Lead Professional, Civil Engineering

WSP • Washington, DC

9d • Hybrid

About The Position

WSP USA is seeking a Lead Professional, Civil Engineering to join and grow their Mid-Atlantic South District civil team. This position will be located in the Washington, DC or Herndon, Virginia office. The role provides technical and project leadership to ensure civil engineering subject matter, technical deliverables, infrastructure projects and programs are delivered with a high level of quality. Responsibilities include ensuring corporate compliance with all Local, State, and Federal engineering, construction, and safety regulations, and providing direction to address current and future challenges. This is a highly technical leadership opportunity in a client-facing role, supporting and augmenting a key client. The role involves providing proactive and strategic leadership as a senior member of the Mid Atlantic civil team, offering direction, expertise, and support to ensure project deliverables and client requirements are successfully achieved. This position will also assist with and/or lead the pursuit and development of business and the successful execution of work for current and potential infrastructure projects within the DC metropolitan region, including standalone projects and task order contracts. The Lead Professional will also support the overall long-term strategy, growth, and pipeline development of civil engineering work for WSP in the region, with a focus on infrastructure opportunities in all disciplines (planning, design, and strategic consulting and program/construction management).

Requirements

• Professional Engineer license in VA, MD, or DC required
• Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering, or closely related discipline.
• 10+ years of relevant post education experience in engineering, civil and infrastructure design.
• Advanced proficiency with infrastructure design.
• Strong working knowledge of relevant civil construction laws, codes, regulations, compliance practices, and record-keeping requirements, and the business impact upon the organization.
• Advanced proficiency with making technical computations and calculations involving the application of engineering principles, understanding plans and specifications and making factual comparisons to the appropriate regulations.
• Works independently and provides guidance and leadership to mid-level to senior level team or project members, with strict adherence to QA/QC.
• Excellent leadership and interpersonal communication skills with the ability to effectively, persuasively, and tactfully interact with employees at all levels of the organization.
• Tactical lateral thinking and strong analytical skills with attention to detail and prioritization of responsibilities in a pressure work environment.
• Ability to elicit cooperation from a wide variety of sources, including senior management, clients, regulators, and company-wide staff, including those with whom no formal hierarchical relationship exits.
• Proven track record of upholding workplace safety and ability to abide by WSP’s health, safety and drug/alcohol and harassment policies.
• Strong ability to quickly adapt to change and demonstrate flexibility to a variety of schedules and hours to meet business needs.

Nice To Haves

• Strong experience in managing the review and approval of documents and discipline-specific deliverables, certifications, processes, and plans in a multi-project environment is highly desirable.
• Experience with DC specific agencies, counties/localities standards and projects.
• Familiarity with MS Project, Primavera or similar scheduling software.
• Affiliations with professional societies and active industry and community involvement are highly desirable

Responsibilities

• Perform engineering review of engineering design plans and specifications, estimates, reports and other deliverables to ensure that they comply with applicable state and/or federal regulations and sound engineering practice and standards.
• Perform engineering reviews of transit stations, bus bays, garages, pedestrian pathways, and related facilities to evaluate compliance with ADA Standards for Accessible Design, DOT regulations, ABA, and agency accessibility standards.
• Assess complex structural and civil engineering elements such as grading, drainage, structural load, and materials durability that impact accessibility compliance and long-term sustainability.
• Review audit data collected by ADA Quality Assurance staff to prepare detailed reports with references to ADA, ABA, DOT (49 CFR Part 37), and agency standards.
• Conduct systemwide trend analysis to identify recurring accessibility issues, systemic risks, and opportunities for long-term improvements.
• Develop prioritized remediation plans that balance severity of defects, safety, customer usability, and capital planning requirements.
• Collaborate with agency departments including Operations, Capital Planning, Safety, Maintenance, and Real Estate to integrate audit findings into project planning and funding decisions.
• Facilitate discussions with internal stakeholders to review audit results, agree on prioritization, and outline remediation strategies.
• Support the development of dashboards and summaries that track defect resolution, remediation progress, and compliance trends for senior leadership.
• Provide engineering judgment to ensure remediation strategies are technically sound, cost effective, and aligned with accessibility best practices.
• Contribute to monthly and annual accessibility compliance reports, linking engineering findings with enterprise-wide accessibility performance metrics.
• Support agency leadership in demonstrating compliance progress to oversight bodies (i.e., FTA, DOJ, local regulators, etc.) through clear, evidence-based reporting.
• Assist with and/or lead the pursuit and development of business and the successful execution of work for current and potential infrastructure projects within the DC metropolitan region, including standalone projects and task order contracts within the area.
• Support the overall long-term strategy, growth, and pipeline development of civil engineering work for WSP in the region, with a focus on infrastructure opportunities in all disciplines (planning, design, and strategic consulting and program/construction management).
• Meet with various public or private entities or individuals to discuss issues relating to a variety of engineering/construction challenges and programs.
• Schedule engineering discipline meetings, providing updates and recommendations to ensure that all reasonable and proper measures are taken to wrap discipline expertise and innovation into project work.
• Serve as one of the civil team’s representatives/liaison to a variety of external entities including Federal, State, and Local Agencies, Clients, Subcontractors, industry-related groups, and various government and community entities.
• Develop and inform proposal and project scopes, timelines, pricing, and budgetary metrics – and accountable for planning, development and management of projects in compliance with all applicable City/State/Federal codes and regulations, and in accordance with all acceptable engineering practices.
• Interpret and summarize data, including reports and documents that result in sound engineering and regulatory conclusions.
• Provide verbal and/or written inputs to multi-disciplinary project teams and contribute to providing high level strategic advice to clients.
• Mentor staff to support their growth and professional development.
• Manage and provide performance guidance and leadership to assigned staff.
• Remain current in latest civil engineering techniques and practices.
• Collaborate with professionals from a variety of disciplines to provide “trusted advisor” service and future ready solutions for clients.
• Exercise responsible and ethical decision-making regarding company funds, resources and conduct, and adhere to WSP’s Code of Conduct and related policies and procedures.
• Perform additional responsibilities as required by business needs.

Benefits

• Coverage related to medical, dental, vision, disability, and life
• Retirement savings
• Paid sick leave
• Paid vacation (or other personal time)
• Paid parental leave
• Paid time off for purposes of bereavement, voting, and/or attendance at naturalization proceedings.

What This Job Offers

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