Project Risk Manager (Mega Projects)

Job Description

Job Description

The Project Risk Manager  is accountable for comprehensive and cross-functional project risk identification, prioritization, and response planning. This role facilitates risk workshops, documents and codifies risk information, analyzes risk and project information, and provides risk findings to the project team and project leadership. This role embeds risk management within the broader project controls ecosystem linking cost, schedule, change, performance, and governance to provide early warning and credible forecasts. This raises risk awareness and supports the maximizing of risk response effectiveness. 

The position partners closely with engineering, procurement, construction, contracts, and senior leadership to systematically identify, quantify, mitigate, and communicate risks and opportunities across all phases of the project lifecycle from conceptual design through commissioning and startup. 

This position will be based out of the Nexus Cleveland Office with up to 50% travel to Akron, OH. 

Key Accountabilities

• Establish and govern an enterprise grade project-level risk management framework aligned to mega-project governance with project controls, stage gates, and executive oversight 

• Integrate qualitative and quantitative risk analysis with cost and schedule forecasting to support contingency setting, forecasting, and project management decisions 

• Serve as an independent, objective advisor to project leadership on project health, uncertainty, and emerging threats with authority to challenge assumptions and forecasts 

• Enable proactive, analytics-based decision-making through clear risk reporting, trends, and early warning indicators through integrated cost/schedule analytics and scenario modeling. 

• Embed a strong risk culture across the project team, emphasizing risk ownership, monitoring, mitigation execution, and accountability 

• Own integration of risk into project forecasts and contingency strategy 

Core Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain the project risk management plan, risk taxonomy, scoring criteria, and governance cadence 

• Lead structured, cross functional risk identification and mitigation workshops across engineering, procurement, construction, and commissioning 

• Maintain a high-quality, audit ready risk register with clear risk statements, ownership, triggers, and residual risk 

• Perform cost and schedule quantitative risk analysis, quantifying uncertainty into probabilistic cost and schedule forecasts 

• Validate and recommend contingency levels based on quantitative analysis, track risk burndown, and assess mitigation effectiveness over time 

• Lead integration with project controls on baseline strategy, forecast credibility, progress measurement, and performance trends 

• Evaluate supply chain and execution risks, including long lead equipment, fabrication, logistics, labor, productivity, and site constraints and assess impact on cost, schedule and execution strategy. 

• Interface with contracts and commercial teams to assess risk allocation, change exposure, and claims risk 

• Monitor regulatory, permitting, interconnection, and stakeholder related risks 

• Produce concise executive level dashboards, narratives, and decision support materials 

• Support stage gate reviews, independent project assessments, and assurance activities 

• Perform Monte Carlo based Cost and Schedule Risk Analysis 

• Define and standardize risk workshop methodology and facilitation approach 

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Construction Management, Project Management, or related discipline 

• 8+ years of experience in project analysis, risk management, project controls, or major capital project delivery 

• Experience supporting large megaprojects ($500M+; multibillion preferred) 

• Proficient in project governance methodologies like the Project Definition Rating Index (PDRI) and Front End Loading (FEL) Index 

• Strong understanding of integrated project controls, including cost, schedule, risk, change, and performance management 

• Experience capturing and documenting lessons learned 

• Demonstrated experience applying quantitative risk analysis to real world project decisions 

• Ability to translate complex project data into clear, defensible insights for senior leadership 

• Excellent facilitation, analytical, writing, and executive communication skills 

• Preferred – strong understanding of the project lifecycle, information maturity 

• Preferred – demonstrated ability to manage information uncertainty to drive proactive risk management 

• Experience in EPC/EPCm environments on complex, multi-stakeholder projects 

• Demonstrated ability to influence senior stakeholders and drive risk-informed decision making. 

The salary range listed above represents base pay for candidates in our Oak Brook, Illinois office, in accordance with applicable pay transparency requirements. 

Compensation for all candidates is determined based on experience, qualifications, skill set, certifications, work location, and market conditions. In addition to base pay, Nexus Engineering Group offers a comprehensive compensation package that may include eligibility for discretionary bonuses and participation in our Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), providing employees the opportunity to share in the long-term success of the company.

Competitive Benefits

Learn more about our competitive benefits in detail.

Why Nexus?

Nexus Engineering Group, a distinguished independent full-service engineering, procurement, and construction management (EPCm) firm, provides comprehensive support to clients from concept through startup. With over a decade of demonstrated engineering and design success, Nexus stands out as the firm of choice for those valuing integrity and expertise.

At Nexus, you will be part of a talented and passionate team dedicated to excellence and innovation. We foster a collaborative and engaging work environment, making it a place where you’ll enjoy contributing to impactful projects. Joining Nexus means aligning with a firm renowned for its creativity, dedication, and relentless focus on achieving client goals.

Equal Opportunity Employer & Reasonable Accommodation

Nexus Engineering Group, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, national origin, veteran status, genetic information, union status and/or beliefs, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.

Nexus Engineering Group is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to qualifies individuals with disabilities throughout the application and hiring process. If you require and accommodation to participate in any part of the recruitment process please contact us at View email address on ziprecruiter.com . 

Sponsorship & Work Authorization

Nexus Engineering Group does not provide employment visa sponsorship of any kind, including CPT, OPT, or employment-based visas. Candidates must be currently authorized to work in the United States and must be able to maintain that authorization throughout employment without any action, filing, or sponsorship by the company. This requirement applies both at the time of hire and on a continuing basis for the duration of employment. 

Third‑Party Agency Notice

Nexus Engineering Group does not accept unsolicited resumes or candidate submissions from external recruiters or agencies. We only engage approved third‑party partners under a written agreement initiated by our Talent Acquisition team for specific searches. Any resumes submitted without prior authorization or a current agreement will not be eligible for placement fees and will be considered the property of Nexus Engineering Group.

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.