Director of Water Resources and Community Planning

Why Black and Veatch

Black & Veatch allows you to lend your talent and perspective to humanity’s biggest challenges in a flexible environment where you are empowered to grow and explore new possibilities. We offer competitive compensation; 401K match and benefits that start day 1. 
 

Our hybrid environment allows you to balance your work and personal life. At Black & Veatch, you own your career with purpose and meaning. You are empowered to grow and explore new possibilities at every step of your career journey. Bring your big ideas knowing you are safe to be who you are and speak up with concerns or questions and put your diverse talents and perspectives to use.

The Opportunity

The Black & Veatch’s Governments & Community Sector, Water Solution has an exciting opportunity to serve as the global Water Resources and Community Planning Portfolio Leader. This important leadership position is responsible for four sub-portfolios primarily encompassing all of the Water Solution’s planning capability. The position leads the growth and strategy for the water, wastewater, stormwater, water reuse and resilience planning teams across all of BV’s client sectors – spanning utilities, government, mining, power, and commercial clients. The role also spans all of the BV global regions – with a heavy focus on US and Canadian markets for utilities, and broader Asia Pacific and Latin America regions for supporting industrial water clients.  

This exciting opportunity offers the right practice builder an opportunity to lead an industry recognized planning team and continue to build the BV practice into the premier water planning practice globally. The role requires a deep understanding of our client’s pressing water needs – addressing topics including water scarcity, water quality, stormwater and watershed issues, supply and hydrogeology assessments, natural systems, wetlands, master planning, hydraulic and hydrologic modeling, coastal water issues, resilience, and community related planning. The role also requires a blend of interpersonal skills and broad technical knowledge to bridge communication and sales approaches between broad thinking clients and technical BV experts. The individual must be effective at working across BV client-facing sales teams and also be able to approach clients directly to generate market opportunities. The role includes being viewed as a thought leader in planning topics and will represent BV as a key thought leader at industry trade events. This leadership position will also be responsible for building local planning teams in targeted markets throughout our global regions.  

The Team

Black & Veatch’s Governments & Communities focuses on specific infrastructure needs of municipalities, state and local governments, and specialized physical and digital infrastructure solutions for government and federal agencies. By joining our market sector, you will be able to provide infrastructure for community benefit.

Key Responsibilities

Strategy & Innovation Development 

• Serve as a senior member of our Portfolio leadership team and influence our global business strategies. 
• Ability to establish growth strategies based on market trends and employ tactics and resources to achieve identified strategies. 
• Ability to assess core market offerings and expand and incubate new offerings based on market/client needs. 
• Ability to communicate, gain support, and garner excitement and energy around achieving strategies. This includes a focus on creating tangible growth outcomes. 
• Ability to establish strategies for innovation and embed a culture of innovation and innovative technology and approaches throughout the planning business. This includes the ability to identify and build external partnerships specific to innovation.  

Thought Leadership 

• Ability to predict planning trends and position resources and services to meet those needs. 
• Industry recognition as a thought leader in planning services. 
• Demonstrating conversancy on a broad range of relevant planning topics aligned to pressing or emerging industry issues. 

Team Development 

• Ability to identify staffing and succession plan gaps and take action on such gaps. 
• Ability to recruit key planning resources including regional planning leaders to drive growth. 
• Ability to work across a matrixed organization to achieve segment, solution, and operational team goals. 
• Serve as a leadership skill developer and mentor for senior and emerging planning leaders. 
• Ability to be a steward of the BV culture and our “We Own It” mentality across the planning team and broader organization. 

Business Development 

• Ability to work with client facing sales teams and provide proactive, relevant support to business development activities. This includes a diverse network of Client Account Managers, Directors, and Project Managers in our markets/regions. 
• Ability to work collaboratively with other portfolio and sub-portfolio leaders to integrate solutions into broader service offerings. This includes adjacent Solution Leaders from Environmental, Federal, Civil Works (Civil infrastructure), Program Management and Treatment.  
• Ability to engage clients, regulators, and key stakeholders to uncover, position for, and capture planning projects. This includes the ability to identify strategically important planning pursuits and prioritize time and resources to achieve capture. 
• Ability to prepare proposals and presentations to capture new business. This includes mentoring and training planning teams on KF/Miller Heiman sales processes and skills; and developing best-in-class presentation skills across the team. 

Project Support 

• Ability to serve on projects in select roles. Roles could include oversight and project direction; quality assurance; being a technical expert; or facilitating large, strategic projects with complex stakeholder needs. 
• Ability to meet with clients to assess client satisfaction and to provide corrective measures if needed on projects. 
• Ability to influence flawless execution and work quality related to planning deliverables. 

Management Responsibilities

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in engineering, science, planning or relevant field from either a recognized accredited program in their home country or the country in which the professional is practicing 
• Minimum 15 years of related work experience 
• 10+ years of focused planning experience related to water, wastewater, stormwater, water reuse, resilience, disaster preparedness & recovery, or coastal and sea level rise impacts. 
• Experience as a Planning Practice Leader for a consulting firm or as a Planning Director for a client organization.  
• Demonstrated success in business development including leading business strategies and experience with the entire pursuit capture cycle. 
• Deep understanding and relationships within public utilities, Federal, commercial, or industrial client bases. 
• Familiarity with federal, state, and local funding approaches related to planning and resilience.  

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required.
• 15+ years progressive experience in management of relevant business line and related technology.
• All applicants must be able to complete pre-employment onboarding requirements (if selected) which may include any/all of the following: criminal/civil background check, drug screen, and motor vehicle records search, in compliance with any applicable laws and regulations.

Work Environment/Physical Demands

This is a business traveler role, and will require travelling to client sites. On the weeks that you are not travelling, this position will work in a normal office environment with a hybrid work schedule: 3 days in office and 2 days remote 

Salary Plan

Job Grade