Area Director - Water/Wastewater

The Opportunity

The  Area 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  Upper Mid-West collaborative team, you will be responsible for managing the successful delivery of water-related infrastructure projects in the multi-million-dollar range. 

As the  Area Director , you will have the opportunity to:

• Lead business management efforts with priorities on client relationship development in the Upper Mid-West , effective positioning within target client organizations, leading pursuit teams, and strong financial management to include both top line and bottom line growth. Manages water and wastewater engineering capture strategies requiring global resources and/or multiple partners. Accountable for project performance and specific new business objectives. Creates opportunities for new/repeat business; supports complex contract negotiations with appropriate client management. Manages varied complex risk which includes fixed price or new technology or non domestic markets or new clients.   

This role will be designated in our business traveler work schedule. We are committed to providing a healthy, safe and flexible work environment for all professionals while helping them remain productive and connected. Our business traveler work schedule includes BV professionals who travel consistently 60% or more of their work schedule and provide flexibility around being in an office location.  

• Days during travel weeks that are non-travel days, professionals may work in the office or at a remote location.  
• On non-travel work weeks, professionals may work in a BV office location 3 days a week and in a remote location 2 days a week.   

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The Team

Black & Veatch’s Governments & Communities 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 through regulated utilities and government agencies.

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 this:  Upgrade, Boost Treatment Capacity While Staying Online, on Time and on Budget | 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

Management Responsibilities

Acts as a project manager. Among responsibilities is management of a project team. The individual comprising this team may vary by project.

Preferred Qualifications

• 15 + years of active water/ wastewater experience with demonstrated leadership experience in the Central region market
• Professional Engineering License; Bachelor’s Degree in technical discipline
• Understanding of budgets and financial metrics
• Contract negotiation skills including knowledge of terms, risks, pricing and payment terms

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 
• Sitting/standing/computer usage for extended periods of time 
• Ability to utilize video/audio conferencing software tools for internal/external communication 
• Travel to client sites