Senior Vice President, California Technical Excellence Director

This Opportunity

Be involved in projects and our team in the California Transportation Regional Business Line . WSP is looking for a Senior Vice President, California Technical Excellence Director within our Southern California office(s). Serving as Technical Excellence Director the candidate will be a part of the California leadership team and provide direct leadership of a multi-sector technical excellence engineering team. Provide guidance to ensure exemplary project delivery and technical excellence.

At WSP, we are driven by inspiring the right people to be part of our future-focused business objectives. Our devotion to teamwork has allowed us to build communities. Here at WSP, anything is within our reach and yours as a WSP employee. Come join us and help shape the future!

The position will provide coordinated leadership with regional, local, and national business line leaders for the pursuit of WSP services, with a particular eye towards transportation infrastructure to further grow the WSP business with focused attention within the California region.

The role is designed as a hybrid leadership position, combining regional technical leadership and project delivery. The Technical Excellence Director will provide direct functional oversight of the SoCal Civil group and champion technical excellence across the California region, providing strategic guidance, mentorship, and quality assurance to support successful project delivery.

The Technical Excellence Director will also support in the development and implementation of the California Region’s marketing and business growth strategies and coordinated client engagement.

The position reports directly to the Regional Business Lead for California who retains full accountability for the region.

Your Impact

Roles and Responsibilities

• Provide leadership and oversight of technical work across the California region, with clear authority for technical decision-making, delivery quality, and standards.
• Establish and reinforce a clear technical leadership structure across the region, ensuring accountability is aligned with responsibility and decision-making is not diluted.
• Operate as a senior regional leader with a balanced focus on leadership and direct project engagement, maintaining close involvement in major programs while shaping technical excellence, client relationships, and team performance across the business.
• Maintain meaningful involvement in project delivery (targeting approximately 50% engagement), focused on major, complex, and high-visibility programs.
• Directly contributes to regional performance and key performance indicators which may include Net Revenue, EBITDA, Direct Labor/DL and Indirect Labor/IDL, Utilization, Sales and Funding, and other performance measures focused on business growth.
• Serve as a core member of the regional leadership team, contributing to business strategy, operational performance, and growth of the California market.
• Collaborate with regional, local leaders, and other members of the leadership team to strategically drive the business with focus on business growth, manage project performance, oversee overhead expenditures, and meet operational, business performance, and financial metrics.
• Supports the development of regional growth, forecast and business development strategy in collaboration with Regional and National Business Line Leaders; with priority focus on driving market growth, technical, and professional talent recruitment and development in transportation design and delivery (highways, roads, civil, aviation, and transit), rail and transit delivery, and alternative delivery, and others.
• Act as a client-facing leader, strengthening relationships, supporting pursuits, and enhancing the firm’s presence across key clients and programs.
• Perform additional responsibilities as required by business needs.

Operational Excellence

• Assess team capability, project leadership, and organizational effectiveness, and drive changes where needed in coordination with the Regional Business Lead and leadership team.
• Identify and intervene in project risks, underperformance, or delivery issues, driving timely resolution and ensuring strong client outcomes.
• Ensure alignment between technical delivery, client satisfaction, and commercial performance, reinforcing a seller-doer leadership model.
• Develop and inform proposal and project scopes, timelines, pricing, and budgetary metrics – and accountable for planning, development and management of projects in compliance with all applicable City/State/Federal codes and regulations, and in accordance with all acceptable engineering practices.
• Exercise responsible and ethical decision-making regarding company funds, resources and conduct, and adhere to WSP’s Code of Conduct and related policies and procedures.

People & Culture

• Works with the California Region Business Leader to organize the business with focus on vision and culture, talent development and building teams, client engagement and experience, and performance and growth strategy.
• Support the development of future leaders by mentoring senior technical staff and project managers, strengthening overall leadership depth.
• Provides proactive leadership of recruiting, mentoring, and developing high-performing teams.
• Collaborates with Region Business Leader to attract the best industry talent by fostering a work environment that is collaborative, values inclusion and diversity and invites broad, creative thinking – crafting a more attractive place to work, grow and thrive.
• Provides proactive and strategic process and people leadership for the design, implementation and administration of engineering and technical disciplines’ project and program involvement across the district and within the organization.
• Inspires, motivates and promotes the best of WSP to our clients and communities to ensure strong employee engagement and morale.
• Supports WSP Guiding Principles and programs such as Quality, Safety, Sustainability and Ethics & Compliance; and Inclusion & Diversity.

Who You Are

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering, or closely related discipline.
• 15+ years of relevant post education experience in the A/E/C industry, including leadership on large, complex infrastructure programs.
• CA Professional Engineer (P.E.) licensure or equivalent preferred
• Demonstrated advanced experience in a senior technical leadership role (e.g., Chief Engineer, Technical Director, Senior Technical Program Director or equivalent).
• Proven ability to lead across multiple teams, projects, and business units with clear accountability for outcomes.
• Excellent track record of client engagement, business development, and successful delivery of major programs.
• Advanced experience with business performance and project economics, with the ability to contribute to or lead a profit center over time.
• Demonstrated ability to assess teams, make difficult decisions, and drive organizational and delivery improvement.
• Strong leadership presence and communication skills, with the ability to operate effectively at executive, client, and project levels.
• Commitment to technical excellence, delivery quality, and client-focused outcomes.
• Advanced knowledge and proficiency with office automation, discipline-specific design software (i.e., MicroStation, AutoCAD, Civil 3D, ArcGIS, InRoads), technology, math principles, predictive models, spreadsheets, and tools used in the corporate environment.
• Proven track record of upholding workplace safety and ability to abide by WSP’s health, safety and drug/alcohol and harassment policies.
• Occasional travel may be required depending on project-specific requirements.

WSP Benefits:

WSP provides a comprehensive suite of benefits focused on a providing health and financial stability throughout the employee’s career. These benefits include coverage related to medical, dental, vision, disability, and life; retirement savings; paid sick leave; paid vacation (or other personal time); paid parental leave; and paid time off for purposes of bereavement, voting, and/or attendance at naturalization proceedings.

Compensation:
Expected Salary (all locations): $250,000 - $323,000

WSP USA is providing the compensation range that the company in good faith believes it might pay and offer for this position, based on the successful applicant’s education, experience, knowledge, skills, abilities in addition to internal equity and specific geographic location. WSP USA reserves the right to ultimately pay more or less than the posted range and offer additional benefits and other compensation, depending on circumstances not related to an applicant’s sex or other status protected by local, state, and/or federal law.

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