Deputy Project Manager - Major Municipal Utility Programs

WSP • Los Angeles, CA

23h

About The Position

WSP is seeking a Deputy Project Manager to support large municipal utility accounts in Southern California, with Los Angeles, Irvine, and Commerce listed as possible locations. The role supports day-to-day administration, commercial management, technical coordination, and client delivery across multiple concurrent task orders under an on-call professional services contract. It combines an engineering foundation with project-management discipline and is initially a deputy role to the current program lead, with the opportunity to assume increasing responsibility for project and task-order execution and develop into a primary day-to-day account and delivery leader.

The work spans electric utilities, power delivery, facilities, water, energy transition, operational improvement, inspection, design, construction support, training, and advisory assignments. The position coordinates multidisciplinary WSP teams, subconsultants, project controls, accounting, contracts, and client stakeholders while maintaining control of scope, schedule, budget, quality, risk, and communications.

The position also supports major data-center infrastructure projects, including planning and design for substations, transmission interconnections, and site electrical infrastructure. The role works across the project lifecycle and collaborates with WSP experts globally on complex infrastructure challenges for prominent clients.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in engineering or a closely related technical field. Electrical Engineering is strongly preferred; Civil, Mechanical, Structural, Environmental, Industrial, Construction, or other relevant backgrounds will be considered.
• At least 7 years of progressive experience in engineering consulting, utility infrastructure, capital programs, project delivery, or a comparable owner/consultant environment, including meaningful project-management responsibility.
• Experience managing multiple concurrent projects, work orders, or task orders with responsibility for scope, schedule, budget, staffing, quality, risk, and client communications.
• Ability to understand technical engineering work sufficiently to coordinate discipline leads, challenge assumptions, identify interfaces, and accurately communicate issues without serving as the technical designer for every assignment.
• Strong commercial and financial-management capability, including labor planning, forecasting, invoice review, budget reconciliation, change management, subconsultant tracking, and profitability awareness.
• Experience developing and maintaining project schedules, action logs, risk registers, decision logs, staffing plans, cost estimates, and monthly status reports.
• Ability to organize incomplete or conflicting information, establish a practical path forward, and drive decisions and follow-up across large stakeholder groups.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including preparation of concise client-ready correspondence, meeting materials, executive summaries, and management recommendations.
• Professional presence and judgment for regular interaction with a large public-sector utility, executive stakeholders, technical specialists, contract administrators, and project accountants.
• Advanced proficiency with Microsoft Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams; working knowledge of scheduling and project-controls tools such as Microsoft Project or Primavera P6.
• Ability to work in Southern California and attend in-person client meetings, project sites, and WSP offices as project needs require.
• Ability to travel periodically for project meetings, site activities, supplier or factory inspections, and team coordination.

Nice To Haves

• Project Management Professional certification or comparable formal project-management training.
• Experience supporting a municipal utility, public agency, or large regulated utility under an on-call, master-services, or task-order contract.
• Experience with electric transmission, distribution, substations, generation, grid modernization, renewable energy, energy storage, water infrastructure, facilities, or utility asset-management programs.
• Experience with engineering design, procurement, construction support, commissioning, inspection, owner’s engineering, or program-management assignments.
• Experience managing subconsultants and coordinating geographically dispersed or international technical teams.
• Experience with public-sector contract administration, formal personnel approvals, small/diverse business participation reporting, and auditable invoicing requirements.
• Experience supporting proposals, capture planning, account planning, and client relationship development.
• Master’s degree in engineering, business, construction management, or a related field.

Responsibilities

• Serve as deputy to senior program and account leadership for a major municipal utility client, providing continuity across concurrent task orders and workstreams.
• Manage assigned task orders from proposal and authorization through kickoff, execution, invoicing, modification, closeout, and lessons learned.
• Coordinate day-to-day communication among the client, WSP technical teams, project accountants, contract administrators, leadership, and subconsultants.
• Develop and maintain task-order scopes, assumptions, deliverables, work breakdown structures, staffing plans, cost estimates, schedules, and responsibility matrices.
• Lead project kickoffs, client meetings, internal coordination calls, schedule and financial reviews, risk discussions, and action-item follow-up.
• Prepare agendas, meeting minutes, executive summaries, monthly progress reports, decision logs, action trackers, risk registers, and leadership briefings.
• Monitor labor hours, revenue, backlog, burn rates, invoicing percentages, expenses, subconsultant commitments, estimates to complete and at completion, margin, and remaining authorized capacity.
• Partner with project accounting to reconcile budgets and invoices, align client task structures with internal systems, resolve billing discrepancies, and support timely collections.
• Identify scope growth, staffing changes, schedule impacts, and commercial exposure; prepare modification inputs, change documentation, recovery plans, and management recommendations.
• Coordinate multidisciplinary engineering and advisory teams across electrical, civil, structural, mechanical, environmental, construction management, utility operations, and business advisory disciplines.
• Integrate subconsultants into project plans, schedules, budgets, reporting, quality reviews, invoicing, and client communications while maintaining WSP accountability.
• Coordinate personnel approvals, onboarding, background-check requirements, training prerequisites, travel planning, and client-specific compliance or access requirements.
• Maintain disciplined document control and auditable project records, including approvals, notices to proceed, contractual correspondence, deliverable reviews, invoice support, and closeout evidence.
• Support quality-control planning and verify technical, management, and editorial reviews of deliverables before client submission.
• Escalate safety, quality, schedule, budget, contractual, resource, and client-relationship concerns with options and recommended actions.
• Support proposals, task-order responses, fee development, staffing strategies, client presentations, capture planning, and account-growth initiatives.
• Support client relationships, repeat work, and future opportunities while maintaining focus on current commitments.
• Mentor project coordinators and emerging project managers and help standardize tools, templates, and controls across the account.
• Make responsible and ethical decisions regarding company funds and resources, client information, and professional conduct; comply with WSP policies and procedures.
• Perform additional responsibilities as required by business needs.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Disability and life coverage
• Retirement savings
• Paid sick leave
• Paid vacation or other personal time
• Paid parental leave
• Paid time off for bereavement, voting, and/or attendance at naturalization proceedings

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level