Project Director of Utilities

Ferrovial•Atlanta, GA

About The Position

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. The role directs utility planning from initial planning through construction and closeout, leads multidisciplinary teams and consultants, manages utility-owner and agency relationships, and oversees risks, agreements, schedules, budgets, and deliverables. It establishes consistent utility-management processes and ensures utility work is completed safely, accurately, and in compliance with contractual requirements, applicable laws, agency standards, and company quality expectations. The position reports to designated executive leadership and the senior utility-management leader of assigned projects. It provides functional leadership to project-based utility teams and directs utility consultants and specialty subcontractors. The role may support utility-management activities on assigned projects and temporary project assignments as business needs require. The Project Director leads utility management and technical oversight; consultant procurement and stakeholder coordination; utility conflict management and documentation; cost, schedule, easement, and construction support; business leadership and performance accountability; and team leadership, safety, and quality. The role also supports project pursuits and proposals, develops staffing plans, presents utility performance and risks to leadership and stakeholders, and performs other duties consistent with its scope and business needs.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering, Construction Management, Construction Science, or a closely related field.
At least 10 years of progressively responsible experience in utility management, coordination, design, relocation, or heavy civil infrastructure delivery, including at least 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.

Nice To Haves

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.

Responsibilities

Lead utility management, coordination, design, adjustment, and relocation activities across major transportation and civil infrastructure projects.
Provide technical direction and executive oversight through planning, procurement, design, construction, and closeout.
Establish and improve utility-management procedures, governance, controls, reporting, and documentation standards.
Identify, evaluate, escalate, and resolve utility risks and conflicts affecting safety, cost, schedule, design, or construction.
Ensure utility agreements, designs, estimates, schedules, permits, technical reviews, and other deliverables meet contractual and project requirements.
Procure, select, scope, coordinate, and manage the performance of utility consultants, specialty subcontractors, and related resources.
Chair utility coordination meetings and drive decisions, action-item closure, issue escalation, and documentation.
Build 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.
Develop and maintain utility inventories, owner and contact matrices, conflict matrices, risk registers, decision logs, and supporting records.
Review contract documents, surveys, design files, utility records, and subsurface utility engineering data to validate existing conditions and identify data gaps.
Identify undocumented or newly proposed utilities and assess their potential effects on project delivery.
Define and prioritize 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 design and construction impacts.
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.
Coordinate with design, construction, project controls, commercial, survey, safety, environmental, quality, and document-control teams to support project delivery.
Provide construction-phase support, including field coordination, issue resolution, outage planning, completed-work verification, and closeout documentation.
Support 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 according to workload, qualifications, schedule, and risk.
Establish utility-management procedures, templates, performance measures, and reporting standards across assigned pursuits and projects.
Maintain accountability for utility clearances and conflict resolution, budgets and contractual milestones, 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.
Lead, mentor, and develop utility managers, coordinators, consultants, and project team members, establishing clear expectations and accountability.
Coordinate workforce and consultant resources across pursuits and active projects to meet business and project priorities.
Promote safety, quality, collaboration, ethical conduct, and continuous improvement.
Apply 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.