Job Description:Overview:The Project Director of Utilities provides management, strategic leadership, and technical oversight for utility coordination, design, adjustment, and relocation activities on major transportation and civil infrastructure projects. This role directs utility planning through construction, leads multidisciplinary teams and consultants, manages utility-owner and agency relationships, and oversees risks, agreements, schedules, budgets, and deliverables. The position establishes consistent utility-management processes and ensures utility work is executed safely, accurately, and in compliance with contractual requirements, applicable laws, agency standards, and company quality expectations.
Position Scope and Reporting - Reports to designate executive leadership and senior utility-management leader of assigned project(s).
- Provide functional leadership to project-based Utility Team and direct the work of utility consultants and specialty subcontractors.
- Support utility-management activities for assigned project and temporary project assignments as business needs require.
Responsibilities and Duties: Utility Management and Technical Oversight - Lead utility management, coordination, design, adjustment, and relocation activities across major transportation and civil infrastructure projects.
- Provide technical direction and executive oversight throughout planning, procurement, design, construction, and closeout.
- Establish and continuously improve utility-management procedures, governance, controls, reporting, and documentation standards.
- Direct the identification, evaluation, escalation, and resolution of utility risks and conflicts that could affect safety, cost, schedule, design, or construction.
- Ensure utility agreements, designs, estimates, schedules, permits, technical reviews, and other deliverables satisfy contractual and project requirements.
Utility Consultant and Stakeholder Coordination - Lead the procurement, selection, scope development, performance management, and coordination of utility consultants, specialty subcontractors, and related resources.
- Chair utility coordination meetings and drive timely decisions, action-item closure, issue escalation, and documentation.
- Build productive relationships with clients, owners, utility owners, municipalities, agencies, designers, contractors, and other stakeholders.
- Lead negotiation and coordination of utility agreements, responsibilities, design criteria, reimbursement eligibility, and relocation commitments, as applicable.
- Communicate utility status, risks, decisions, and rec
Utility Conflict Management and Project Documentation - Develop and maintain the utility inventory, owner/contact matrices, conflict matrix, risk register, decision log, and supporting records.
- Review contract documents, survey, design files, utility records, and subsurface utility engineering data to validate existing conditions and identify data gaps.
- Identify previously undocumented or newly proposed utilities and assess their potential effect on project delivery.
- Define and prioritize additional subsurface utility engineering, survey, test-hole, and investigation needs based on project risk.
- Develop avoidance, protection-in-place, adjustment, relocation, and sequencing strategies that minimize impacts to design and construction.
Cost, Schedule, Easement, and Construction Support - Oversee utility budgets, cost estimates, forecasts, change management, and reimbursement documentation.
- Develop and manage integrated utility schedules, milestones, dependencies, recovery plans, and interfaces with the project baseline schedule.
- Coordinate easement, right-of-way, permitting, access, and property requirements needed to advance utility work.
- Partner with design, construction, project controls, commercial, survey, safety, environmental, quality, and document-control teams to support timely project delivery.
- Provide construction-phase support, including field coordination, issue resolution, outage planning, verification of completed work, and closeout documentation.
Business Leadership and Performance Accountability - Support project pursuits, proposals, interviews, technical approaches, risk assessments, staffing plans, schedules, and pricing for utility-management scopes.
- Develop regional and project staffing plans and recommend deployment of internal staff, consultants, and specialty subcontractors based on workload, qualifications, schedule, and risk.
- Establish consistent utility-management procedures, templates, performance measures, and reporting standards across assigned pursuits and projects.
- Maintain accountability for timely utility clearances and conflict resolution, adherence to budgets and contractual milestones, accurate forecasts and risk reporting, and execution of agreements, permits, and utility-owner commitments.
- Present utility performance, critical risks, decisions, and recovery strategies to executive leadership, clients, agencies, and project teams.
Leadership, Safety, Quality, and Team Support - Lead, mentor, and develop utility managers, coordinators, consultants, and project team members; establish clear expectations and accountability.
- Coordinate workforce and consultant resources across pursuits and active projects to meet business and project priorities.
- Promote a culture of safety, quality, collaboration, ethical conduct, and continuous improvement.
- Apply sound technical and commercial judgment to resolve complex issues and support informed project decisions.
- Perform other duties consistent with the role's scope and business needs.
Required Qualifications: - Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering, Construction Management, Construction Science, or a closely related field.
- Minimum of ten (10) years of progressively responsible experience in utility management, coordination, design, relocation, or heavy civil infrastructure delivery, including at least three (3) years in a leadership or program-management capacity.
- Demonstrated experience delivering utility work on large transportation projects using Design Build, public-private partnership, construction manager/general contractor, or comparable alternative-delivery methods.
- Proven ability to manage utility owners, agencies, consultants, subcontractors, agreements, budgets, schedules, conflict matrices, risks, and relocation deliverables.
- Working knowledge of subsurface utility engineering, utility adjustment and reimbursement processes, easement and right-of-way coordination, permitting, construction sequencing, and applicable laws and agency requirements.
- Ability to interpret contracts, construction documents, drawings, utility plans, agreements, permits, schedules, cost estimates, and technical reports.
- Proficiency with Microsoft Office and applicable project controls, scheduling, collaboration, and document-management platforms.
- Excellent leadership, negotiation, written and verbal communication, organization, and executive level presentation skills.
- Ability to travel and work at project or field locations as business needs require.
Preferred Qualifications: - Advanced degree in Civil Engineering, Construction Management, Business Administration, or a related discipline.
- Professional Engineer licensure, Project Management Professional certification, or a recognized utility-related certification.
- Experience leading utility programs across multiple projects, offices, or geographic regions.
- Experience supporting project pursuits, proposals, interviews, staffing plans, technical approaches, schedules, and pricing.
- Experience working with state departments of transportation, municipal agencies, federal-aid requirements, utility accommodation rules, and utility reimbursement procedures.
Note: The statements herein are intended to describe the general nature and levels of work performed by employees, but are not a complete list of responsibilities, duties and skills required of personnel so classified. Furthermore, they do not establish a contract for employment and are subject to change at the discretion of the employer.
