ALS-U Project Director

Project Director, Advanced Light Source Upgrade (ALS-U)

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is seeking a Project Director for the Advanced Light Source Upgrade ( ALS-U ), a large-scale Department of Energy (DOE) project to upgrade the laboratory’s flagship x-ray light source.

Serving as the top leadership appointment for the ALS‑U project and reporting to Laboratory Director, this critical Director-level position provides overall strategic direction, governance, executive oversight, and performance assurance from execution through transition to operations. The Project Director is ultimately accountable for the successful delivery of ALS‑U, including achievement of all technical Key Performance Parameters (KPPs), adherence to approved cost and schedule baselines, and effective stakeholder engagement.

The Project Director has broad decision‑making authority on high‑impact issues such as major scope changes, significant resource allocations, and critical risk mitigation strategies, and serves as the final arbiter for project critical decisions. The role includes direct line management of the ALS‑U project organization, oversight and mentoring of the Project Manager and senior project leadership, and extensive interaction and collaboration with DOE, Laboratory senior management, partner institutions, and other external stakeholders.

The Project Director is explicitly responsible for establishing and sustaining mature systems engineering and project management practices, realistic baselines, disciplined risk management, and strengthened oversight and assurance mechanisms.

The Advanced Light Source is a U.S. DOE Office of Science national scientific user facility that produces exceptionally bright soft and hard x-ray, ultraviolet, and infrared light. With a strong scientific reputation, expert staff, and advanced capabilities, the ALS attracts thousands of academic and industrial users each year in condensed matter and quantum materials, energy sciences, biosciences, earth and planetary sciences and more.

The ALS aims to maintain its global leadership in soft x-ray science with ALS-U to upgrade the facility to a fourth‑generation light source. This upgrade will position the facility among the brightest soft x-ray light sources in the world, offering capabilities that no other facility can provide.

• Champion and communicate the ALS‑U vision, mission, and strategic objectives, ensuring alignment with DOE and Berkeley Lab scientific priorities and institutional strategy, and project integration across supporting Lab organizations.
• Provide governance and executive oversight of the ALS‑U project organization, holding senior staff accountable for delivery of all WBS Level 3 scope to approved technical, cost, and schedule baselines.
• Establish and chair top‑level project governance forums (e.g., ALS‑U Management Team, monthly Project Delivery Meeting, executive committees, and Change Control Board) to support disciplined decision‑making and timely resolution of issues.

• Own overall delivery of ALS‑U scope, cost, schedule, and performance baselines in compliance with DOE Order 413.3B and Laboratory policies, including development and stewardship of any re‑baseline.
• Lead development and maintenance of a realistic performance baseline that reflects complete scope definitions, realistic schedule durations and staffing, adequate contingency, and transparent Estimate at Completion and risk‑informed forecasting.
• Anticipate and respond to emerging project execution challenges affecting established project schedules and cost projections by intervening early to mitigate these risks.
• Enforce disciplined baseline change control, including robust challenge of Baseline Change Proposals, to maintain the integrity of the baseline, avoid optimism bias, and prevent masking of underlying performance issues.
• Ensure effective implementation and use of project management systems (including Earned Value Management, configuration management, change control, cost and schedule reporting) and their integration into executive…