Senior Director Project Management

Confidential; New Jersey; On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Matching 401(k)

Health, Dental and Vision Insurance

Health Reimbursement Account

Life, AD&D, Disability, and Critical-€

Employee Discount Program

Paid Time Off and Paid Holidays

Job summary

Confidential is seeking a Senior Director of Project Management to lead and expand its PM function for commercial solar EPC projects, including self-perform construction and subcontractor delivery. This role drives customer-facing delivery, project controls, schedule performance, and financial tracking while mentoring the PM team.

The ideal candidate will have a proven track record in complex renewable energy or construction projects, protect margins, and build disciplined project controls

Qualifications

• Significant experience leading project delivery in commercial construction or renewable energy.
• Strong understanding of contracts, project controls, schedules and budgets.
• Experience managing multiple projects across geographies and teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead the PM function across solar EPC projects and manage customer-facing delivery.
• Own project controls, schedule, budgets, change orders, and risk management.
• Provide executive-level project updates and reporting to stakeholders.

Skills

Leadership

Strategic PM leadership

Schedule management

Risk management

Communication with executives

Commercial/financial acumen

Tools

ERP systems

Construction scheduling platforms

Job description

A growing renewable energy company is seeking a Senior Director of Project Management to lead and expand its project management function. This role will oversee the successful delivery of commercial solar projects across a growing EPC business, including self-perform construction and projects delivered through subcontractor partnerships.

This role is responsible for customer-facing project delivery, commercial project outcomes, project controls, schedule performance, financial tracking, risk management, and leadership of the project management team. The Senior Director of Project Management will work closely with Construction, Engineering, Pre-Construction, Procurement, Accounting, Safety, and Executive Leadership to ensure projects are planned, managed, documented, and closed out successfully.

The ideal candidate is a strong project delivery leader with experience managing complex construction or renewable energy projects, protecting project margin, building disciplined project controls, and leading project managers across multiple concurrent projects.

Key Responsibilities:

Project Leadership and Commercial Ownership

• Lead the project management function across assigned commercial solar EPC projects.
• Own customer-facing project delivery, including client communication, contract administration, schedule commitments, commercial issue resolution, and executive-level project updates.
• Ensure project teams understand contract scope, exclusions, assumptions, milestones, liquidated damages exposure, customer deliverables, reporting obligations, and closeout requirements.
• Lead project kickoff, handoff, and alignment processes following Pre-Construction and estimating turnover.
• Establish clear project execution plans in coordination with Construction, Engineering, Procurement, Safety, and Accounting.
• Maintain executive visibility into project risks, margin risks, schedule risks, customer risks, and resource constraints.
• Ensure project managers proactively manage scope, schedule, budget, documentation, owner communication, and change events.

Project Controls and Schedule Management

• Own and improve the company’s project controls standards, including schedule tracking, budget tracking, cost reporting, change logs, procurement logs, risk registers, submittal logs, RFI logs, closeout logs, and executive reporting formats.
• Ensure project schedules are established, maintained, updated, and communicated consistently.
• Coordinate with Construction leadership to validate construction durations, manpower plans, field sequencing, productivity assumptions, weather impacts, outage constraints, and recovery plans.
• Monitor schedule performance against contractual milestones and internal targets.
• Lead project-level schedule recovery planning in partnership with Construction when projects fall behind plan.
• Ensure customer schedule commitments are realistic, documented, and aligned with field execution capacity.

Financial Performance and Change Management

• Own project financial tracking, forecast accuracy, margin protection, and project-level commercial performance.
• Review and monitor project budgets, committed costs, cost-to-complete forecasts, change orders, allowances, contingencies, and billing status.
• Lead change order identification, pricing coordination, submission, negotiation support, approval tracking, and customer communication.
• Coordinate with Construction to validate field impacts, labor productivity impacts, schedule impacts, and subcontractor cost impacts related to change events.
• Partner with Accounting and Executive Leadership to support accurate revenue recognition, billing readiness, cost reporting, and project financial forecasting.
• Identify margin erosion risks early and lead corrective action planning with Construction and company leadership.

Customer and Stakeholder Management

• Serve as a senior escalation point for customer issues, contract questions, project status concerns, change order disputes, and delivery risks.
• Ensure project managers maintain strong customer relationships while protecting company interests.
• Manage customer expectations regarding schedule, access, deliverables, procurement lead times, utility coordination, design changes, and field constraints.
• Provide concise, accurate, and timely executive reporting to internal and external stakeholders.
• Ensure communication between Project Management, Construction, Engineering, and Pre-Construction is disciplined and documented.
• Lead, mentor, and develop the project management team.
• Establish consistent PM procedures, documentation expectations, reporting standards, meeting cadences, and project closeout standards.
• Assign project managers based on project size, complexity, geography, customer type, and team capacity.
• Review project manager performance, workload, training needs, and adherence to company standards.
• Build a culture of accountability, proactive communication, commercial awareness, and disciplined project controls.

Coordination with Construction

• Partner with Construction leadership to align project plans with field execution realities.
• Coordinate labor planning, project sequencing, construction readiness, subcontractor performance concerns, schedule recovery actions, and major field constraints.
• Ensure field concerns that affect cost, schedule, scope, safety, quality, or customer commitments are elevated and documented.
• Support Construction leadership by helping remove customer, contract, procurement, documentation, and commercial obstacles that delay field progress.

Qualifications:

• Significant experience managing commercial construction, renewable energy, solar EPC, electrical construction, or related project delivery operations.
• Strong understanding of construction contracts, project controls, schedules, budgets, change orders, customer management, and financial forecasting.
• Experience leading project managers and managing multiple concurrent projects across different geographies.
• Ability to coordinate effectively with field construction leadership, engineering, procurement, accounting, safety, subcontractors, and executive leadership.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including executive reporting and customer-facing communication.
• Demonstrated ability to protect project margin, manage risk, and drive schedule performance.

Preferred Experience:

• Experience with commercial or utility-scale solar EPC projects.
• Experience working with both self-perform construction teams and subcontractor-based delivery models.
• Familiarity with project management systems, project controls tools, ERP/job cost systems, and construction scheduling platforms.
• Experience building or improving PM processes, reporting standards, and project execution procedures.
• Experience supporting project delivery across multiple states or regional markets.

• Matching 401(k)
• Health, Dental, and Vision Insurance
• Health Reimbursement Account
• Life, AD&D, Accident, Disability, and Critical Illness Insurance
• Employee Discount Program
• Paid Time Off and Paid Holidays

Company Overview:

A leading provider of commercial and industrial renewable energy solutions, specializing in helping businesses improve energy efficiency, manage utility costs, and achieve greater energy independence. The company brings extensive industry expertise across solar, battery energy storage, microgrids, EV charging, and ongoing system operations and maintenance. Through customized energy solutions and a commitment to quality execution, the organization helps clients meet evolving energy needs while building more resilient and sustainable operations.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.