GHD Group

Junior Project Director (Upstream - California)

GHD Group$97K — $121K *
Energy & Utilities
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree in Environmental Engineering, Geology, Environmental Science, or a related field.
  • 5-8 years of experience in upstream oil & gas environmental consulting, including environmental remediation and site assessments.
  • Solid understanding of California's regulatory environment and practices.
  • PE or PG certification preferred, along with OSHA 40-hour HAZWOPER certification as a plus.
  • Experience using standardized tools and practices to manage high-volume programs effectively.

Responsibilities

  • Approve project planning and ensure execution aligns with client needs.
  • Lead monthly project health checks to ensure compliance and performance standards are met.
  • Maintain documentation and traceability for all key deliverables throughout project execution.
  • Define and track communication and reporting plans to meet obligations on time.
  • Govern vendor and subcontractor activities and compliance with project specifications.
  • Enforce output verification and quality requirements prior to external dissemination.
  • Coordinate with the Program Manager to ensure project alignment with governance and performance measures.

Benefits

  • 401K participation beginning on the first day of the month after 3 months of service.
  • Paid time off starting at 16 days per year, increasing with tenure.
  • Holiday pay for 9 recognized holidays annually, based on set employee schedules.
  • Wellness benefit offering 50% reimbursement for fitness-related expenses, up to $250 annually.
Full Job Description
Job Description

GHD is seeking a Junior Environmental Project Director to provide delivery leadership, governance, and assurance across complex environmental programs supporting upstream oil and gas projects. This role is ideal for a professional who brings a strong track record of compliant, defensible, and repeatable project delivery for their clients. The role enforces a structured project delivery framework that embeds QA/QC, regulatory compliance, documentation, and verifiable output approval into day-to-day execution.

As a Junior Project Director, you are a trusted advisor to clients, comfortable operating at the intersection of technical delivery, regulatory compliance, and program governance. You bring familiarity with state and federal environmental regulations, consent orders, and cleanup criteria, and you know how to embed QA/QC, verification, and documentation controls into day-to-day execution, so compliance is achieved by design, not inspection.

Success in this role requires lateral thinking, decisiveness, and the ability to lead multi-disciplinary teams through ambiguity while maintaining schedule, quality, and regulatory certainty.

Working with an energetic and high performing team, this position offers a variety of work and will see you involved in:
  • Approve project planning and ensure fit-for-purpose execution plans (scope, schedule, resourcing, risk, and stakeholder communication).
  • Lead monthly project health checks to confirm regulatory status, schedule adherence, technical progress, risks, and subcontractor performance; assign corrective actions and document closeout.
  • Maintain documentation and traceability: ensure outputs are tracked, issued/received transmittals are recorded, and an audit trail is maintained for key deliverables (plans, analytical packages, reports, submittals, meeting notes, corrective actions).
  • Ensure communications, reporting plans, and deadline control are defined during initiation/planning and actively tracked to meet reporting obligations on time.
  • Oversee vendor and subcontractor governance, including use of prequalified vendors, review of work plans/procedures, and verification pathways consistent with deliverable requirements.
  • Enforce output verification and quality requirements prior to external use; ensure competent check/review and director approval are completed and evidenced in the project workspace.
  • Coordinate with the Program Manager on escalations, decision rights, and alignment to program-level governance and performance measures.
  • Drive a culture of safety, compliance, and continuous improvement-controls embedded in workflows, not added later.

What you will bring to the team:
  • Demonstrated leadership of complex or high-risk projects within regulated environments.
  • Strong grasp of project governance, assurance/verification, and documentation controls.
  • Experience managing multi-disciplinary teams, vendors, and subcontractors.
  • Strong planning, reporting, and stakeholder communication capabilities.
  • Experience using PMBOK-aligned tools such as communication/reporting plan templates, WBS-based planning, and structured health checks.
  • Experience with integrated data pipelines and dashboards that support compliance and performance visibility.

Qualifications:
  • Bachelor's degree in Environmental Engineering, Geology, Environmental Science or related field
  • PE or PG will be highly regarded
  • 5-8 years of upstream oil & gas environmental consulting experience including environmental remediation and site assessments, report writing, data management & interpretation, project coordination, and managing clients
  • Solid understanding and working knowledge of California's regulatory environment
  • OSHA 40-hour HAZWOPER certification a plus
  • Ability and willingness to travel client meetings is required
  • Experience with repeatable, high-volume programs where standardization and automation are used to improve efficiency.
  • Familiarity with analytics dashboards and data management practices that support compliance tracking and decision-making.

This position requires pre-employment medical and drug screenings, to the extent allowable by applicable law, and employment is contingent upon successfully completing the pre-employment screenings.

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Benefits:
  • 401K - Employees are eligible to participate on the first day of the month following 3 months of service
  • Paid time off - Our PTO benefit is designed to provide eligible employees with a period of rest and relaxation, sick, and personal time throughout the year. PTO starts at 16 days per year and increases with years of service
  • Holiday Pay - Holiday pay is provided for eligible employees. GHD observes 9 holidays per year. Holiday pay will be based on the regular set schedule for the employee
  • Wellness Benefit- Regular full-term employees are eligible to participate in the wellness reimbursement program. GHD will reimburse 50% of the cost of the following to maximum of $250.00 reimbursement annually for such items as: Health club membership fees, Home exercise equipment purchases, Bicycles, Race, run & marathon entrance fees, Smoking cessation programs, Weight loss programs (i.e.-Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig), Fitbits and Fitness Tracking devices

Salary Range: $97,500 - $121,875 based on experience and location.

As a multicultural organization, we encourage individual achievement and recognize the strength of a diverse workforce. GHD is an equal opportunity employer. We provide equal employment opportunities to all qualified employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, genetic information, national origin, sex (including same sex), sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions, age, disability or handicap, citizenship status, service member status, or any other category protected by federal, state, or local law.

About GHD Group

GHD Group is a global engineering, architecture, and environmental consulting firm that provides services to clients in the water, energy, environment, property and buildings, and transportation sectors. The company was founded in 1928 and is headquartered in Melbourne, Australia. GHD has more than 10,000 employees in over 200 offices worldwide, and it operates in Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, North America, and South America. The company's services include engineering design, project management, asset management, environmental consulting, and digital services. GHD's clients include governments, private companies, and non-profit organizations, and its projects range from small-scale local initiatives to large-scale international infrastructure projects.
Learn more about GHD Group
Size
10,000 employees
Industry

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