Pump Stations and Pipelines (PS&PL) Business Class Director

About the role

At HDR, our employee-owners are fully engaged in creating a welcoming environment where each of us is valued and respected, a place where everyone is empowered to bring their authentic selves and novel ideas to work every day. As part of our Water Business Group, you’ll help shape how communities manage water for generations to come. From delivering safe drinking water and treating wastewater responsibly to developing sustainable water supplies and protecting lives and property through flood control, your work will directly support public health, environmental sustainability, and infrastructure resilience.

We bring together experts across disciplines to solve complex challenges with bold thinking and technical excellence. Whether you're modernizing aging systems or pioneering innovative approaches, your contributions will make a meaningful difference in people’s lives. This isn’t just a job—it's a chance to lead change, drive progress, and leave a lasting legacy.

Responsibilities

• Provide company-wide leadership of technical capabilities within the Pump Stations and Pipelines (PS&PL) business class.
• Build close working relationships and coordinate with related business classes, market sectors, business groups, and operations.
• Lead and participate in technical risk management through process and resource reviews, providing technical advisory services on selected projects, and claims prevention and avoidance activities.
• Drive quality assurance and control processes and coordinate with the Water Business Group (WBG) Quality Manager.
• Oversee development and application of technical tools, standards, and techniques to enhance service quality and efficiency. Ensure technical staff monitor emerging technologies.
• Oversee assignment of qualified, experienced staff to projects, including effective use of worksharing.
• Work with market sector directors to develop a strategic plan for the business class and provide strategic and tactical business trend input to business group leadership at national, regional, area, and local levels.
• Lead applied research strategy and engagement (e.g., Water Research Foundation) to advance technical capabilities, inform future service offerings, and translate research outcomes into practice standards, tools, and guidance.
• Lead and maintain strategic relationships with key university graduate programs to support workforce development, applied research collaboration, recruiting pipelines, and long-term capability building.
• Facilitate business class teamwork, communication, and work sharing between offices, business classes, management, marketing, and staff.
• Monitor business class direction, adherence to policies and practices, quality assurance, technical tools, project staffing, and resource-to-workload allocation.
• Build technical expertise and production capacity through recruitment and training. Coordinate all strategic hires within the business group.
• Facilitate business class technical experts in support of client development and project pursuits.
• Ensure business class technical experts represent HDR through involvement in industry organizations, presentations, and publications.
• Oversee Practice Groups within the Business Class.
• Facilitate “lessons learned” for project delivery, processes, trends, successes, strengths, and weaknesses.
• Monitor company-wide performance within the business class to achieve defined goals and support operational managers in monitoring project performance and implementing corrective actions.
• Facilitate the PARR (Project Assessment and Risk Review) process through assignment of Lead Reviewers, acting as a Lead Reviewer, and reviewing requests for PARR exemptions.
• Work closely with HDR legal, project managers, business group managers, and area managers in reviewing go/no-go decisions, Statements of Work (SOWs), contracts, and project pricing—especially for water conveyance tunnel projects.
• Coordinate with HDR’s other regional and corporate business class technical leads and advisors.
• Participate in corporate management of the pump stations and pipelines program, including targeted technical training, coordination and staffing of critical projects, problem-solving, claims management, and staff mentoring.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in a Professional, Architecture, Engineering, or closely related field.
• A minimum of 10 years of experience in a related field.
• For Business Class leadership roles overseeing technical design, the role must maintain a professional or Architecture/Engineering registration and have related technical experience.
• Experience in development and management of diverse teams.
• Works cooperatively with other business class directors, operations managers, technical directors, and marketing managers on business class efforts.
• Committed to quality, improvement, and HDR values.
• An attitude and commitment to being an active participant in our employee-owned culture.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in a Business Class or Professional Services leadership role.
• Experience working cooperatively with other HDR business class directors, operations managers, technical directors, and marketing managers on business class efforts.

Location and Travel

The geographic location of this position is non-specific; however, a location with significant HDR presence is preferred. The estimated average travel requirement is 50%, with monthly variations between 0% and 75%.

Benefits

We provide a comprehensive benefits package that promotes employee ownership, health, performance, and success, including:

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance.
• Short- and long-term disability and life insurance.
• An employee assistance program.
• Paid time away, parental leave, and paid holidays.
• A retirement savings plan with employer match.
• Employee referral bonus and tuition reimbursement.

Eight Employee Network Groups (Asian Pacific, Black, Hispanic/Latino(a), LGBTQ+, People with Disabilities, Veterans, Women, Young Professionals) help create a sense of belonging and foster a supportive environment where everyone is empowered to engage and contribute.

Pay

The expected compensation range for this position is $178,952–$336,375, depending on skills, experience, education, and geographical location.