Senior Risk Manager

Spectra Tech, Inc.; Berkeley (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Spectra Tech, Inc. in Berkeley, CA seeks a Senior Project Risk Manager to lead and continuously improve the ALS-U integrated risk-management program. You will oversee risk planning, governance, and risk registers across the project lifecycle.

The role requires extensive experience in risk analysis, Monte Carlo methods, and cross-functional coordination with project controls, procurement, and operations. You will prepare executive risk briefs and facilitate risk workshops with leadership.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, construction management, project management, business, economics, applied mathematics, statistics, or a related discipline.
• Eight years of progressively responsible experience in project risk management, project controls, cost estimating, scheduling, or management of complex capital projects.
• Experience leading or administering risk management for large, technically complex capital projects and maintaining project risk registers.
• Experience facilitating risk workshops and senior-level risk reviews.
• Experience assigning and tracking risk ownership and mitigation actions.
• Experience performing quantitative cost and schedule risk analysis, Monte Carlo simulation, estimate uncertainty, and contingency assessment.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills for executive audiences.

Responsibilities

• Maintain and periodically update the ALS-U Risk Management Plan and governance cadence.
• Maintain the project risk register and configuration-controlled records.
• Serve as the principal project advisor on risk-management matters.
• Facilitate project-wide risk workshops, risk reviews, and governance meetings.
• Develop risk statements with clear causal events, affected conditions, and potential consequences.
• Ensure risk entries include defensible probability, cost, schedule, technical, and programmatic bases.
• Coordinate risk information with Integrated Master Schedule and cost estimates.
• Prepare auditable risk-management records for leadership and DOE reviews.

Skills

Risk management

Project controls

Cost estimating

Scheduling

Monte Carlo simulation

Executive communication

Facilitation

Leadership

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Construction Management, Project Management, Business, Economics, Applied Mathematics, Statistics, or a related discipline

Tools

Safran Risk Manager

Primavera P6

Job description

Spectra Tech has an immediate need for an experienced Senior Project Risk Manager to lead, administer, and continuously improve the ALS-U integrated risk-management program in Berkeley, CA.

Responsibilities

• Maintain and periodically update the ALS-U Risk Management Plan, supporting procedures, risk taxonomy, scoring criteria, and governance cadence.
• Maintain the project risk register and associated configuration-controlled records.
• Serve as the principal project advisor on risk-management matters.
• Provide independent and objective assessments of threats and opportunities affecting:
• Project scope
• Cost and schedule
• Technical performance
• Achievement of Key Performance Parameters
• Facilitate the ALS-U Risk Management Board and focused risk reviews.
• Develop meeting agendas, document decisions, track assigned actions, and elevate unresolved or inadequately managed risks to project leadership.
• Establish and maintain a disciplined risk-management process in which assumptions are explicit, ownership is assigned, mitigation commitments are traceable, and material information is communicated promptly.
• Facilitate project-wide risk workshops, subsystem risk reviews, schedule-risk sessions, lessons-learned reviews, and targeted risk deep dives.
• Participate in technical, procurement, vendor-performance, installation-readiness, commissioning-readiness, staffing, space, logistics, and other project reviews.
• Develop and maintain risk statements that clearly identify the causal event, affected condition, and potential consequence.
• Ensure risk entries include defensible probability, cost, schedule, technical, and programmatic bases.
• Maintain complete and current risk information in Safran Risk Manager or another approved system.
• Document risk ownership, affected Work Breakdown Structure elements, triggers, handling strategies, mitigation actions, due dates, retirement criteria, residual exposure, and supporting rationale.
• Identify cross-cutting, systemic, correlated, and compounding risks that may not be visible within individual control accounts or technical systems.
• Reconcile risk assumptions with the Integrated Master Schedule, Basis of Estimate documentation, procurement plans, technical maturity assessments, staffing plans, change-control actions, funding assumptions, and other project-control records.
• Develop and maintain integrated cost and schedule risk-analysis models using Safran Risk or other LBNL-approved tools.
• Perform:
• Sensitivity analysis
• Estimate-uncertainty analysis
• Schedule-uncertainty analysis
• Confidence-level assessment
• Evaluate the realism and quality of probability distributions, risk impacts, estimate uncertainty, schedule uncertainty, correlation assumptions, mitigation assumptions, and retirement timing.
• 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 changes in exposure.
• Reconcile modeled exposure with available contingency, realized risks, retired risks, emerging threats, and approved baseline changes.
• Interpret quantitative results for technical and nontechnical audiences.
• Support baseline-change proposals, recovery plans, acceleration strategies, funding scenarios, independent cost reviews, and DOE reviews.
• Assist risk owners in developing specific, measurable, time-phased, and adequately resourced mitigation plans.
• Evaluate whether proposed mitigation actions are likely to reduce probability or impact as intended.
• Track mitigation commitments, trigger conditions, due dates, retirement milestones, effectiveness measures, and residual exposure.
• Identify overdue, stalled, inadequately resourced, or ineffective mitigation actions.
• 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.
• Distinguish risks from realized issues, assumptions, constraints, opportunities, and management actions and ensure each is addressed through the appropriate project process.
• Preserve the responsibility of Technical Project Managers, System Leads, CAMs, and designated risk owners for executing assigned mitigation actions while maintaining accountability for the integrity of the overall risk-management process.
• Conduct forward-looking assessments of critical-path and near-critical-path work.
• Evaluate:
• Vendor-delivery exposure
• Staffing constraints
• Workspace limitations
• Technical interfaces
• Construction readiness
• Assess risks associated with design maturity, procurement performance, fabrication, installation, testing, commissioning, and transition to operations.
• Evaluate proposed management decisions, baseline changes, recovery strategies, and acceleration scenarios for secondary effects and changes in risk exposure.
• Monitor external dependencies, including DOE actions, funding profiles, regulatory approvals, tariffs, supply-chain conditions, institutional commitments, labor availability, and interfacing organizations.
• Support management assessments and focused analyses requested by project leadership.

Reporting & Communication

• Prepare monthly risk reports identifying:
• Changes in exposure
• Matters requiring leadership action
• Develop and present risk briefings to project leadership, Laboratory management, DOE representatives, review committees, CAMs, and technical teams.
• Provide risk-analysis inputs to monthly reporting, forecasting, change control, rebaseline documentation, project reviews, and management decision packages.
• Maintain auditable records of Risk Management Board decisions, risk acceptance, ownership changes, mitigation commitments, retirement decisions, model assumptions, and quantitative-analysis results.
• Respond to review recommendations, information requests, and corrective-action requirements affecting the risk-management program.
• Support development of DOE-facing narratives and presentations concerning project risk posture, contingency, and mitigation effectiveness.
• Develop and deliver role-based risk-management training for project personnel.
• Establish practical guidance and quality checks for risk statements, impact estimates, mitigation plans, ownership, triggers, residual exposure, and retirement criteria.
• Benchmark ALS-U practices against DOE capital-project experience and recognized project-risk-management standards.
• Recommend improvements appropriate to the project’s execution phase.
• Support lessons-learned activities and continuous improvement of risk-management tools, procedures, and reporting.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Construction Management, Project Management, Business, Economics, Applied Mathematics, Statistics, or a related discipline.
• At least 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.
• 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 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 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 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 escalate material concerns while maintaining constructive working relationships.
• Strong records-management and configuration-control discipline.

Preferred Qualifications

• 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, Project Management Professional, AACE certification, or equivalent.
• Advanced degree in a relevant technical, analytical, or management discipline.