Director, Operations

WSP is one of the world’s leading professional services firms. Our purpose is to future proof our cities and environments.

We have over 48,000 team members across the globe. In Canada, our 8,000+ people are involved in everything from environmental remediation to urban planning, from engineering iconic buildings to designing sustainable transportation networks, from finding new ways to extract essential resources to developing renewable power sources for the future.

The excellence we bring to our work and to our workplace has been recognized far and wide. We are among the LinkedIn Top 25 Companies two years in a row, one of the Top 100 Sustainable Companies in the World (and among the Top 10 in Canada), and we earned Platinum Elite Recognition through our participation in more than half of Canada’s Top 100 Infrastructure Projects.

At WSP :
We value our people and our reputation

We are locally dedicated with international scale

We are future focused and challenge the status quo

We foster collaboration in everything we do

We have an empowering culture and hold ourselves accountable

EDMONTON, CALGARY OR VANCOUVER

WSP is currently seeking an Operations Director for Western Canada to join our Bridges, Highways & Roads team which covers Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia and Yukon. Reporting directly to the Vice President, Bridges, Highways & Roads, this role typically has no direct reports, but influences specific regional market sector directors and managers, partners with and leverages shared services such as finance, human resources, legal, quality and safety to be successful.

This position provides operational leadership and direction for the Bridges, Highways, Roads, Alternative Delivery and design services, as well as Construction Administration services, in the Region. The role is responsible for optimizing the financial, commercial, and project delivery performance of the regional market sector. The role ensures coordination of efforts across offices and develops plans, programs and organizational objectives to enhance margins, workforce utilization, and cash generation. All activities are undertaken in support of the WSP Canada strategic plan.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Help to develop the Regional Bridges, Highways, operating plan and financial forecasts in collaboration with the Vice-President, Bridges, Highways & Roads, the finance leader and the individual managers and directors;

Effectively communicates the operating plan and targets, engaging all directors and project management employees in achieving the objectives of the regional market sector;

Manages the implementation of the operating plan and its objectives for the regional market sector, with primary efforts focused on project delivery excellence, financial performance, and adherence to the regional market sector’s strategic plan;

Responsible for optimizing the performance of the regional market sector operations, including, project margin, staff utilization, DSO, and general administration costs;

With key support by the regional market sector finance leader, forecasts the market sector financial performance, ensuring accurate revenue recognition and preparation of monthly/ quarterly/annual forecasts;

Defines contracting strategies, commercial terms and measures to manage and mitigate risk during key pursuit processes including interacting directly with customers during negotiations;

With support from the corporate legal team, provides guidance and direction to regional market sector managers and directors to ensure operational and project delivery excellence;

Conducts regular project reviews to ensure budget, schedule, risk, and cost to complete estimates are in order;

Guides and directs project management employees on measures to mitigate project performance issues and risks. Ensuring successful delivery on the contractual commitments and financial targets for the project portfolio to meet client expectations and achieve or exceed profitability targets for the regional market sector;

Works closely with the finance, quality, legal/risk, and project delivery shared services to advance project management tools such as project status reports, ensuring the design meets the Market Sector requirements and proper deployment and application within the regional market sector;

Collaborates with peers nationally and in other regions to leverage and implement project delivery and other best practices;

Promotes collaboration across offices to ensure effective resource sharing, workload/resource balancing and to bring the best the business line has to offer to meet the needs of clients;

Monitors business development investments to deliver acceptable returns aligned with the regional market sector strategy and its backlog and sales targets;

Visibly champions the WSP programs of safety, our guiding principles and ethics & compliance to ensure they are an overriding part of the organizational culture;

QUALIFICATIONS

Bachelor’s degree in business, engineering or other technical discipline with equivalent experience;

Minimum of (10) years of experience managing in the engineering or related sectors which deliver large, technical and complex projects. Experience in project management is considered a plus;

A strong and sustained history of delivering quality financial performance and results;

Demonstrated ability to address challenging situations and turn them-around in response to challenging priorities in the market;

Ability to assess situations and be pro-active and creative in your approach and solution

Demonstrated good judgment balanced with informed risk taking;

Highly professional with strong written and oral communication skills;

Comfortable with matrix management models;

Confidence to influence a high caliber team to drive a business to higher performance levels and seize the opportunities presented internally and in the market;

Advanced people and leadership skills to effectively manage relationships which may be indirect to achieve consensus, direction and achievement of results;

A track record of creating a climate where people want to do their best through working collaboratively, empowering teams to identify and solve problems, creating a clear sense of identity with the company, and holding teams accountable for meeting their collective goals.

Internal WSP experience considered a strong asset, but not required

aqowpwt

Offers of employment for safety-sensitive positions involving fieldwork are contingent upon candidates being able to perform key physical tasks of the job as described in the job posting and interview. This may include the ability to work in a variety of environmental conditions, such as remote or isolated areas, working alone, and in inclement weather (within safe and reasonable limits).

WSP welcomes and encourages applications from people with disabilities. Accommodations are available on request for candidates taking part in all aspects of the selection process.

WSP is committed to the principles of employment equity. Only the candidates selected will be contacted.

WSP does not accept unsolicited resumes from agencies. For more information please READ THE FULL POLICY.

WSP Canada Inc.

Calgary, AB