Senior Water Resources Engineer

Strong communities don’t just happen. They’re thoughtfully planned and future-ready. We bring life to urban downtowns, suburban hubs, small towns, and rural areas through master-planned communities, mixed-use developments, parks, and recreation facilities. The result: vibrant economic centers, resilient neighborhoods, and welcoming places that feel like home. 

At Stantec, we approach every water and natural resource project we undertake, whether at the local, regional, or watershed level— thoughtfully and execute it with excellence across all project phases. We partner with our clients to design fit-for-purpose solutions that address their communities’ unique needs throughout the water infrastructure lifecycle. Our experts lead their fields and guide our work with scientific rigor, an innovative spirit, and a vision for growth. We’re a place where you can apply your passion and collaborate with top talent on work that’s critical to our clients, our communities, and the industry at large. 

Your Opportunity

The role of the Senior Water Resources Engineer is to lead teams as a project manager and serve as a technical expert to complete civil and water resources projects. The senior engineer will evaluate select, specify, and engineer systems or products for a project and direct the work conducted by various team members. You will perform a variety of tasks which may include calculations, field work, coordinate tasks and personnel, provide experienced insight on projects and mentor more junior staff. The projects assigned will often have complex features that will require the application of mature knowledge and experience. You will direct staff conducting hydrologic and hydraulic analyses that will be used to advance a variety of flood mitigation, general land development, and restoration projects. These analyses will be used for the design, permitting. and implementation of various types of projects. You will lead the analysis of proposed projects to ensure reliability, sound engineering, resource efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

The selected applicant will also have a significant role in establishing and maintaining relationships with key Stantec clients, leading project pursuits and advancing the water resources practice generally.

Your Key Responsibilities

• Oversee and manage multiple projects. Responsible for medium and large projects of high complexity and provide input on occasional small projects.  Take a lead role in establishing project goals and objectives, identifying necessary tasks to implement project and overseeing team performance in executing the project.
• Serve as Engineer-of-Record.
• Provide technical leadership for civil related projects, takes a lead role in maintaining key client relationships and capturing new work from existing and new clients.
• Perform on technically complex projects and act as a technical resource by providing guidance to other team members for local, national and international projects.
• May supervise the work of other engineers, including setting the priorities for their scope of work, their budgets and their schedules for completing the work in conjunction with Project Manager(s).
• May act as Project Manager and/or Project Technical Lead to manage and monitor financial performance of project budgets.
• Review and conduct alternative analyses to support business case evaluations for making project decisions.
• Evaluate, select, specify pertinent civil engineered systems or products for a project.
• May manage and lead others while working on projects and developing design; assign, review and evaluate work for technical accuracy and completeness; advise on technical problems.
• Lead project coordination meetings with internal team members and/or external consultants, owner and contractor, sub-contractors, and vendors.
• Lead in client project requirement meetings, value analysis, and cost estimating.
• Lead the preparation and coordination of project specifications with construction documents.
• Participate in constructability reviews.
• Conduct quality assurance and quality control on own projects and projects of peers.
• Lead the development of new standards and specifications for the discipline.
• Serve as the Project's point of contact with clients, agencies and others to obtain and determine project requirements and approvals.
• Remain current on regulatory policy and rule changes and may establish working relationships with regulatory officials.
• Engage in leadership in Professional organizations that align with expertise; write technical papers and delivers technical presentations for conference and symposia events.
• Develop project scope, budgets, and design approach for all size projects, and support marketing and business development professionals in positioning for potential projects, writing technical portions of proposals, participating in client interviews and supporting negotiations for project contracts.
• Assist and/or lead the development of proposals and contract negotiation.

Your Capabilities and Credentials

• Efficient project management/technical leadership of assigned tasks on multiple concurrent projects.
• Ability to maintain strong relationships with key Stantec clients.
• Understand client expectations, budgeting, proposal writing, and producing high-quality deliverables.
• Technical expert in many relevant areas of design and understanding of various design and construction methods.
• Requisite knowledge, interpretation, and application of design and construction codes.
• Strong understanding of all phases of project document production and the relationship between drawings and specifications.
• Strong knowledge of civil systems means and methods, materials, and industry standards.
• Ability to lead one or more teams through all phases of the project.
• Check the work of others for accuracy and completeness and manages time to meet project budget and schedule.
• Leads, participates and collaborates in project team setting and engages in creative and critical thought.
• Advanced understanding of civil engineering concepts and ability to communicate ideas to others.
• Require understanding of Microsoft Office, as well as relevant discipline software programs, which may include AutoCAD Civil3D, GIS, HEC-RAS PCSWMM, XPSWMM, HydroCAD, HSPF, or other modeling software.
• Strong presentation and interview skills.
• Effective communicator and able to work on and lead teams.
• Efficient project management of multiple concurrent projects.

Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in Civil, Environmental Engineering or in a related engineering field. Master’s degree preferred.
• Minimum of 7 years of experience; 15+ years preferred. Preferred experience with hydrologic and hydraulic modeling, stormwater management BMP implementation, water quality, stream restoration, and floodplain analyses.
• Licensed Professional Engineer in Wisconsin or ability to get license within 6 months. Licensure in other states is desired but not required.
• Preference given for Certified Floodplain Manager (CFM) credential.

Typical office environment working with computers and working at a desk for long periods of time. Field work may include exposure to the elements including inclement weather. Applicants should expect occasional travel to meet with clients and regulators, perform project oversight work, and business development.

This description is not a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that may be required of the employee and other duties, responsibilities and activities may be assigned or may be changed at any time with or without notice.

About Stantec

Stantec is a global leader in sustainable engineering, architecture, and environmental consulting. The diverse perspectives of our partners and interested parties drive us to think beyond what’s previously been done on critical issues like climate change, digital transformation, and future-proofing our cities and infrastructure. We innovate at the intersection of community, creativity, and client relationships to advance communities everywhere, so that together we can redefine what’s possible.

If you’re passionate about empowering communities, join us to discover a career with endless opportunities to make communities more equitable, resilient, and livable.