Project Director - Water/Wastewater

The Opportunity

Black & Veatch is a leading employee-owned global engineering, procurement, consulting and construction company. Consistently recognized as “Best Companies to Work For” and “Best Employers for Diversity.” One of the biggest Water & Wastewater Civil Design Firms with 8,300+ employees. Our revenues exceed $3 billion.

The Project Director position is a high-profile leadership role at Black & Veatch. In this capacity, you will have the opportunity to serve as part of the Water / Wastewater business leadership team.  As part of the Des Moines, IA collaborative team, they will be responsible for managing the successful delivery of water related infrastructure projects in the multi-million-dollar range. 

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The Team

Black & Veatch’s Fuels & Natural Resources  focuses on specific infrastructure needs of municipalities, state and local governments, and specialized physical and digital infrastructure solutions for government and federal agencies. By joining our market sector, you will be able to provide infrastructure for community benefit. 

This team partners with our customers to align their people, processes, technologies, and data analytics in the face of industry transformation. We help our customers leverage our industry-leading solutions and expertise to modernize water infrastructure, optimize asset use, meet performance goals, reduce costs, and mitigate risk no matter where the water industry goes next. This team is ranked in the top 10 by ENR for Water Design Firms in Water Supply and Sewer Waste and other water-related rankings.

Be part of a team that has delivered large scale projects such as the Butler Water Reclamation Facility. Read about it here: Black & Veatch Helps City Achieve Supply Resilience by Using Water from Lake Michigan Sustainably | Black & Veatch

Key Responsibilities

Business development:

• Leading team efforts for marketing
• Strategy development
• Prospect identification, proposal development, proposal preparation, client presentations, project budgeting and contracting for successful opportunities
• Accountable for new business objectives and for overall project performance

Project management:

• External focus to interact with assigned clients, become involved in client activities and promote Black & Veatch through client and community activities
• Support development of the overall market business plan, market strategies, client engagement strategies and leverage other Black & Veatch technical and management resources to advance Black & Veatch’s market footprint

Project execution:

• Oversight of engineering manager(s)
• Development of project performance goals
• Accountability for implementation
• Active involvement with internal project team and owner project representatives on project activities
• Perform or assist with the performance and commercial management of projects including budgeting, invoicing, and payments; lead project performance reviews for assigned project(s)

Staff management: 

• Team development, mentoring and coaching on performance improvement
• Recommendations for training and promotion of assigned professionals as well as identification and development of new candidates to expand the Black & Veatch team

Preferred Qualifications

• 15+ years business development and project management experience 
• Bachelor’s Degree in technical discipline 
• Professional Engineering License 
• Proven technical understanding of Wastewater and Water markets, including drivers and general trends. 
• Strong sales traits, including tenacity and competitiveness. 
• Strong inter-personal skills.  Adept at working in a team environment. 
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including proposal and presentations skills.  
• Ability to interface with diverse personalities. Ability to think strategically and create persuasive message.  
• Contract negotiating skills which includes knowledge of terms, risks, pricing, and payment terms. 
• Understanding of budgets and financial metrics.  
• Self-starter and ability to make decisions independently.  
• Ability to meet deadlines and be flexible to multiple demands of project teams and shifting priorities. Problem solving and leadership skills. 

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience. 
• All applicants must be able to complete pre-employment onboarding requirements (if selected) which may include any/all of the following: criminal/civil background check, drug screen, and motor vehicle records search, in compliance with any applicable laws and regulations.

Work Environment/Physical Demands

• Hybrid or flexible work options may be offered after the first 90 days of employment based upon manager discretion, job performance and work assignments.
• Typical office environment, typical construction environment, extreme weather conditions, high noise level, safety hazards (electric currents, working on scaffolding and high places, exposure to chemicals), atmospheric conditions (fumes, odors, dusts, mists, gases, poor ventilation).  Sitting, walking, talking, hearing, reading, writing, keyboarding, driving, filing, reaching, stooping, crouching, bending, standing for extended periods of time, lifting or carrying up to 40 pounds.