Strategic Business Planner II

: Department: Customer Experience Strategy, Design & Support Location: Sacramento, CA, US, 95817-1899 Category: Customer Service

Minimum Pay Rate: $116,148.00

Maximum Pay Rate: $153,816.00

Apply by Date: 11/09/2025

Posting Type: Open

The Customer Experience Strategy team within the Customer Experience Delivery work group is an invaluable internal asset that helps to ensure SMUD meets the needs of our customers today and into the future. We are a catalyst that supports how customers positively experience SMUD. The team has its finger on the pulse of market evolution and competitive intelligence and readily incorporates this knowledge into planning and operations. Key functions include collaborating across business lines, connecting information, processes, and end-to-end customer journeys, and designing strategies, processes, solutions, and plans. We empower employees to achieve SMUD's goals through integrating customer perspectives and priorities in everything they do.

The position of Strategic Business Planner II is a critical position for the planning and implementation of customer segmentation, experience design, and program/service planning. The position reports to a Senior Strategic Business Planner within the Customer Experience Team. SMUD's customer experience strategic planners provide the organization with insights, design, and guidance to ensure customer-centricity throughout the multitude of customer journeys and respective touch points. The role understands customers' perception of their experiences with SMUD, predicts customer changing expectations, commissions research, identifies areas for improvement, ideates solutions, supports the change process through strategic and tactical planning, ideation, and team facilitation, and develops business metrics to ensure customer success. The successful candidate may also help design new programs and solutions, identify strategic partnership opportunities, plan contracts and budgets for new programs and services, and establish annual metrics for them for Customer Experience Delivery. The successful candidate will use a data-driven approach and work with key external stakeholders, as well as internal stakeholders (e.g. other planners, managers, and program managers across the organization) to recommend necessary adjustments to both residential and commercial programs and services.

This posting intends to fill two (2) regular, full-time positions. An eligibility list will also be established, which may be used to fill regular, full-time, or limited term positions, over the next two (2) years.

Purpose

To perform both short and long term strategic business planning balancing the experiences and needs of customers while also focusing on internal priorities, resources and objectives. Produce long term strategies while also delivering value to the business through short term, actionable efforts. In doing so, clearly identifies SMUD current state, desired state, key steps required to reach the desired state, and the benefits to our customers and SMUD. Maintains a focus on customer experience excellence; ensures achievement of department results and goals that support SMUD strategic objectives

Nature and Scope

Serves as an advance journey-level resource in a relevant professional discipline; works independently on projects of moderate complexity; exercises independent judgment and discretion within established broad guidelines; may serve in a Lead role and assist in planning, coordinating, prioritizing, and monitoring the work results in assigned area.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Coordinate and support key business initiatives by developing short and long term strategic and operational plans to drive and support implementation of customer programs, operational enhancements, product solutions, or other services to meet SMUDs strategic business objectives.
• Establish 3-year strategic and/or operating plan for assigned unit.
• Coordinate the monthly forecast process, ensure line of sight between project outline and delivery.
• Use existing financial models and/or develop new models, spreadsheets or other techniques to analyze financial and business planning issues. Including researching and analyzing data to identify major drivers of performance, customer experience and interpret trends to develop, present, and implement value-added solutions to optimize resources and processes.
• Define, review and monitor operational/program metrics; support requests for project maintenance and creation to ensure business alignment; collaborate with stakeholders to determine measures of success to ensure program/project changes benefits are realized; serves as a liaison between workgroup/business units to facilitate business needs.
• Develop and support recommendations with accurate financial analysis and rigorous financial or economic theory.
• Review analyses, reports or other decision documents prepared by other contributors or stakeholders and provide comments or additional analyses to improve the overall quality of information provided to management.
• Develop, prioritize and evaluate strategic customer initiatives including technology, energy technology and capital projects. Incorporate primary and secondary customer research to ensure that the voice of the customer is considered.
• Oversees contract management for assigned area, ensure vendors are meeting SLA evaluate contracts and determine if extensions or a new RFP is necessary to sustain business processes/needs.
• Establish delivery tactics, budgets, key performance indicators and metrics within the planning framework for all initiatives to guide the implementation process.
• Work closely with implementation teams to track and adjust plans on an on-going basis to ensure a positive customer experience and ongoing success.
• Partner with applicable stakeholders within and across business units and departments to ensure coordination, consistency, and continuity of planning processes and projects.
• Proactively focus attention on areas requiring attention.
• Connect and coordinate with applicable external stakeholders including other utilities, research groups, policy groups, regulators, consortiums, other organizations at a regional and national level to provide input and insights on best practices, industry trends and opportunities for program or process improvements and new service options.
• Provide clear, concise, and meaningful information and recommendations to management, including feasibility studies to define business opportunities and to gain approval for implementation of initiatives, and business justifications for approval that include the costs and benefits of alternative solutions and recommended solutions.
• Perform other related duties as assigned.

Required Experience Qualifications

Five (5+) or more years of progressively responsible relevant experience. Experience should include project management, business and/or budget planning and/or developing and monitoring business performance measures and metrics.

Required Education

Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university in Business, Marketing, Engineering, or related field (or equivalent experience). If no degree, a minimum of 9 years of relevant experience is required.

Knowledge Of

Customer experience concepts and experience working with others within SMUD to gather and summarize the potential market and/or impact of products, services, process improvements and/or construction projects as they relate to our customers; characteristics and operational needs of various organizational units; techniques and practices for problem research and resolution; principles and techniques of research and analysis; principles of performance measures development, application, planning and evaluation; principals of project management, cost accounting, work management and managerial reporting systems; interrelationships between SMUD operations and relevant external; principles and practices for contract management; principles and practices of budget preparation and administration; SMUD policies, procedures, applicable MOUs and other special agreements; principles and procedures of record keeping and filing; principles of business letter writing and basic report preparation; mathematical principles; office procedures, methods, and equipment including computers and applicable software applications such as word processing, spreadsheets, and databases; English usage, spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

Skills To

Manage multiple projects and planning processes of moderate complexity; analyze complex issues and develop/implement resolution alternatives; analyze procedures/systems and develop/implement operational improvements; analyze situations, documents and data for conformance to established policy and procedures; gather data from appropriate sources and identify relevant factors; interpret, clarify, understand and analyze verbal/written information and ideas; compile and prepare technical, statistical and/or analytical reports and presentations; independently prepare a variety of correspondence and memoranda; compile data, maintain records and files, and prepare administrative or technical reports; develop and implement new and revised policies and procedures to provide for the effective operation of the area of responsibility; develop, implement and maintain work procedures; plan, organize, prioritize and schedule projects; assist in budget preparation and administration; operate office equipment including computers and supporting word processing, spreadsheet, and database applications; interpret and apply administrative and departmental policies and procedures; communicate effectively orally and in writing internally/externally; establish and maintain effective working relationships internally/externally.

Desirable Qualifications

• Creation of segmentation models, segment strategy, and related success metrics.
• Working knowledge of utility customer segments, including business and consumer, in addition to low to moderate income customers and disadvantaged communities.
• Design multi-year strategies, processes, programs/services, and plans for segments, determine feasibility of plans, and design market adoption for targeted solutions.
• Leverage customer insights, industry research and subject matter expertise to identify new opportunities and improvements.
• Leverage customer insights and segmentation information to help prioritize marketing campaigns for customer-facing products and services.
• Knowledge of establishing segment, operational, and program metrics.
• Knowledge and understanding of SMUD's residential and commercial programs.
• Knowledge and experience designing and interpreting customer feedback and applying that information to customer experience design efforts.
• Experience analyzing data and identifying trends of major drivers of customer experiences, including programs and services, assessing SMUD's performance of fulfilling customer experience goals and expectations, and developing value-added solutions to optimize resources and processes.
• Experience using customer experience design best practices, such as business model canvassing, design thinking, journey mapping, and touch point analysis, in order to create new solutions, identify key touch points, moments of truth, and improvement areas in the customer experience lifecycle.
• Proven ability to lead and influence stakeholders to make decisions that support the broader strategic goal of customer value.
• Experience with developing request for proposals (RFPs), developing and managing third party contracts and agreements and skilled in identifying new partnership opportunities that can help reach SMUD goals.

Physical Requirements

Applicants must be able to perform the essential job functions with or without a reasonable accommodation.

Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) - Who We Are

As the nation's sixth-largest community-owned electric service provider, we're proud of our reputation as one of the best places to work in Sacramento. Our employees tell us in our engagement surveys they're "Happy, satisfied and engaged" which helps create a workplace that best serves our customers. Sacramento was named as the 2nd happiest place to work in America by Forbes Magazine. Lake Tahoe, San Francisco and the world-renowned Napa Valley are within easy driving distance of our locations.

Our Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion

SMUD celebrates diversity, and inspires an inclusive culture based on trust and respect to create belonging and connection among our employees, customers, and communities. By working together, we are powering positive, equitable opportunities for all. We aspire to be a workplace where you can be yourself, achieve your best, and thrive together.

An example of our commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging is when SMUD signed the California Equal Pay Pledge in 2020. This requires equal pay for employees who perform “substantially similar work,” when viewed as a composite of skill, effort, and responsibility at the time those employees started within that classification. As such, initial hiring salary range is not subject to negotiation and salaries will vary over time based on performance.

SMUD is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate in employment decisions on the basis of race, color, religion, gender (including pregnancy), national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, veteran status, or any other applicable legally protected characteristic. All employment decisions are made on the basis of individual qualifications, merit, and business needs and interests.

Why Sacramento, California?

The capitol of California, Sacramento is the state's sixth-largest city, and the 35th largest in the U.S. Local universities include California State University, University of the Pacific's McGeorge School of Law, and the University of California, Davis and several competitive community colleges. The UC Davis Medical Center, a world-renowned research hospital, is one of more than a dozen hospitals and shared services centers in the Sacramento region. Part of the agriculturally-rich Central Valley, Sacramento is at the forefront of the farm-to-fork food movement. Northern California is home to some of the country's top technology companies, including Google and LinkedIn, and a multitude of startups in many industries. Sacramento is home to the NBA Kings, the River Cats (AAA baseball), the Republic FC (soccer) and the San Francisco Giants, NBA Warriors and NFL 49er's aren't far away. Sacramento offers an affluent liberal arts community with Broadway, Mondavi Center, Crocker Museum and summer musical theater to name a few.

Hybrid Work

This position may be eligible for SMUD's hybrid (office/home) work employee benefit, the schedule of which will be determined by the successful candidate and the Hiring Manager. SMUD takes pride in powering the Sacramento region community where we live and work. We value the strong working relationships we develop with our colleagues. Our approach to hybrid work will continue to evolve. Please be aware that should SMUD's business needs change, emergencies occur, or various other reasons arise, you may be required to report onsite on a part-time or full-time basis.

SMUD provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, amnesty, or status as a covered veteran in accordance with applicable federal, state and local laws. SMUD complies with applicable state and local laws governing non-discrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including, but not limited to, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.

SMUD expressly prohibits any form of unlawful employee harassment based on race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, genetic information, disability, or veteran status. Improper interference with the ability of SMUD employees to perform their expected job duties is absolutely not tolerated.

Req ID: 850