Design Manager - Illinois Tollway

Be involved in projects with our Illinois Tollway General Engineering Consultant (GEC) Team and be a part of a growing organization that meets our client’s objectives and solves their challenges.

At WSP, we are driven by inspiring the right people to be part of our future-focused business objectives. Our devotion to teamwork has allowed us to build communities and expand our skylines. Here at WSP, anything is within our reach- and yours as a WSP employee. Come join us and help shape the future!

WSP is initiating a search for a Design Manager to lead design excellence across one of the nation's leading transportation agencies, shaping technical standards, strengthening quality, and implementing practical innovations that keep the Illinois Tollway at the forefront of the transportation industry.

This position is designed for a respected transportation design leader who combines deep Illinois Tollway experience, strong technical judgment, and proven people-management skills. The successful candidate will remain technically engaged in complex design issues while operating at the program level.

The Design Manager will be supported by technical specialists and subject matter experts, providing access to deep institutional knowledge and technical resources.

This position requires a blend of technical depth, leadership, staff management, and strategic coordination, with the opportunity to influence how projects are delivered and sustained across the Illinois Tollway system.

Program and Professional Leadership

• Report through and work in close partnership with the GEC Project Manager while serving as a trusted technical advisor to Illinois Tollway leadership and industry.
• Provide multidisciplinary leadership across roadway, structures, maintenance of traffic, drainage, geotechnical, utilities, signing and pavement markings, lighting, landscape, and tolling and intelligence transportation systems.
• Maintain strategic awareness of capital program efforts, conduct technical reviews, and advise when technical risks, design exceptions, policy questions, innovation opportunities, or cross-program consistency issues arise.
• Provide sound engineering judgment on complex design matters.
• Build consensus among Illinois Tollway stakeholders, Design Section Engineers (DSEs), and technical specialists to advance objectives.

Design Standards, Criteria, and Engineering Judgment

• Champion consistent interpretation and application of Illinois Tollway design criteria, manuals, specifications, policies, and procedures across projects and consultant teams.
• Proactively identify gaps, conflicts, outdated requirements, and opportunities for improvement within existing technical guidance.
• Lead the development, update, and implementation of design manuals, specifications, criteria, technical policies, and guidance documents, including annual industry outreach event.
• Evaluate proposed design exceptions and engineering decisions by balancing requirements with operational performance, constructability, life-cycle cost, risk, maintainability, and accepted industry practice.
• Maintain awareness of evolving AASHTO, FHWA, IDOT, TRB, and other relevant national guidance and evaluate its practical applicability to the Illinois Tollway.
• Promote consistent engineering judgment, documentation, and decision-making across disciplines, projects, and delivery teams.
• Ensure lessons learned from design, construction, operations, and maintenance are incorporated into standards, guidance, training, and future project delivery.

Innovation and Continuous Improvement

• Serve as a leader who respectfully challenges the status quo and helps position the Illinois Tollway as a leader in the transportation industry.
• Identify, evaluate, and champion practical innovations in design methods, digital delivery, model-based design, QA/QC, sustainability, resiliency, project delivery, and emerging transportation practices.
• Focus innovation efforts on measurable improvements in design quality, mobility, efficiency, maintainability, long-term value, and outcomes.
• Maintain awareness of industry trends and professional organizations.
• Supervise and develop GEC staff, establish priorities, balance workloads, and support accountability for quality and delivery.
• Provide guidance to industry in engineering judgment, multidisciplinary coordination, quality, communication, and program leadership.
• Lead technical communities of practice that encourage consistency, knowledge sharing, and continuous improvement.
• Identify technical training needs and help elevate the capabilities of the team and broader consultant community.
• Create an environment in which technical staff can raise risks early, challenge assumptions constructively, and develop solutions collaboratively.

People Leadership and Technical Development

• Supervise and develop GEC staff, establish priorities, balance workloads, and support accountability for quality and delivery.
• Provide guidance to industry in engineering judgment, multidisciplinary coordination, quality, communication, and program leadership.
• Lead technical communities of practice that encourage consistency, knowledge sharing, and continuous improvement.
• Identify technical training needs and help elevate the capabilities of the team and broader consultant community.
• Create an environment in which technical staff can raise risks early, challenge assumptions constructively, and develop solutions collaboratively.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Participate in regular coordination with Illinois Tollway leadership and industry stakeholders.
• Communicate technical issues clearly and concisely to technical and nontechnical audiences.
• Coordinate with senior project advisors, discipline leaders, and subject matter experts to bring appropriate resources and best practices to the program.
• Represent the team with professionalism, credibility, sound judgment, and a strong client-service mindset.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering from an accredited university.
• Illinois Professional Engineer (PE) license required. An Illinois Structural Engineer (SE) license is required when the candidate's primary technical background is structural engineering.
• Minimum of fifteen (15+) years of progressively responsible transportation design experience.
• Demonstrated Illinois Tollway project or program experience is required, including strong working knowledge of Illinois Tollway design criteria, manuals, specifications, policies, procedures, and review processes.
• Strong technical expertise in roadway or structural design, combined with demonstrated program-level leadership across multiple transportation design disciplines.
• Proven experience leading and managing multidisciplinary design teams and mentoring technical professionals.
• Demonstrated ability to remain technically engaged in complex design issues, design exceptions, standards updates, and multidisciplinary coordination challenges.
• Experience overseeing design quality, technical reviews, and QA/QC on major transportation projects or programs.
• Experience developing, updating, or implementing design manuals, specifications, criteria, technical policies, or agency guidance.
• Excellent written, verbal, facilitation, and presentation skills, with the ability to build consensus and communicate effectively with agency leadership, consultants, and technical specialists.

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior experience serving as an Illinois Tollway Design Section Engineer Project Manager, or equivalent leadership experience on Illinois Tollway projects.
• Experience providing design leadership for a major highway, tollway, or transportation capital program.
• Strong understanding of IDOT requirements and applicable AASHTO, FHWA, MUTCD, and national transportation design guidance.
• Experience leading multidisciplinary standards, criteria, specification, or policy-development initiatives.
• Understanding of constructability, maintenance considerations, life-cycle performance, value engineering, operational impacts, and design-related risk management.
• Experience implementing practical innovations in design delivery, digital engineering, quality management, or capital program processes

WSP Benefits:

WSP provides a comprehensive suite of benefits focused on providing health and financial stability throughout the employee’s career. These benefits include coverage related to medical, dental, vision, disability, and life; retirement savings; paid sick leave; paid vacation (or other personal time); paid parental leave; and paid time off for purposes of bereavement, voting, and/or attendance at naturalization proceedings. 

Compensation:
Expected Salary (all locations): $180,000 - $233,860

WSP USA is providing the compensation range that the company in good faith believes it might pay and offer for this position, based on the successful applicant’s education, experience, knowledge, skills, abilities in addition to internal equity and specific geographic location. WSP USA reserves the right to ultimately pay more or less than the posted range and offer additional benefits and other compensation, depending on circumstances not related to an applicant’s sex or other status protected by local, state, and/or federal law.

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