Senior Project Risk Manager

Compa-Industries; Berkeley (CA); Hybrid; USD 166,000 - 177,000; Full time

Job summary

COMPA Industries in Berkeley, CA seeks a Senior Project Risk Manager to lead the ALS-U risk program at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. This hands-on role covers technical, cost, schedule, procurement, and external risks, reporting to project leadership.

The ideal candidate has a Bachelor's degree and at least eight years of capital-project risk management experience, with strong skills in Monte Carlo analysis, risk registers, and executive communication.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree and eight+ years in project risk management, controls, cost estimating, scheduling, or complex capital projects.
• Experience leading risk management for large, technically complex programs.
• Proficiency with Monte Carlo risk analysis, contingency assessment, and schedule risk.

Responsibilities

• Maintain the Risk Management Plan, risk taxonomy, scoring criteria, and governance cadence.
• Maintain the project risk register with ownership, triggers, mitigation, and residual exposure.
• Facilitate risk reviews, risk workshops, and executive-level risk briefings.
• Develop cost/schedule risk models and run Monte Carlo simulations.
• Coordinate risk with P6 activities, MS, and contingency forecasts.
• Track mitigation actions and escalate material concerns when needed.

Skills

Risk management leadership

Quantitative risk analysis

Monte Carlo simulation

Risk registers

Stakeholder facilitation

Integrated schedule

EVMS familiarity

PMI-RMP / PMP

DOE project experience

Regulatory awareness

Education

Bachelor’s degree in engineering, construction management, project management, business, economics, applied mathematics, statistics, or related discipline

Tools

Primavera P6

Safran Risk Manager

Job description

Pay: $80/hr - $85/hr
Location: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory — Berkeley, CA (On-site)
Contract: 1-year base with two (2) 1-year option periods
Work Schedule: Full-time; primarily on-site, with limited remote work as authorized
Clearance: Laboratory site-access, security, and cybersecurity requirements apply (US Citizenship required)

About the Role
We are recruiting for a Senior Project Risk Manager to join a team at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, supporting the Advanced Light Source Upgrade (ALS-U) Project. ALS-U is a DOE capital project that will upgrade the Laboratory’s Advanced Light Source — a 1.9 GeV storage ring operating at 500 mA — with a multibend achromat lattice design, producing a soft x-ray source 100 to 1,000 times brighter than what is available today.
In this role you will lead, administer, and continuously improve the ALS-U integrated risk-management program, covering technical, cost, schedule, procurement, installation, operational, organizational, and external risks and opportunities. You will provide independent, objective, decision-ready risk information to Project leadership, working closely with the Project Director, Project Manager, Chief Engineer, Technical Project Managers, Project Controls Manager, Control Account Managers, functional leads, risk owners, Laboratory management, the Department of Energy, and external review committees.
The work is performed in accordance with DOE Order 413.3B, DOE risk-management guidance, the approved ALS-U Project Execution Plan, the ALS-U Risk Management Plan, and applicable Laboratory policies and procedures.
Key Responsibilities

• Lead and administer the project risk-management program: maintain the Risk Management Plan, risk taxonomy, scoring criteria, and governance cadence, and serve as the principal project advisor on risk-management matters.
• Maintain the project risk register and associated configuration-controlled records, documenting risk ownership, affected Work Breakdown Structure elements, triggers, handling strategies, mitigation actions, due dates, retirement criteria, and residual exposure.
• Facilitate the Risk Management Board, focused risk reviews, project-wide risk workshops, subsystem risk reviews, schedule-risk sessions, lessons-learned reviews, and targeted risk deep dives.
• Develop and maintain integrated cost and schedule risk-analysis models; perform Monte Carlo simulation, sensitivity and scenario analysis, estimate- and schedule-uncertainty analysis, risk correlation, and confidence-level assessment.
• Coordinate with Project Controls to map risk events and mitigation actions to P6 activities, milestones, cost estimates, control accounts, critical and near-critical paths, schedule margin, and contingency forecasts.
• Evaluate cost and schedule contingency adequacy and reconcile modeled exposure against available contingency, realized risks, retired risks, emerging threats, and approved baseline changes.
• Assist risk owners in developing specific, measurable, time-phased, and adequately resourced mitigation plans; track commitments and identify overdue, stalled, or ineffective actions.
• Conduct forward-looking assessments of critical-path and near-critical-path work, vendor-delivery exposure, staffing constraints, funding scenarios, technical interfaces, installation sequencing, and commissioning readiness.
• Monitor external dependencies including DOE actions, funding profiles, regulatory approvals, tariffs, supply-chain conditions, institutional commitments, and labor availability.
• Prepare monthly risk reports and executive-level briefings for Project leadership, Laboratory management, DOE representatives, and review committees; support baseline-change proposals, recovery plans, independent cost reviews, and DOE reviews.
• Develop and deliver role-based risk-management training, establish quality checks for risk statements and mitigation plans, and benchmark practices against DOE capital-project experience and recognized standards.
• Escalate material concerns when risk information is not maintained, mitigation actions are not progressing, exposure is increasing, or project decisions are inconsistent with the documented risk posture.

Required Education & Experience
Bachelor’s degree in engineering, construction management, project management, business, economics, applied mathematics, statistics, or a related discipline, and at least eight (8) years of progressively responsible experience in project risk management, project controls, cost estimating, scheduling, or management of complex capital projects; or an equivalent combination of education and experience.

Top Skills & Requirements

• Experience leading or administering risk management for a large, technically complex capital project, construction program, scientific facility, infrastructure program, aerospace or defense program, or comparable high-consequence undertaking.
• Experience performing or directing quantitative cost and schedule risk analysis.
• Experience with Monte Carlo simulation, estimate uncertainty, schedule uncertainty, sensitivity analysis, and contingency confidence-level assessment.
• Experience developing and maintaining project risk registers.
• Experience facilitating risk workshops and senior-level risk reviews.
• Experience assigning and tracking risk ownership and mitigation actions.
• Experience integrating risk information with an Integrated Master Schedule, cost estimate, Estimate at Completion, change-control process, and project performance reporting.
• Experience producing executive-level risk assessments and defending methodology, assumptions, and results before senior management or independent reviewers.
• Experience working across technical, project-management, project-controls, procurement, construction, operations, and institutional support organizations.
• Strong analytical writing, presentation, facilitation, and executive-communication skills.
• Ability to challenge unsupported assumptions, raise unfavorable information, and escalation material concerns while maintaining constructive working relationships.
• Strong records-management and configuration-control discipline.

• Experience supporting a DOE Order 413.3B capital asset project or comparable federally governed major project.
• Working knowledge of DOE Guide 413.3-7A or comparable capital-project risk-management guidance.
• Experience with Safran Risk Manager and Safran Risk.
• Proficiency with Primavera P6.
• Familiarity with earned-value systems and EVMS concepts.
• Experience supporting a project rebaseline, baseline deviation, recovery plan, independent cost estimate, external review, or major corrective-action effort.
• Experience with accelerator facilities, scientific user facilities, installation-intensive projects, industrial construction, aerospace, defense, or other highly integrated technical programs.
• Professional certification such as PMI Risk Management Professional (PMI-RMP), Project Management Professional (PMP), AACE certification, or equivalent.

Duration: 1-year base period with two (2) additional 1-year option periods. Each option period is exercisable separately at the Laboratory’s sole discretion, subject to continued project need, satisfactory performance, and availability of funds.
Work Schedule: Full-time. Because the work requires frequent interaction with project leadership, Project Controls, technical teams, Control Account Managers, functional leads, and review participants, services are performed primarily on site in Berkeley, CA. Limited remote work may be authorized for quantitative analysis, report preparation, model development, and document review.

Travel
Travel is not anticipated as a routine requirement. Occasional approved travel may include attendance at DOE reviews, risk workshops, or vendor assessments.

Interview Process
Interviews are conducted via Microsoft Teams.

Why Work at COMPA Industries?
We strive to provide careers, not just jobs, for our employees. We invest in and serve the communities where we work and live. We provide best-in-class administrative, professional, and technical services to solve complex problems to meet customer mission-critical objectives.

For over 30 years, Compa has been a trusted partner in progress. We combine decades of technical expertise with a forward-thinking spirit, tackling intricate challenges in nuclear facilities alongside the brightest minds in science and engineering. Join us, and don’t just build your career,build the future, with competitive compensation, a collaborative culture, and the chance to make a real difference for national security and beyond.

COMPA is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to protected status.