice is a high-growth technology consulting practice delivering enterprise-scale integration, digital transformation, and solution design engagements for complex, multi-stakeholder clients. The practice is in its third year of a structured build and scale phase, expanding from a founding team to a full-capability organization spanning four pillars: Project Management (PMO), Business/Technical Analysis, Solution Architecture, and Engineering.
The practice operates at the intersection of business strategy and technology execution, working closely with technology partners and vendors to deliver outcomes that are both architecturally sound and commercially meaningful. It is entering a pivotal phase of maturity, transitioning from practice-leads delivery to a structured operating model with defined build paths, methodology standards, and delivery governance.
Position Overview: The Senior Manager role is newly created role designed to build and run the operational backbone of the BIS practice. This person is also a people manager while owning the internal operating infrastructure that allows the practice to scale without losing delivery quality or team cohesion. The Senior Manager is an experienced professional including consulting background with over 10 years of hands-on experience driving and building delivery excellence, can build and sustain a high-performing team culture, and has the operational discipline to manage experienced professionals through a period of rapid growth.
This role demands strong operational leadership, industry knowledge, and technical fluency to drive results in complex client environments.
Key Responsibilities:
Practice Operations & Delivery Coordination:

• Own the weekly resource coordination sync and alignment across multiple projects — aligning deployment to project demand, managing capacity constraints, and ensuring no engagement is under-resourced
• Maintain a real-time view of utilization across all active engagements; proactively identify over-allocation, burnout risk, or skill mismatches and resolve before they affect delivery.
• Build and maintain the practice's operational cadences: team meetings, delivery check-ins, onboarding sequences, and inter-pillar coordination mechanisms.
• Escalate delivery risks that require leadership action; translate ground-level team intelligence into clear, actionable executive signals without filtering out critical information
• Ensure the project teams have the tools, templates, methodologies, and standards they need to deliver consistently across different engagement types and client environments

Capability Building:

• Partner with the project teams to define and maintain the practice's methodology: discovery frameworks, requirements standards, stakeholder engagement approaches, and deliverable quality benchmarks
• Build a learning and development calendar for the team that reflects real engagement needs — not generic training — including cross-pillar exposure across all pillars.
• Create and maintain a competency framework that provides clear, credible criteria for performance evaluation and career progression, recognizing that most team members are already highly experienced
• Drive/support the development of BIS delivery playbooks, templates, and standards for discovery, change management, testing, cutover, and post-implementation support.
• Identify patterns across engagements where capability gaps surface and systematically address them through targeted development rather than reactive support
• Use insights from the quarterly coach roundtable to shape new hire onboarding for incoming cohorts, ensuring lessons from active delivery are embedded into how new team members learn the practice

People Leadership & Team Development

• Lead structured onboarding for incoming new hires, ensuring they integrate into the practice culture and reach delivery readiness within 60-90 days.
• Serve as a direct people manager for the reporting team that includes senior business analysis professionals with process, data, business/technical requirements and systems/product implementation skillsets.
• Hold a quarterly coaching roundtable with cross-pillar coaches to aggregate team development signals and translate them into management action
• Retain and support a team of experienced senior practitioners— understanding the difference between craft recognition and career progression for high-expertise individual contributors

Practice Strategy & Governance

• Contribute to capacity planning working with leadership to project capacity needs against pipeline and growth targets
• Partner with leadership on the design of the coaching model, cross-pillar development programs, and any structural adjustments as the practice scales
• Maintain the operating model documentation: org structure, role definitions, operating norms, and governance processes that align with the team structure on implementation projects.

Continuous Improvement & Quality Assurance

• Promote continuous improvement through lessons learned, feedback loops, and project retrospectives.
• Ensure project deliverables meet established quality standards, conduct quality audits and reviews, and implement quality improvement processes.

Educational Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Information Systems, Management, or a related field or equivalent experience.
• Advanced degree (MBA or Master’s) is preferred.

Required Skills and Experience:

• Minimum of 10 years of experience in technology consulting, professional services, or a related discipline, with demonstrated experience leading or managing teams of senior practitioners.
• Proven track record as a people manager — comfortable owning performance reviews, difficult conversations, retention risk, and career development for experienced individual contributors
• Experience working with Agile and Waterfall methodologies in SaaS companies or with system integrators.
• Strong working knowledge of the four pillars as a discipline: what excellent discovery looks like and how requirements mature through an engagement
• Experience managing resource deployment and capacity planning in a project-based or consulting environment
• Demonstrated ability to build trust with experienced peers and direct reports who have strong professional identities and do not require or respond well to directive management styles
• Comfort operating in a high-growth, structurally evolving environment where processes are being built while delivery is ongoing
• Strong understanding of utility operations, asset management, and regulatory compliance.
• Demonstrated experience in team building and leadership, with the ability to inspire and develop talent.
• Excellent project management skills, including proficiency in project planning, execution, and risk management.
• Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to effectively engage clients and stakeholders at all levels.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to engage with clients effectively, collaborate with internal teams, and interact with management.
• Ability to travel domestically and(or) internationally if required.

Preferred Skills:

• Prior experience in practice operations, delivery management, or capability development role within a consulting firm or technology services organization
• Familiarity with the cross-functional dynamics between PMO, BA, solution architecture, and engineering in integrated delivery engagements
• Experience with coaching models, structured mentoring programs, or formal learning and development initiatives in a consulting context
• Exposure to Big 4 or top-tier consulting operating models — particularly how those firms separate craft leadership from people management at scale
• Experience hiring and onboarding senior practitioners in a compressed timeline.
• Certifications: PMP/PMI-ACP, Prosci/Change Management, ITIL, SAFe/Agile or relevant certifications.

The salary range for this position is provided in good faith and is subject to variation based on geographic location, candidate experience, and market conditions. Final compensation will be determined after a comprehensive evaluation of the candidate’s qualifications and alignment with the role.

In accordance with applicable pay transparency laws—including but not limited to those in California, Colorado, New York, Washington, and other jurisdictions—we disclose salary ranges to promote equity and transparency. Where required by law, compensation and benefits information will be included in job postings or made available upon request.

This job description outlines the primary responsibilities and standards of the position but is not exhaustive. Employees may be asked to perform additional duties that are reasonably related to their role and consistent with company policies and applicable labor laws.

Employee welfare and development is important to us, and we sponsor many activities outside of work to promote team building as well as sponsor formal training and certification. We are proud to offer a comprehensive health and welfare benefit package that includes:
HEALTH & WELL-BEING

• Medical Insurance
• Dental Insurance
• Vision Insurance

PEACE OF MIND

• Disability Insurance (STD/LTD)
• Flexible Spending Account
• Health Savings Account
• Basic Life/AD&D
• 401(k) plan

WORK/LIFE BALANCE

• Paid Time Off
• Company Holidays
• Leave of Absence
• Remote work and Flexible Work Schedules (for qualified positions)

ADDITIONAL PERKS

• Employee Referral Program
• Professional Development
• Charitable Contribution Match

Based in Walnut Creek, CA with offices nationwide, Celerity energy engineers perform a critical, leadership role as strategic liaisons between data, assets and the teams that make projects happen in the field.
See full details and meet our leadership team on our website:

Celerity is an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veterans’ status or other status protected by applicable law.
Pursuant to the Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

This position is open to individuals who are currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis. Unfortunately, we are unable to sponsor or assume sponsorship of employment visas at this time.