Director of Engineering - West Region

Description

• Build and maintain a high-performance culture focused on professional growth, collaboration, and technical excellence
• Develop and execute long-term strategic plans for the West region engineering practice, aligning with company-wide objectives and market opportunities
• Ensure the West Region meets or exceeds annual and quarterly financial targets, with strong emphasis on achieving Net Service Revenue and EBITDA growth
• Ensure compliance with proposal and cost estimation protocols to maintain financial and delivery integrity
• Play an active role in the budgeting process, including prioritization of trade-offs to grow both revenue and earnings
• Recruit, hire, and retain top engineering talent to support regional growth objectives, maintaining forward-looking hiring plans to fill open roles efficiently
• Implement best practices and process improvements to enhance delivery efficiency and client satisfaction
• Maintain and expand relationships with key public sector clients
• Maintain staff utilization at or above predetermined goals while ensuring sustainable workload management
• Lead proposal development and client presentations for major regional projects
• Apply disciplined approach to managing non-billable labor and overhead costs
• Oversee project delivery across the region, ensuring quality, schedule, and budget performance delivering projects on-time and on-budget
• Assist regional business development directors in identifying new market opportunities and client relationships
• Foster cross-disciplinary collaboration and knowledge sharing across engineering, planning, landscape architecture, and other practice areas
• Champion innovation in active transportation engineering practices and emerging technologies
• Supervise and evaluate West Region staff, creating clear performance expectations, providing regular feedback, and establishing pathways for career advancement
• Ensure compliance with professional standards, regulations, and company quality assurance protocols
• Lead, mentor, and develop a team of engineering professionals, project managers, and technical staff across multiple office locations
• Lead the regional engineering organization through periods of growth and change, ensuring operational excellence and cultural alignment
• Oversee financial and operational performance of projects within the West Region, maintaining close oversight of project managers and their performance relative to plan while delegating effectively
• Provide strategic oversight of project portfolios ranging from natural surface trails to complex multimodal transportation networks

Requirements

• Excellent communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills with ability to influence at all organizational levels
• Budget prioritization skills with experience evaluating trade-offs to optimize both revenue and earnings in a professional services environment
• Demonstrate deep understanding of financial metrics and KPIs including book-to-burn ratio, revenue factor, and overhead rate
• Experience leading large, complex transportation engineering projects
• Proven track record of business development success and client relationship management
• Comprehensive understanding of project delivery from conceptual design through construction administration
• Background in active, sustainable, multimodal transportation
• Financial acumen with ability to analyze business performance and articulate relevant KPIs, financial metrics, and levers of growth and profit
• Working knowledge of MS Excel, Word, MS Project, AutoCAD / Civil 3D or MicroStation / OpenRoads, and enterprise project management tools
• 8+ years in project management roles with demonstrated P&L responsibility
• Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering
• Strong strategic thinking and business acumen with experience in organizational planning and execution
• Experience managing competing priorities and multiple simultaneous projects within budget and schedule constraints
• Proficiency in project management principles, methods, and techniques for large-scale, multi-disciplinary projects
• Experience in active, non-motorized transportation planning and design
• Critical thinking abilities with purposeful judgment and reasoned consideration of evidence, context, and objectives
• Ability and willingness to travel regionally as needed
• Strong command of numbers and finance, with a bias toward data-driven decision making
• Experience managing regional operations, including budget oversight, resource allocation, and performance metrics
• Experience with Plans, Specifications and Estimates packages for complex roadway and transportation projects
• Strong professional ethics, accountability, and decision-making capabilities
• Attention to detail with focus on monitoring KPIs and understanding that long-term success is driven by daily execution
• Professional Engineering (P.E.) license required
• Own key performance areas including safety, client engagement, staff development and retention, and cross-business collaboration
• Experience leading cross-functional, multi-disciplinary project teams
• Proven ability to drive cultural change and organizational development initiatives
• 15+ years of progressive experience as a Transportation Engineer in consulting environment or public entity
• Mentoring and coaching experience with engineering professionals
• 5+ years in leadership positions managing engineering teams and business operations
• Experience with Deltek VantagePoint or similar enterprise resource planning systems
• Demonstrated ability to lead, inspire, and develop high-performing teams in a professional services environment
• Master's degree in Civil Engineering, Business Administration, or related field

Benefits

Compensation: $175,000 - $215,000 / year

• Paid Parental Leave/Short-Term Disability
• 401(k): Alta provides a match up to 3%
• Additional Benefits: Wellness reimbursement up to $800 annually, Alta Gets Around benefit of up to $900 annually, 5-year travel award, and professional development opportunities
• Life Insurance: Alta pays 100% of the premium for life and AD&D, equal to your base compensation
• PTO: 21 days accrued annually to start
• Holidays: 11 total company paid holidays
• Medical: PPO or HSA medical plans

Training + Development

Interview process

Visa Sponsorship

Security clearance