Vice President of Rail & Transit, Western Canada

The Opportunity:

Part of the national Transportation & Infrastructure sector, the Transportation Systems sub sector is comprised of over 700 staff located across the country in regions, Quebec, Ontario, Western Canada and internationally in India.

Over the years, the team has become increasingly integrated and are called upon to collaborate on major projects in both Canada and at the Global Rail & Transit scale.

WSP Global Rail & Transit continues to be ranked #1 in Rail & Transit for 8-years in a row by Engineering News Ranking (ENR).

WSP is currently seeking a Vice President of Rail & Transit, Western Canada to join the Transportation Systems leadership team. Reporting to the Transportation Systems Senior Vice President, the Vice President of Rail & Transit for Western Canada provides leadership and strategic direction for British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Winnipeg. Responsible for over 100 staff and a Profit and Loss (P&L) portfolio, primary responsibilities include strategic vision, business development, project delivery, quality, client service, safety, and people performance management of the Rail & Transit Western Canadian group. This is a unique opportunity to grow an existing business as part of our strategic plan that already offers innovative, value-engineered solutions that draw on decades of experience, through your valuable experience building a discipline across provinces/territories and through your understanding of the challenges and risks of the rail & transit industry. This role ensures coordination of efforts across provinces and other sectors, and as such, you will have significant demonstrable experience optimizing the financial, commercial, and project delivery performance of an existing business, developing plans, programs and organizational objectives to enhance margins, workforce utilization, and cash generation enabling the growth of the business and ensuring client satisfaction. All activities are undertaken in support of the WSP Canada strategic plan.

Why WSP?

• A Canadian success story - we're proud to wear the red and white of this beautiful country and show the world what Canada has to offer,
• Enhance the world around you - from the environment to the highways, to the buildings and the terrain, WSP is the fabric of Canada;
• Outstanding career opportunities - we're growing and pushing ourselves every day to be greater than yesterday - we're open to your ideas and trying new things;
• A phenomenal collaborative culture and a workforce filled with genuinely good people who are doing humbly important work. Come find out for yourself what it's like to be a part of our journey.

We offer attractive pay, a great corporate culture, comprehensive and employee-focused benefits including virtual healthcare and a wellness platform as well as great savings programs, and a clear vision for the future.

#WeAreWSP

A day in the life:

• Continue developing the Rail & Transit Western Canada strategic and operating plans in collaboration with the business line executive, the business line finance leader, and beyond;
• Provides leadership by communicating the vision, strategy, operating plan, budgets and targets of Transportation Systems;
• Responsible for optimizing the performance of the operations, including, project margin, staff utilization and Days-Sales-Outstanding (DSO);
• With key support by Transportation Systems operations leader, forecasts the financial performance, ensuring accurate revenue recognition and preparation of monthly/ quarterly/annual forecasts;
• Leads business development efforts for Rail & Transit Western Canada by meeting with clients in the context of projects to be realized or the development of potential markets and ensures acceptable returns on the investments aligned with Transportation Systems strategy;
• Builds relationships with key clients, industry organizations, teaming partners, and internal and external stakeholders to identify opportunities in order to grow the business;
• Collaborates with peers nationally and in other geographies to leverage technical expertise, ensure client satisfaction and implement best practices;
• With the support of Transportation Systems Commercial & Risks team, defines contracting strategies, commercial terms and measures to manage and mitigate risk during key pursuit processes including interacting directly with customers during negotiations;
• Provides guidance to leaders to ensure operational and project delivery excellence;
• Conducts regular project reviews to ensure budget, schedule, risk, and cost to complete estimates are in order;
• Guides and directs leaders on measures to mitigate project performance issues and risks, ensuring successful delivery on the contractual commitments and financial targets for the project portfolio in order to meet client expectations and achieve or exceed profitability targets;
• Responsible for managing and developing employees, the performance management program and the job architecture structure, including supporting the identification, retention of, and investment in top talent;
• Ensures a high degree of employee engagement and low turnover of staff by fostering a high performance culture;
• Visibly champions the WSP programs of safety and ethics & compliance to ensure they are an overriding part of the organizational culture;
• Other duties as assigned/required.

We'd love to hear from you if you have...

• Bachelor's degree in business, engineering or other technical discipline;
• Minimum of twenty (20) years of professional working experience, preferably ten (10) years, managing in the rail & transit industry;
• Must be committed to safety and health in the workplace and innovative in achieving best in class safety results
• Understanding in multi-modal public transportation would be an asset
• Must have an understanding of technical and practical knowledge of railway operations and maintenance, encompassing the transportation, infrastructure and mechanical functions;
• A strong and sustained history of delivering quality financial performance and results;
• A proven track record of developing business with existing and new clients, as well as experience in interfacing with municipal, provincial, and federal agencies, and the private sector;
• Demonstrated ability to strategically address growth opportunities and articulate evolving priorities in the market;
• Seen as a leader with a high and positive credibility factor;
• A strong reputation for uncompromising integrity;
• Demonstrated good judgment balanced with informed risk taking;
• Highly professional with strong written and oral communication skills;
• Comfortable with matrix management models;
• The ability to successfully lead with little direction to meet organizational goals;
• Confidence to influence a high caliber team to drive a business to higher performance levels and seize the opportunities presented internally and in the market;
• Advanced people and leadership skills to effectively manage relationships which may be indirect to achieve consensus, direction and achievement of results;
• A track record of creating a climate where people want to do their best through working collaboratively, empowering teams to identify and solve problems, creating a clear sense of identity with the company, and holding teams accountable for meeting their collective goals;
• Must be open for 30% travel throughout Western Canada and also as required nationally; and
• This position may require some international travel.

WSP is one of the world's leading professional services firms. Our purpose is to future proof our cities and environments.

We have over 65,000 team members across the globe. In Canada, our 12,000+ people are involved in everything from environmental remediation to urban planning, from engineering iconic buildings to designing sustainable transportation networks, from finding new ways to extract essential resources to developing renewable power sources for the future.

At WSP:

• We value our people and our reputation
• We are locally dedicated with international scale
• We are future focused and challenge the status quo
• We foster collaboration in everything we do
• We have an empowering culture and hold ourselves accountable

Please Note:

Health and Safety is a core paramount value of WSP. Given the importance of keeping one another safe it is expected that you comply with our Health, Safety & Environment (HSE) policy at all times as well as client HSE policies when working at client locations.

Offers of employment for safety-sensitive positions involving fieldwork are contingent upon candidates being able to perform key physical tasks of the job as described in the job posting and interview. This may include the ability to work in a variety of environmental conditions, such as remote or isolated areas, working alone, and in inclement weather (within safe and reasonable limits).

WSP welcomes and encourages applications from people with disabilities. Accommodations are available on request for candidates taking part in all aspects of the selection process.

WSP is committed to the principles of employment equity. Only the candidates selected will be contacted.

WSP does not accept unsolicited resumes from agencies. For more information please READ THE FULL POLICY.

WSP Canada Inc.

Category

Engineering