Senior Operations Manager - Geo Design

Xcel Energy; Boulder (CO); Hybrid; USD 129,000 - 183,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual Incentive Program

Medical/Pharmacy Plan

Dental and Vision

Job summary

Xcel Energy in Boulder, CO is seeking an experienced operations leader to drive safe, high-performing teams across multiple facilities and duties. You will direct daily operations, continuous improvement projects, and budgeted plans to meet safety, reliability, and customer goals.

The role requires strong leadership, strategic oversight, and the ability to manage labor relations while upholding regulatory standards.

Qualifications

• 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.

Responsibilities

• Safety: Provide visible safety leadership and drive continuous improvements to achieve desired safety goals.
• Operational Effectiveness: Manage team performance with a focus on efficiency and data integrity.
• Business Optimization & Strategy: Develop and manage budgets and implement process improvements.
• Talent Management: Plan and direct workforce and manage labor relations.
• Relationship Management: Build internal relationships and collaborate with stakeholders.
• Regulatory & Compliance: Ensure work complies with policies, procedures and regulations.

Skills

Safety leadership

Operations management

Labor relations

Data analytics

Communication

Strategic leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree

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.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

• 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

• Previous customer service and team lead escalation experience strongly 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.

Our culture is grounded in shared values and employee commitments that guide how we work, support one another, and grow together.

Our Values

Connected, Committed, Trustworthy, Safe

Our Employee Commitments

• Work that makes a difference

• A team you can count of

• Opportunities to grow

• Rewards that help you thrive

Xcel Energy provides job applicants reasonable accommodations for disabilities throughout the application process. If you are in need of an accommodation to complete the application process, now or at any time in the future, please complete the Applicant Accommodation Request Form (https://forms.cloud.microsoft/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=g6WyJAVcaku06U4S3AAlrVld9SFTyvlNkqxgjYWAK9xUQ1JIS1JUSjg3TkNXU1hVU01PS1pVSEVDNSQlQCN0PWcu&route=shorturl).

Non-Bargaining

The anticipated starting base pay for this position is: $129,000.00 to $183,200.00 per year

This position is eligible for the following benefits: Annual Incentive Program, Medical/Pharmacy Plan, Dental, Vision, Life Insurance, Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account, Health Care Flexible Spending 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: 10/20/26

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Accessibility Statement

Xcel Energy endeavors to make https://www.xcelenergy.com and https://jobs.xcelenergy.com accessible to any and all users. If you are in need of an accommodation to complete the application process, now or at any time in the future, please complete the Applicant Accommodation Request Form (https://forms.cloud.microsoft/r/DyR78vcb7K) .

For any other application related questions, including application follow-ups or technical issues, please use our Recruiting Assistance, Electra, for assistance. Electra can be found in the lower right-hand corner of our Xcel Energy Careers site.