Project Director- Transportation-Southern, CA

About the Role

Working with an energetic, high‑performing team, the director will serve as a trusted advisor to existing clients, maintain deep understanding of client priorities and funding realities, and represent client and community voices internally to shape solutions. The role also leads or plays a senior role in delivering key projects, converting successful delivery into repeat work, identifying growth opportunities, and using delivery experience to inform strategy, pricing, risk assessment, and positioning. In pursuit activities, the director shapes and leads bids where delivery experience and client trust are differentiators, partners with relationship managers and technical teams, contributes to proposal strategy and messaging, and participates in contract negotiations with an awareness of delivery risk. Operational and financial accountability includes overseeing scope, schedule, budget, quality, and client satisfaction, tracking backlog, margin, and client health, ensuring regulatory and procurement compliance, and reporting performance and growth outlook to internal leadership. Additional responsibilities cover personal capability building as a subject‑matter expert, key account management, developing relationship‑management plans for strategic accounts, clarifying customer needs, creating sales opportunities, leading cross‑functional teams to configure tailored solutions, and ensuring operational compliance. • Serve as trusted advisor to existing clients, maintaining deep insight into priorities, funding and community outcomes. • Lead or senior role in delivery of key transportation projects, ensuring alignment with client expectations. • Convert successful project delivery into repeat work, expanded scope and new opportunities. • Identify growth opportunities emerging from active projects and ongoing client engagements. • Shape and lead pursuit bids, partnering with relationship managers and technical teams. • Contribute to proposal strategy, messaging and interviews with focus on credibility and execution confidence. • Participate in contract negotiations, emphasizing delivery risk, resourcing and outcomes. • Oversee project performance—including scope, schedule, budget, quality and client satisfaction—and track KPIs such as backlog and margin. • Ensure compliance with regulations, procurement requirements and internal governance. • Act as subject‑matter expert, maintaining external accreditations and staying current on industry best practices. • Manage a portfolio of complex customer relationships and/or a small team of account managers. • Develop and implement relationship‑management plans for strategic, complex accounts at local and national levels. • Clarify customer needs, coordinate internal specialists and define specifications for medium‑ to long‑term requirements. • Build a personal network of senior managers, obtain market intelligence and promote GHD at sector events. • Lead cross‑functional teams to configure tailored product‑and‑service solutions and negotiate agreements. • Monitor and resolve non‑compliance within the area of responsibility.

Key Responsibilities

• ▸client advisory
• ▸project delivery
• ▸bid management
• ▸contract negotiation
• ▸performance tracking
• ▸compliance oversight

What You Bring

Education requirements are a bachelor’s or master’s degree in engineering, environmental science, or a related field. Preferred qualifications include a professional engineer licence, at least ten years of municipal or public‑sector project delivery and client relationship management, strong seller‑doer experience, excellent communication and negotiation skills, and proficiency with CRM tools such as Salesforce. • Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Engineering, Environmental Science or a related field; Professional Engineer licence preferred. • Minimum 10 years municipal/public‑sector project delivery and client relationship management experience. • Strong business development, proposal preparation and marketing skills; proficient in Salesforce and Microsoft Office.

Requirements

• ▸engineering degree
• ▸pe licence
• ▸10+ years
• ▸municipal projects
• ▸salesforce
• ▸business development

Benefits

Join a team that brings inspirational architecture, landscapes, townscapes and places to our world, and we’ll provide you unlimited space to grow. You’ll be able to apply our powerful global network of skills and decades of experience to build positive client outcomes. Key performance indicators include client portfolio performance (bookings), project portfolio performance (NLM), and client satisfaction scores. GHD is an equal‑opportunity employer, offering a salary range of $152,000‑$253,000 based on location and experience. • Hybrid work model (three days in‑office), based in Southern California (Irvine, Long Beach, San Diego, Los Angeles), salary range $152,000–$253,000.

Work Environment

Hybrid