Operations Scheduler

Xcel Energy Services Inc; Saint Paul (MN); Hybrid; USD 85,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Xcel Energy in Minnesota is seeking an experienced Operations Scheduler to strategically plan and manage a 0–12+ week book of work, aligning regional priorities with safety, compliance and customer expectations.

The role focuses on multi-week scheduling, resource optimization, and collaboration with local supervisors to keep projects on time while maintaining performance metrics. Hybrid work model applies, onsite Tue–Thu.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in business administration or related field.
• Five years' experience in construction, design, maintenance or other operations area.
• Utility scheduling/planning experience preferred.
• Demonstrated analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Proficiency with spreadsheet tools.
• Ability to retrieve and manipulate data from reporting tools.
• Demonstrated ability to use software applications which include Microsoft products, work management, mapping and scheduling tools.

Responsibilities

• Plan a multi-week region-wide work schedule based on evaluation of work demands and work prioritization.
• Manage personnel, equipment, and material resource availability/backlog over a multi-week timeframe and ensure availability of work assignment to crews across the region.
• Analyze scheduling and work assignment performance to forecast resource utilization for upcoming quarter and identify opportunities for resource reallocations and improvements.
• Facilitate monthly regional/area metric review meetings to evaluate performance.
• Accountable for ensuring all compliance work is scheduled within required timeframes.
• Communicate with local supervisors and build partnerships with stakeholder groups to maximize productivity and scheduling efficiency.
• Drive customer satisfaction by adhering to scheduling processes.

Skills

Analytical skills

Problem solving

Communication skills

Meeting management

Stakeholder collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in business administration or related field

Tools

Microsoft Excel

Work management tools

Mapping tools

Scheduling tools

Job description

Xcel Energy (NASDAQ: XEL) is a leading energy provider and Fortune 500 company, dedicated to serving millions of electricity and natural gas customers across eight states: Minnesota, Colorado, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota, New Mexico and Texas. We make energy work better for our customers, helping them thrive every day. That means always raising the bar - delivering better service and providing more reliable, resilient, and sustainable energy.

Xcel Energy is a place where you'll have opportunities to grow, expand your skills, and help lead the clean energy transition. We offer meaningful rewards, recognition, and support to help you build your career and make an impact - both on the job and beyond. Most importantly, it means you'll be joining a company that knows employees are the driving force behind its success and is committed to helping you be your best.

Xcel Energy supports a hybrid work model to enable collaboration and flexibility. Many roles are expected to work onsite three days per week (Tuesday-Thursday); however, work location expectations vary based on role, team, and business needs.

Position Summary

Standard Operations Position. Operations Schedulers will strategically prioritize work and determine resource assignments to proactively plan and align a multi-week, rolling schedule to ensure work is performed on-time and within the specified customer, compliance, safety, and operational performance metrics. Schedulers are responsible for maintaining a holistic view of work to be completed at all times to identify and recommend solutions for resolving work capacity issues in the most efficient, cost-effective, safe manner. The objective is to build and manage a 0 - 12+ week book of work to develop and hand off a prioritized, compliant, executable 2 week schedule to the Work Coordination function for final adjustment and execution by field teams. Operations Schedulers will be responsible for creating the schedule for a designated region, function, and/or commodity area.

Essential Responsibilities

• Plan a multi-week region/function/or commodity area-wide work schedule based on evaluation of work demands and work prioritization considering factors such as work types, job priorities, resource availability, customer expectations, permitting requirements, business unit guidelines, and others. Planning responsibilities include identification of gaps and authority to resolve scheduling conflicts and making recommendations to management related to schedule and resources needed.
• Manage personnel, equipment, and material resource availability/backlog over a multi-week timeframe and ensure availability of work assignment to crews across the region including decision making to reallocate resources across areas as needed. Optimize contract/employee resource selection within scheduling window to minimize costs, and maximize schedule adherence, customer satisfaction, safety and compliance.
• Analyze scheduling and work assignment performance in order to forecast resource utilization for upcoming quarter and identify opportunities for resource reallocations and operational improvements, make recommendations for crew sourcing changes based on forecasts as well as improvements within area of responsibility, and lead process change implementation efforts. Facilitate monthly regional/area metric review meetings to evaluate performance.
• Accountable for ensuring all compliance work is scheduled within required timeframes. Verify work tasks are assigned to the correct work areas, in the right order, based on provided dependencies.
• Communicate and work effectively with local supervisors and build/leverage strong partnerships with stakeholder groups at a variety of levels to maximize productivity, utilization and operational efficiency of all resources. Drive and maintain ownership for regular scheduling meetings. Negotiate with key partners to realign dates on projects to ensure customer and compliance dates are met.
• Drive customer satisfaction by establishing and maintaining strong adherence to scheduling processes.

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in business administration or related field preferred.
• Five years' experience in construction, design, maintenance or other operations area.
• Utility scheduling/planning experience preferred. Demonstrated ability to schedule and manage work activities in a manner that meets customer and/or internal stakeholder requirements.
• Demonstrated analytical and problem-solving skills. Demonstrated ability to build and maintain effective working relationships, as well as strong written and verbal communication skills including meeting management and facilitation.
• Proficiency with spreadsheet tools.
• Ability to retrieve and manipulate data from reporting tools.
• Demonstrated ability to use software applications which include Microsoft products, work management, mapping and scheduling tools.

Our culture is grounded in shared values and employee commitments that g