Director Portfolio Management bei FirstEnergy Service Company

FirstEnergy at a Glance

We are a forward-thinking electric utility powered by a diverse team of employees committed to making customers’ lives brighter, the environment better and our communities stronger. 
 
FirstEnergy (NYSE: FE) is dedicated to integrity, safety, reliability and operational excellence. Headquartered in Akron, Ohio, FirstEnergy includes one of the nation's largest investor-owned electric systems, more than 24,000 miles of transmission lines that connect the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions, and a regulated generating fleet with a total capacity of more than 3,500 megawatts.

About the Opportunity  

This is an open position with FirstEnergy Service Co., a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp.

The Director, Portfolio Management, is a strategic leadership role responsible for leading the capital portfolio development of transmission investments across the four transmission companies and the integrated segments. This leader will manage both the short-term investment portfolio and long-range portfolio planning. The Director will also oversee all scoping and estimating efforts supporting substation and transmission investments. Additional responsibilities include supporting rate filings and preparing discovery responses.

Primary responsibilities include leading the development of the 10-year Transmission capital portfolio, ensuring the right projects are selected, prioritized, and balanced to meet strategic, operational, customer, and financial goals. Successful candidate will be responsible for providing a forward-looking, resilient portfolio view that manages risk, resources, and scenarios to optimize long-term investment value.

The Director champions continuous improvement and innovation in portfolio planning, modeling, and visualization tools to strengthen decision-making and resiliency.

Key Responsibilities include:

• Lead the portfolio development process for the Transmission 10 year capital program. This includes   working with program and project sponsors to fully scope and prioritize projects, and then compiling projects into an executable portfolio that meets FE customer, operational, and financial objectives.
• Develop projects per the Project Lifecycle Management Process (PLMP) to further refine project scope, identify and mitigate risks, allocate contingency, and prepare projects for successful delivery.
• Manage the capital portfolio development control functions. This includes asset ownership, resource forecasting and management, material support requirements, vendor communications and monthly financial reporting. Also involves forecasting both at the portfolio and project levels, including blankets and programs.
• Manage the portfolio development process identifying risks, developing risk mitigation, baselining scope, schedule and budget, outage coordination plans, and management of multiple investment scenarios.
• Lead development of scenario planning and sensitivity analysis capabilities to proactively assess risks and opportunities across the 10-year horizon.
• Align and optimize use of constrained resources (internal staff, contractors, materials, capital) across the portfolio.
• Partner with Project Management and Construction leadership to ensure feasible execution sequencing.
• Interface with the Business Services team regarding budgets, forecasts, headcount, and variance explanations.
• Ensure projects are in-serviced timely in accordance with FE policy.
• Actively manage and control CWIP and In-Servicing forecasts to meet stakeholder expectations.
• Lead a financial reporting function to provide timely transparent reports of key project and portfolio financial performance and variance analysis.
• Support the rates group in preparing the annual PTRR and ATRR rate filings and responding to stakeholder discovery requests.
• Serve as the conduit with accounting policy and other corporate financial groups to ensure accurate application of FE accounting policy to the capital financial transactions.
• Ability to lead across a matrixed organization, aligning diverse stakeholders and sponsors toward shared portfolio outcomes.
• Communicate a compelling long-term vision and create buy-in for difficult prioritization decisions.
• Proven ability to analyze complex tradeoffs and apply portfolio balancing techniques (prioritization, scenario modeling, dependency mapping).
• Lead scenario planning, what-if modeling, and resiliency analysis to inform leadership choices.
• Ensure projects entering the portfolio are ready for delivery (scope, risk, contingency).
• Maintain transparent governance processes for portfolio approval and reprioritization.
• Enhance processes, tools, and systems supporting portfolio modeling, visualization, and reporting.

Qualifications include:

• Bachelor of Science degree in Business, Engineering, Finance, Construction Management or related field.  Master’s degree, PE license, PMP or advanced credentialing preferred.
• Minimum 10 years progressive experience in the electric utility industry, including at least 5 years of management experience (Manager and above) in project, construction, portfolio management or related fields. Consideration given to non-degreed candidates with over 15 years progressive experience in the electric utility industry, including at least 5 years of management experience (Manager and above) in project, construction, portfolio management or related fields.
• Financial Acumen related to budgeting/forecasting and FERC accounting
• Rates and Regulatory knowledge preferred
• Large-scale Portfolio, Program and Project management experience.
• Industry knowledge – PJM, RTEP and Planning/TEAC processes
• Proven experience leading cross-functional and matrixed teams, managing complex programs, and building consensus among diverse stakeholders.
• Strong communication and influence skills, with ability to represent FirstEnergy’s strategy and performance to internal staff, senior leadership, regulators, contractors, and external stakeholders.
• Track record of leading organizational change, workforce transformation, and process improvement with measurable results.
• Highly driven, self-motivated, and results-oriented, capable of balancing tactical urgency with long-term strategic foresight.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, able to evaluate complex issues, develop fact-based conclusions, and recommend actionable strategies.
• Inspirational leader who communicates a compelling vision, fosters accountability, and cultivates a culture of inclusion, continuous improvement, and high performance.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor, recruit, and grow high-caliber talent while developing strong succession pipelines.
• Skilled at managing conflict constructively and working through difficult situations with professionalism and integrity.
• Active thinker and collaborative team player who challenges constructively, adapts flexibly, and brings political acumen to decision-making.
• Proven judgment and decision-making skills, consistently delivering accurate, timely, and balanced outcomes.
• Proven ability to work effectively in a matrixed organization, aligning diverse stakeholders, functions, and priorities to deliver shared outcomes.
• Willingness to travel periodically (up to 25%) and work extended hours as required.