Project Risk Manager - EMEA

ABOUT VOLTA

Volta is the category-defining, fully vertically integrated AI infrastructure platform – from capital to clusters to software, under a founder-led enterprise. Our mission is The Utility of Compute™: AI infrastructure as dependable and available as electricity, for every organization that needs it. Launched with a $10B strategic partnership with one of the leading frontier AI labs, a Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz, and a $5B AI Infrastructure Fund, Volta is building the infrastructure layer of the AI era from the ground up. We are 100+ people across London, Palo Alto, and New York, with rapid growth expectations to hundreds.

About The Role

The Project Risk Manager, EMEA provides leadership, oversight and assurance of risk management across the regional portfolio. You will bring subject matter technical expertise in project risk management (PRM) and enable predictable, successful delivery of the regional portfolio by proactively managing uncertainty and reducing exposure to project execution. You will be responsible for guidance, support and relationship building to enable a robust risk management programme. This is a hands-on role that pairs technical risk management depth with genuine business partnering — you will sit alongside project directors, engineers, procurement, construction and commissioning, not apart from them.

Key responsibilities

Leadership and governance

• Risk leadership: Lead the regional risk management programme across the EMEA portfolio, establishing consistent governance, standards, processes, methodologies and escalation requirements.

• Risk integration: Ensure risk management is integrated throughout the project lifecycle and across Engineering, Procurement, Construction, Project Controls, Commercial, Commissioning and Operations Readiness.

• Independent oversight: Provide independent risk oversight and constructive challenge to project and functional leadership, ensuring significant risks and opportunities receive appropriate management attention.

• Risk culture: Promote a proactive risk culture focused on early identification, clear ownership, accountability, timely escalation and risk-informed decision-making.

• Leadership advisory: Serve as the regional risk management subject matter expert and adviser to project, regional and executive leadership.

Risk management

• Risk management: Lead the identification, assessment, mitigation, monitoring, escalation and closure of risks and opportunities throughout the project lifecycle.

• Project risk: Build, own, maintain and oversee project risk registers, and ensure significant risks have appropriate ownership, mitigation strategies, action plans, residual assessments and escalation paths.

• EPC risk: Evaluate key project delivery risks across design, permitting and consents, grid connection, procurement and long-lead equipment, construction, commercial and contractual performance, commissioning, energisation and MW capacity delivery.

• Portfolio risk: Consolidate and evaluate project risks at regional level to identify emerging, systemic, correlated and concentration risks requiring portfolio-level action.

• Opportunity management: Promote identification and realisation of opportunities related to cost, schedule, standardisation, procurement, constructability and overall project delivery.

Risk analysis

• Quantitative risk analysis: Lead qualitative and quantitative cost and schedule risk analysis, including Monte Carlo simulation, schedule risk analysis (SRA) and other probabilistic techniques, to evaluate project uncertainty and confidence in achieving key objectives.

• Cost and schedule risk: Assess cost exposure, schedule uncertainty, critical-path risks, key milestones and confidence in achieving committed milestones and ready-for-service dates.

• Contingency management: Develop risk-based recommendations for project contingency and management reserves, and support governance of contingency utilisation and release.

• Portfolio analysis: Analyse common and correlated regional risks, key risk drivers, scenarios and sensitivities to identify potential portfolio impacts and mitigation priorities.

• Decision support: Provide risk analysis and recommendations to support investment decisions, stage gates, baseline approvals, major contract awards and other significant project decisions.

Reporting

• Executive reporting: Develop concise project and regional reporting of top risks and opportunities, emerging exposures, trends, mitigation effectiveness, contingency status and matters requiring management action.

• Risk analytics: Develop project and portfolio dashboards and analytics that provide visibility of risk exposure, trends, concentrations and confidence in achieving cost, schedule, commissioning and MW capacity commitments.

• Mitigation and escalation: Monitor and report mitigation progress, overdue actions, changes in exposure, realised risks and significant issues requiring project, regional or executive escalation.

• Governance support: Provide risk information and analysis for project reviews, project and regional leadership meetings, investment decisions and executive governance forums.

Risk assurance and continuous improvement

• Risk assurance: Conduct periodic project risk reviews and health checks to assess the quality and effectiveness of risk identification, analysis, mitigation and reporting, and compliance with company requirements.

• Independent test: Test key project assumptions, forecasts, contingency requirements, mitigation strategies and confidence levels to ensure material exposure is appropriately understood and communicated.

• Cross-project learning: Identify recurring risks, systemic weaknesses, successful mitigation strategies and lessons learned across the portfolio, and incorporate findings into future project execution.

• Continuous improvement: Drive continuous improvement of risk processes, methodologies, tools, analytics, reporting and organisational risk management capability.

Candidate profile

Essential

• Degree in Engineering, Construction Management, Project Management, Business, Finance or a related discipline, or equivalent relevant industry experience.

• Significant experience in risk management, project controls or project delivery within complex EPC, construction, infrastructure, energy, mission-critical or major capital programmes.

• Demonstrated experience leading project and portfolio risk management, including risk identification, assessment, mitigation, monitoring, escalation and assurance.

• Strong understanding of cost, schedule, contingency and project controls principles, and their integration with project risk management.

• Experience applying quantitative risk analysis and probabilistic techniques to evaluate project cost and schedule uncertainty.

• Advanced experience with Monte Carlo simulation, cost and schedule risk analysis, scenario analysis and risk-based contingency development.

• Strong understanding of EPC contracting, procurement, supply chain, change management, claims and commercial risk.

• Proven ability to influence and constructively challenge senior project and functional leaders in a complex, fast-paced project environment.

• Strong written, verbal, facilitation and executive communication skills, with the ability to translate complex risk information into clear business insights and recommended actions.

• Ability to identify systemic and correlated risks across multiple projects and provide regional-level insight to support management decision-making.

Desirable

• Experience delivering hyperscale, AI, mission-critical or other large-scale data centre programmes, with knowledge of power, cooling, grid connection, long-lead equipment, commissioning and MW capacity delivery.

• Experience with enterprise or project risk management platforms and their integration with scheduling, cost management and reporting systems.

• Relevant professional certificati