Senior Operations Manager - Substation Construction

Are you looking for an exciting job where you can put your skills and talents to work at a company you can feel proud to be a part of? Do you want a workplace that will challenge you and offer you opportunities to learn and grow? A position at Xcel Energy could be just what you’re looking for.

Position Summary

Senior Manager position, managing the NSP Substation Construction. Responsible for leading a safe, high performing operations team which may include multiple levels, functions, facilities, and/or commodities while driving the efficient use of resources. Establish a culture of process adherence and continuous improvement. Effectively lead and implement daily operations, cyclical processes and special projects. Set and achieve business area goals that align with corporate and business unit strategies, goals and objectives, as well as process and performance, customer satisfaction, and reliability metrics.

Essential Responsibilities

- Manage a team of 100+ bargaining employees and 12 non-bargaining employees and contractors within Substation Construction

- Oversee substation construction projects ranging between $10k and $10M

- Coordinate with engineering, project management, supply chain, substation O&M and other project stakeholders to ensure projects are ready for construction start.

- Ability to prioritize work and adapt crew schedules to accommodate emergent/unplanned projects and make decisions on when projects need to be outsourced to external contract crews.

- Safety: Provide visible safety leadership and drive continuous improvements to achieve desired safety goals. Develop strategies to achieve safety plan results. Oversee and develop safety leaders to ensure a safety conscious work environment. Contribute to site safety performance improvement by holding workers, supervisors, and self accountable for safety.

- Operational Effectiveness: Manage team performance through focus on operational efficiency metric trends across areas of responsibility. Ensure and reinforce the importance of process adherence and data integrity. Drive continuous improvement efforts to define and shape opportunities that drive customer satisfaction and reliability.

- Business Optimization & Strategy: Achieve safety, productivity, customer service, and reliability targets by conducting and implementing the strategic planning for area of responsibility. Develop and effectively manage organization budgets and business plans. Identify and implement process improvements. Ensure execution of plans/metrics.

- Talent Management: Establish workforce/development planning practices to build strong, competitive teams and effectively manage performance. Select, optimize, plan and direct the workforce used to provide safe, reliable, compliant operations, and ensure stakeholder satisfaction. Serve as primary contact for issue resolution involving labor relations.

- Relationship Management: Build and maintain effective internal relationships. Foster an environment of collaboration within own organization and across stakeholders. Design and develop solutions that meet customer/stakeholder needs. Remove obstacles and provide assistance to team members to improve project and work performance.

- Regulatory & Compliance: Manage and guide the execution and documentation of work in accordance with Xcel Energy policies and procedures, labor agreements, and regulatory standards. Ensure crews are qualified to perform work responsibilities. Establish, monitor, and track processes to ensure regulatory compliance.

Minimum Requirements

- Bachelor's Degree or equivalent combination of education and experience.

- Seven or more years in design, construction, operations or maintenance of utility systems/power generation plants or related industries/fields.

- Three years supervisory experience.

- Demonstrated expertise in business area standards, procedures, and applicable government/environmental regulations.

- Knowledge of and demonstrated ability to administer/work within union labor agreements.

- Operational knowledge of work and asset management and analytical/reporting applications.

- Ability to effectively communicate and lead company and business area strategies and objectives.

- Proven results at setting, driving performance and operational metrics and achieving process adherence.

Preferred Characteristics

- Ability to travel and overnight as needed

- Current and valid driver's license

- Previous substation construction experience preferred

- Understanding of human performance improvement concepts

- Previous experience managing bargaining unit employees is preferred.

- Completion of an approved apprentice program in an appropriately related craft.

- Demonstrated understanding of utility finance, capital and O&M.

- Will be required to be on call for escalated operations and emergencies.

As a leading combination electricity and natural gas energy company, Xcel Energy offers a comprehensive portfolio of energy-related products and services to 3.4 million electricity and 1.9 million natural gas customers across eight Western and Midwestern states. At Xcel Energy, we strive to be the preferred and trusted provider of the energy our customers need. If you’re ready to be a part of something big, we invite you to join our team.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.

Individuals with a disability who need an accommodation to apply please contact us at recruiting@xcelenergy.com.

Non-Bargaining

The anticipated starting base pay for this position is: $125,900.00 to $178,766.00 per year

This position is eligible for the following benefits: Annual Incentive Program, Medical/Pharmacy Plan, Dental, Vision, Life Insurance, Dependent Care Reimbursement Account, Health Care Reimbursement Account, Health Savings Account (HSA) (if enrolled in eligible health plan), Limited-Purpose FSA (if enrolled in eligible health plan and HSA), Transportation Reimbursement Account, Short-term disability (STD), Long-term disability (LTD), Employee Assistance Program (EAP), Fitness Center Reimbursement (if enrolled in eligible health plan), Tuition reimbursement, Transit programs, Employee recognition program, Pension, 401(k) plan, Paid time off (PTO), Holidays, Volunteer Paid Time Off (VPTO), Parental Leave

Benefit plans are subject to change and Xcel Energy has the right to end, suspend, or amend any of its plans, at any time, in whole or in part.

In any materials you submit, you may redact or remove age-identifying information including but not limited to dates of school attendance and graduation. You will not be penalized for redacting or removing this information.

Deadline to Apply: 09/22/25

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ACCESSIBILITY STATEMENT

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