Xcel Energy

Senior IT Solution Lead

Minneapolis, MN, 55401 Full time

Are you looking for an exciting job where you can put your skills and talents to work at a company you can feel proud to be a part of? Do you want a workplace that will challenge you and offer you opportunities to learn and grow?  A  position at Xcel Energy could be just what you’re looking for.

Position Summary

The Senior IT Solution Lead is responsible for leading work within or across end-to-end solution lifecycle. They provide IT expertise, vision, and work direction to achieve strategic initiatives, customer and operational needs, portfolio health and business outcomes. They provide in-depth knowledge of the business needs, processes, and corresponding solutions. They provide technical leadership and coordination cross-organizationally to ensure solutions align with architecture and IT strategy. They are a key contact to business, customer and stakeholder groups for their respective domain, helping ensure business needs and corresponding value and risk are well represented.

Essential Responsibilities

  • Relationship Management: Partner with business areas, customers and other stakeholders to understand needs and opportunities. Establish and maintain collaborative partnership with internal partners. Provide coaching and work direction to less experienced team members.
  • Solution Delivery: Lead efforts in end-to-end solution lifecycle from strategic planning, through demand management, delivery lifecycle activities, and operation. Ensure solutions drive great user experience and operational performance. Drive speed to deployments and continuous delivery to meet changing customer and stakeholder needs.
  • Strategy & Planning: Lead efforts to understand operational health, customer satisfaction, and total cost of operation and build awareness of opportunities and risks. Represent business partners/stakeholders in strategic planning and investment prioritization.
  • Operations Management: Drive alignment with stakeholders on maintenance activities and schedules. Ensure delivery practices uphold continuous integration of operational functions. Provide escalated support as needed to drive restoration of service disruptions.
  • Subject Matter Expertise: Stay abreast of industry and technology trends to continuously improve solution delivery practices and customer satisfaction.


Minimum Requirements

  • Ten years of related functional experience.
  • Bachelor's degree in technology, Science, Business or related field, or 4 years of experience equivalent to the position.
  • Excellent communication skills, effective with varying organizational levels and skill set, and ability to translate between technical and non-technical concepts.
  • Excellent Relationship Management and collaboration skills, with a track record of working as one team cross-organizationally to drive innovation and business results.
  • Experience with Project or Product delivery practices, including SDLC, Agile and Waterfall.
  • Demonstrated ability to recommend innovative solutions to support complex business requirements.
  • Ability to drive continuous improvement through lean, agile, six sigma.
  • Demonstrated in depth knowledge of end-to-end process and system capabilities, industry standards and emerging technologies and methods.
  • Expertise in technical, functional, and operational details of respective solutions.
  • Excellent problem-solving skills.
  • Demonstrated ability to build functional and technical subject matter expertise, process and tools expertise, and drive consistency in processes.
  • Experience with strategic planning, demand management, execution, and operation of IT solutions.
  • Experience with contract and vendor management.
  • In-depth expertise on core IT components within the respective domain.

Preferred Requirements
 

Business & Stakeholder Engagement

  • Strong experience partnering with business units (Customer Care, Resource Management) to gather requirements, prioritize backlog, and translate customer needs into actionable features.
  • Skilled at facilitating cross-functional alignment between operations, IT, vendors, and leadership; comfortable leading steering committees and presenting to leadership.
  • 5+ years in product management or product ownership and or daily IVR Operations management for enterprise customer experience solutions, ideally in contact center/IVR environments.
  • Proven ability to execute an IVR product roadmap, aligning releases to business objectives, CX metrics (FCR, CSAT), and regulatory requirements.
     

Vendor & Technology Oversight

  • Familiarity with IVR platforms and ecosystems (Avaya, Genesys, Nuance, LumenVox, Verint, Aceyus) to guide vendor deliverables and evaluate solution options—without needing to code.
  • Ability to assess integration impacts (API connectivity, security, compliance) and make informed trade-off decisions documented in Architecture Decision Records (ADR).
     

Data-Driven Decision Making

  • Experience using analytics and reporting tools (e.g., Aceyus, Verint) to monitor IVR performance, identify gaps, and drive continuous improvement.
  • Comfortable defining KPIs, interpreting dashboards, and using insights to prioritize enhancements.
     

Governance & Risk Management

  • Knowledge of change management best practices (MOPs, rollback strategies) and ability to ensure safe deployments through vendor coordination and operational readiness.
  • Skilled in Agile methodologies: backlog grooming, sprint planning, and release management.
     

Operational Oversight & Support

  • Serve as the primary business owner for IVR operations, ensuring day-to-day stability and performance.
  • Monitor IVR KPIs (containment, FCR, CSAT) and proactively address performance gaps through vendor coordination and internal teams.
  • Oversee incident management: activate IVR bypass modes, coordinate vendor and IT response, and ensure timely customer-safe messaging during outages or degradations.
  • Lead root cause analysis (RCA) and implement corrective actions; maintain robust change management processes (MOPs, rollback strategies) to minimize risk.
  • Ensure disaster recovery readiness and business continuity plans for IVR services.
  • Manage support escalations with vendors and internal teams, ensuring SLAs are met and issues are resolved quickly.

As a leading combination electricity and natural gas energy company, Xcel Energy offers a comprehensive portfolio of energy-related products and services to 3.4 million electricity and 1.9 million natural gas customers across eight Western and Midwestern states. At Xcel Energy, we strive to be the preferred and trusted provider of the energy our customers need. If you’re ready to be a part of something big, we invite you to join our team.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.

Individuals with a disability who need an accommodation to apply please contact us at recruiting@xcelenergy.com.

Non-Bargaining

The anticipated starting base pay for this position is: $109,500.00 to $155,500.00 per year

This position is eligible for the following benefits: Annual Incentive Program, Medical/Pharmacy Plan, Dental, Vision, Life Insurance, Dependent Care Reimbursement Account, Health Care Reimbursement 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: 01/02/26

EEO is the LawEEO is the Law Supplement | Pay Transparency Nondiscrimination | Equal Opportunity Policy (PDF) | Employee Rights (PDF)

All Xcel Energy employees and contractors share responsibility for protecting the company's information and systems by adhering to cybersecurity policies, standards, and best practices, recognizing that cybersecurity is everyone's responsibility.

 

ACCESSIBILITY STATEMENT

Xcel Energy endeavors to make https://www.xcelenergy.com/ accessible to any and all users. If you would like to contact us regarding the accessibility of our website or need assistance completing the application process, please contact Xcel Energy Talent Acquisition at recruiting@xcelenergy.com. This contact information is for accommodation requests only and cannot be used to inquire about the status of applications.