Principal, Workforce Role Architect - Strategic Programs

Requisition ID: 108880

 

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People are the heart of our business. As an American Water employee, you will be offered a competitive salary and health benefits package, along with opportunities to develop, grow, and evolve your career. Our benefits packages focus on key areas such as health & wellness, emotional & well-being, and savings for current & future goals.

 

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About American Water
American Water (NYSE: AWK) is the largest regulated water and wastewater utility company in the United States. With a history dating back to 1886, We Keep Life Flowing® by providing safe, clean, reliable and affordable drinking water and wastewater services to more than 14 million people across 14 regulated jurisdictions and 18 military installations. American Water’s 6,500 talented professionals leverage their significant expertise and the company’s national size and scale to achieve excellent outcomes for the benefit of customers, employees, investors and other stakeholders.

As one of the fastest growing utilities in the U.S., American Water expects to invest $40 to $42 billion in infrastructure repairs and replacement, system resiliency and regulated acquisitions over the next 10 years. The company has a long-standing history of executing its core operations, aligned with sustainable best practices, through its commitments to safety, affordability, customer service, protecting the environment, an inclusive workforce and strengthening communities.

American Water has been recognized on the 2023 Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index for the fifth consecutive year, ranked 18th on Barron’s 100 Most Sustainable U.S. Companies 2023 List, earned the U.S. Department of Homeland Security SAFETY Act designation and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s WaterSense® Excellence Award, among additional state, local and national recognitions.

For more information, visit amwater.com and join American Water on LinkedIn , Facebook , Twitter and Instagram .

 

 

 

Position Details:

Posted Range:$98,800-$165,100

The base salary range represents a good faith salary range for this position. This position is eligible for annual incentive pay and has the opportunity for continued salary growth. If you are hired at American Water your base salary compensation will be determined based on factors such as market, geography, skills, education and/or experience. At American Water, we are committed to pay equity.

In addition to compensation, you will be offered a comprehensive benefits package including 401(k),Defined Contribution Plan, Employee Stock Purchase Plan, medical, prescription, dental and vision coverage, plus disability, paid time off, life insurance, voluntary benefits, health and wellness programs and much more!

American Water is also proud to offer employees learning opportunities and work experiences to grow professionally!

Primary Role:

The position reports into the program through the HCC Director as a part of the Transformation Office and program delivery leadership structure enabling line-of-sight and collaboration with all Value Streams. This role follows existing program governance but also maintains a dotted-line relationship to the CHRO/HR organization to ensure transparency, alignment, and influence on workforce strategy, job / role architecture, and talent planning across all impacted functions.

This role operates as a strategic partner to Value Stream Champions, HR Change Experience Advocate, HR leaders, and the American Water executive team, assessing organization & workforce implications & talent impacts for future-state capabilities and framing options & recommendations for early alignment & decision-making needed to guide the transition.

Key requirements include:

• Design & Alignment: Lead workforce design including organization and role architecture required to deliver AW2030 roadmap, ensuring alignment with HR strategies and business priorities.
• Executive Partnership: Establish Workforce Design / HR / Labor advisory / HR Change Experience Advocate forum to ensure transparency and facilitate early alignment and guidance on workforce, role, and talent strategy considerations and options.
• Define program approach to align and confirm decisions for future-state workforce design changes envisioned by AW2030 with overall enterprise HR strategies for operating model, job architecture, and talent strategy
• Align on approach and RACI for workforce implementation and organization transition planning including HR and business responsibilities & readiness criteria to be included in overall readiness planning
• Provide recommendations to CHRO, executive team, and relevant HR & business leadership, surfacing cross-value stream considerations and enterprise trade-offs.
• Operating Model Design: Support definition of governance, decision rights, and RACI structures for new operating model/ organization changes required to support future-state capabilities.

Primary Role Cont'd:

• Future-State Role Frameworks & Organization: Develop and maintain AW2030 program future-state frameworks, org charts, and role definitions for new capabilities, in alignment with American Water enterprise job architecture, delegation of authorities, SOX compliance considerations, and security role mapping.
• Role Mapping and Organization Transition Planning: Map current roles to future-state responsibilities and develop workforce transition plans aligned with program wave releases and state engagement considerations.
• Skills & Capability Planning: Conduct skills gap analysis and recommend upskilling, reskilling, or recruitment strategies as required to enable future-state capabilities
• Labor Relations Considerations: Partner with AW2030 Labor Relations Lead to proactively identify impacts to represented workforces, identifying any notification or negotiation requirements to be incorporated into planning.
• Leadership Engagement: Facilitate executive and team workshops to clarify future-state organization and workforce changes and embed new ways of working.

Other:

• The career band/level designated for this role has been intentionally designed with flexibility. Candidates whose current career band/level is up to two levels above or below the designated level may be considered, provided they meet the qualifications and expectations of the role. In unique or exceptional cases, deviations beyond this two-level range may be evaluated individually and must be approved by a senior leadership member.
• We are invested in your development and supporting your career with American Water. At the program’s completion, we expect your placement in a role at a similar or higher level than your current role.

• This role for the AW2030 Program will be full time, and you will be committed to this program for a minimum of one year. We are invested in your development and supporting your career with American Water.

• The career band/level designated for this role has been intentionally designed with flexibility. Candidates whose combination of experience and/or qualifications that are not a match to the designated level may be considered, provided they meet the qualifications and expectations of the role. In unique or exceptional cases, deviations beyond this two-level range may be evaluated individually.

• This role can be based anywhere within the AW-regulated footprint.

Key Accountabilities:

• Workforce, role, and talent architecture strategy aligned with AW2030 roadmap, including summary of workforce, role, and talent impacts across Value Stream to be addressed through workforce design activities
• Future-state organizational models, governance design (including RACI and decision rights), role frameworks, and transition maps
• Full org charts for new capabilities and impacted functions
• CHRO/HR advisory briefs summarizing recommendations, trade-offs, and options
• Program Vertical Alignment meetings (VAM) and SteerCo meeting materials reflecting aligned HR guidance and decision options
• Workforce transition and talent plans, including workload, skills analyses
• Identification of critical skills gaps and sourcing / upskilling recommendations
• Role mapping and alignment to support training and security needs
• Labor dependencies and state-level workforce engagement incorporated into plans
• Leadership and team workshops to support alignment & activation of future-state workforce design

Knowledge/Skills:

• Organizational design principles and workforce planning practices
• Role architecture frameworks and job design methodologies
• Talent strategy and workforce transition planning
• Governance models including RACI and decision rights
• Techniques for skills assessment and workforce analytics
• Change management and leadership enablement approaches
• Familiarity with American Water operating model, job architecture, state-level engagement and labor relations / union workforce considerations
• Strategic thinking and organizational planning
• Executive presence and credibility with ELT executive team and senior leaders
• Strong stakeholder engagement, communication, facilitation, and cross-functional collaboration
• Ability to navigate formal governance structures while facilitating early HR and business leader alignment
• Program / project management and execution in transformation context
• Ability to synthesize complex organizational data into actionable plans.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)

Experience/Education:

• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business, Organizational Development, or related field (Master’s preferred)
• Typically requires 12+ years of relevant experience, including 8+ years of experience and demonstrated expertise in workforce planning, organizational design, role architecture, talent strategy
• Proven success and experience leading large-scale transformation initiatives or enterprise-wide workforce / organizational changes preferred
• Experience collaborating with labor relations and represented workforces
• Experience working with senior leaders, cross-functional teams, and executive governance structures

Travel Requirements:

• Occasional travel may be required to support workshops, leadership sessions, or stakeholder engagements.
• Estimated travel: 20% +, depending on project phase and location of impacted teams.

Competencies:

Champions safety

Customer obsessed

Cultivates innovation

Nimble learning

Drives Results

Collaborates

Join American Water... We Keep Life Flowing ™

American Water is firmly committed to Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and prohibits employment discrimination for employees and applicants based on his or her age, race, color, pregnancy, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, marital status, citizenship, or because they are an individual with a disability, protected veteran or other status protected by federal, state, and local laws.