Willdan,

Director of Client Relations

Willdan,$120K — $150K *
US-AnywhereRemote in California, US
Real Estate & Construction
11 - 15 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 15+ years in construction, operations, project controls, or related industries.
  • Operational experience in construction or project delivery environments.
  • Proven management of executive-level client relationships.
  • Strong financial and contractual knowledge including margin and change management.
  • Experience in cross-functional, matrixed organizations.
  • Exceptional communication and conflict resolution skills.
  • Willingness to travel as required for job responsibilities.

Responsibilities

  • Protect long-term client trust and enhance relationships.
  • Align internal execution with client expectations consistently.
  • Proactively identify and mitigate project risks.
  • Champion a culture of service-first leadership among teams.
  • Act as executive sponsor for strategic accounts, guiding their priorities.
  • Lead governance meetings to ensure ongoing client alignment.
  • Develop strategic relationships with key subcontractors and industry partners.

Benefits

  • Promotes a service-oriented leadership culture.
  • Encourages professional development aligned with client service standards.
  • Supports high emotional intelligence in complex environments.
Full Job Description
The Director of Client Relations is responsible for protecting, strengthening, and growing long-term contracted client relationships across the Western Region. This role serves as the executive steward of client trust, ensuring alignment between client expectations and internal execution throughout the lifecycle of our construction and energy services engagements. While not responsible for day-to-day construction management, this leader must possess deep operational credibility and business acumen to effectively anticipate risk, advocate for clients, and align internal teams. This position exists to ensure that no strategic client relationship is reactive, fragmented, or without executive ownership.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities
  • Core Purpose
    • Protect long-term client trust.
    • Align internal execution with client expectations.
    • Proactively identify and mitigate relationship and project risk.
    • Support renewal and expansion through disciplined relationship governance.
    • Champion a service-first leadership culture - serving "anyone but yourself."
  • Executive Client Stewardship
    • Serve as executive sponsor for assigned strategic accounts.
    • Develop deep understanding of each client's organizational dynamics, priorities, and success criteria.
    • Define and continuously validate "what success looks like" with each client.
    • Lead structured monthly and quarterly client governance meetings.
    • Ensure forward-looking dialogue including performance, risk, and future opportunity alignment.
    • Maintain visibility and documentation of commitments, concerns, and action plans.
  • Proactive Risk & Escalation Management
    • Identify early indicators of execution or perception risk.
    • Differentiate between proactive outreach, service recovery, and formal escalation.
    • Intervene decisively before issues materially impact trust.
    • Ensure Regional VP and executive leadership are informed.
    • Protect both client interests and enterprise sustainability.
  • Internal Client Leadership & Cross-Functional Alignment
    • Act as liaison between Construction, Project Management, Sales, Finance, and Executive Leadership regarding client expectations.
    • Ensure internal teams clearly understand client priorities and commitments.
    • Recognize staffing or support gaps before clients request changes.
    • Elevate systemic issues affecting client experience.
    • Promote alignment between operational performance and strategic relationship goals.
  • Strategic Industry & Subcontractor Relationships
    • Develop and maintain high-level strategic relationships with key subcontractors and industry partners within the Western Region.
    • Represent the region at industry events, conferences, and trade associations to strengthen strategic subcontractor alignment.
    • Support long-term partnership development that enhances delivery performance and client outcomes.
    • Provide executive-level relationship continuity with critical subcontractor partners.
    • Collaborate with Construction leadership to identify subcontractor partnership gaps impacting client satisfaction.
    • This role does not manage subcontractor procurement, bidding, or field oversight but supports strategic alignment and relationship continuity at the executive level.
  • Renewal & Growth Support
    • Partner with Business Development to support renewal positioning.
    • Identify expansion opportunities aligned with client objectives.
    • Reinforce disciplined expectation management to protect margin.
    • Strengthen long-term partnership positioning across multi-phase engagements.
  • Cultural & Leadership Expectations
    • Model servant leadership and professional accountability.
    • Foster solution-oriented and collaborative behavior across teams.
    • Establish and reinforce client engagement protocols.
    • Support onboarding and professional development aligned with client service standards.
    • Maintain high emotional intelligence and executive presence in complex environments.

Job Requirements / Qualifications:
  • 15+ years of experience in construction, operations, project controls, design-build, and energy services, or related industries.
  • Demonstrated operational experience within construction or project delivery environments.
  • Proven ability to manage executive-level client relationships.
  • Strong financial and contractual understanding (margin, change management, contract structure).
  • Experience working within cross-functional, matrixed organizations.
  • Exceptional communication and conflict navigation skills.
  • Travel is a required component of this role and will be necessary to meet job responsibilities.
  • Qualifications (preferred)
    • Experience with multi-phase or long-term contract environments.
    • Familiarity with public-sector or institutional clients.
    • Background in energy services, performance-based contracts, or infrastructure delivery.
  • Key Performance Indicators
    • Client Retention Rate.
    • Net Promoter Score (NPS).
    • Renewal & Expansion Success.
    • Reduction in Escalated Client Issues.
    • Margin Protection on Strategic Accounts.
    • Regional Profit Contribution (through retention and alignment).

About Willdan,

Willdan Group, Inc. is an American publicly traded company selling professional technical and consulting services to public and private utilities, public agencies at all levels of government, and commercial and industrial firms. The company operates offices in more than a dozen states, with its key operations in California and New York. In 1964, the company was built by William Stookey and Dan Heil in southern California on a then-unique model of providing outsourced engineering services exclusively to municipalities, especially newly urbanizing cities. Over the next 50 years, the company's expansion has reflected the increasingly complex challenges facing communities, with a forward-looking focus on energy efficiency, energy engineering, cogeneration, Energy Savings Performance Contract, Community Choice Aggregation, smart city, microgrid consulting, and Transactive energy software. In 2006, Willdan Group, Inc. completed its initial public offerings in NASDAQ, becoming a publicly traded company under the symbol WLDN. In 2008, Willdan acquired Intergy Corporation, then renamed Willdan Energy Solutions, offering energy efficiency utility program management. In 2015, Willdan acquired 360 Energy Engineers and Abacus Resource Management, expanding its capabilities into Energy Service Company and Energy Savings Performance Contract services. Willdan acquired NYC-based Genesys Engineering, P.C., in 2016, bringing Power Engineering services into its portfolio, with an eye to evolution of U.S. power systems toward Distributed generation and microgrids.
Learn more about Willdan,
Size
1,560 employees
Market Cap
$248.5 million
Industry
Net Income
-$14.5 million
Founded
1964
5 Year Trend
+11.1%
Revenue
$390.9 million
NASDAQ

Similar Jobs

More Jobs at Willdan,

More Real Estate & Construction Jobs

Find similar Director of Client Relations jobs: