New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is responsible for managing the city’s water supply, stormwater systems, and pollution control infrastructure to create a more climate-resilient future. As climate change threats intensify and the department continues to grow, DEP is seeking to improve internal operations, enhance project efficiency, and optimize resource allocation across its 6,000-member workforce. In 2024, DEP established a Project Management Office (PMO) to improve operational efficiency within business operations functions and now needs to test and refine this system to ensure its effectiveness before full-scale implementation.
The FUSE Executive Fellow will work to optimize the newly established PMO by conducting a comprehensive listening tour to understand DEP’s bureaus and identify opportunities for improvement that will positively impact efficiency, climate resilience, and environmental justice. The Fellow will assess how effectively the PMO framework handles project execution, identify key pain points, and provide detailed recommendations for refinement. Additionally, the Fellow will identify future project roadmap activities, develop strategic recommendations for streamlining processes, and conduct pilot projects to ground-truth program design efficiencies. Through this work, the Fellow will assess the PMO’s ability to handle complex, cross-departmental projects and propose adjustments before scaling across the department. The project will result in a comprehensive set of strategic recommendations, a roadmap of future projects with a focus on climate resilience goals, standardized operating procedures, and key performance indicators to measure success.