Director, Special Projects
Leads diverse projects for Comms & External Affairs, acting as a liaison between leadership, teams, and stakeholders, ensuring execution of strategic initiatives
Serves as a special projects advisor to the SVP, providing thought partnership, prioritizing key messages, and developing communication strategies
Drives project execution, facilitates decision-making, improves processes, and manages staff, while fostering strategic partnerships with stakeholders
About the Company
The New York Power Authority is the nation's largest state public power organization, with 17 generating facilities and more than 1,550 circuit-miles of transmission lines. More than 70 percent of the electricity we produce is clean renewable hydropower. NYPA is a leader in promoting energy efficiency, new energy technologies and electric transportation initiatives.
Our lower-cost power production and electricity purchases support hundreds of thousands of jobs throughout the state. Our business customers range from Fortune 100 giants competing in international markets to small manufacturing or service firms that are vital to local economies.
We sell power to government agencies; to community-owned electric systems and rural electric cooperatives; to job-producing companies; to private utilities for resale—without profit—to their customers; and to neighboring states, under federal requirements.
About the Job
The Director, Projects is a key role in supporting the clean energy transition in the New York State. The Director, Projects is responsible for planning, leading, and managing a broad range of projects and initiatives for the Communications & External Affairs team. This role will serve as a key liaison between the SVP of Communications & External Affairs, the team, departments, and external stakeholders, ensuring seamless communication, collaboration, and execution of strategic initiatives. The ideal candidate will possess high EQ and strong relationship building skills, coupled with exceptional organizational and leadership skills. This role will serve as a Special Projects advisor to the SVP.
Responsibilities
Provide project leadership and support to the Business Unit and strengthen management team relationships
Act as a thought partner to the executive leadership and participate in executive level decision making
Align Business Unit management and team on priority initiatives
Directly assist Business Unit Leader with the identification, management and execution of emerging priority initiatives and special projects
Prioritize and form key messages from stream of executive ideas and conversations
Partner in the development and management of the Business Unit Leader’s messaging and presentations. Develop plans for communicating key messages throughout the organization. Develop briefing documents and organize preparation materials and sessions prior to meetings/events
Provide insight to the Business Unit Leader about what the team and the division needs from them
Execute project initiatives, provide internal customer support, and drive functional excellence and process improvement. Drive milestone completion, organize and prioritize critical issues and required information for Leadership to facilitate efficient decision making
Recommend new approaches, policies and procedures to effect continual improvements in business objectives and productivity
Interface with key personnel in business units and identify and elevate issues that need resolution. Facilitate meetings with external stakeholders including customers for developing strategic partnerships
Manage staff or contingent staff/contractors
Qualifications
Basic Qualifications:
Bachelor's Degree required
Advanced degree preferred
Demonstrated application of Lean and/or Six Sigma tools to improve processes is required; certification is desirable
Minimum 7 years of professional level experience preferred
Minimum 3 years combination of supervisory, project management, and project implementation, or similar experience. Certification in a Project Management discipline, such as Project Management Professional (PMP) is desirable
Knowledge & Skills:
Demonstrated ability to facilitate organizational change and foster linkage between business objectives and company Strategy
Experience with rapid and complex changing work environment
Resourceful with ability to take initiative, demonstrate strong sense of ownership over tasks, and work independently and creatively in a fast paced environment
Organization and the ability to establish and move forward in the execution of high-priority, cross-functional initiatives through coordinated project plans
Strategic, diligent and analytical thinker, with superior problem-solving skills
Excellent time management, planning and organizational skills in order to manage multiple competing priorities, simultaneously
Strong influencing and collaboration skills with demonstrated ability leverage relationships and work effectively across all levels of the business with all internal and external stakeholders
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including sharing ideas and information across diverse audiences and creating compelling presentations
Exceptional presentation and computer skills
Experience with executive management and board-level presentations and decision-making processes, preferred
Ability to observe confidentiality
Open-minded to experiment with new ways of working and business models
Excellent interpersonal skills, creative problem solving, and an ability to work both independently and in a highly collaborative environment
Strategic thinker—ability to step back from the day-to-day to see the bigger picture
