The posting
Job Description
The Opportunity
WSP is seeking a transformational executive to establish and lead a Project Controls organization supporting projects across the company’s business lines, market sectors, and geographies.
As WSP delivers increasingly complex, multidisciplinary, and high-risk projects, this new Project Controls function will provide the governance, controls, operational support, and performance insight needed to strengthen project delivery while allowing Project and Program Managers to concentrate on strategic leadership, client service, and technical execution.
This executive will be responsible for building the function from its formative stage into an integrated organization of approximately 200 professionals. They will be responsible for defining the operating model, establish the leadership structure, recruit & develop the team, launch pilot deployments, build partnerships across the business, and create a scalable service delivery model. This is an enterprise-building role requiring a leader who can move comfortably between strategy and execution, influence senior stakeholders, establish organizational credibility, and translate project delivery needs into practical and measurable solutions.
Key Responsibilities
Build and Lead the Organization
- Establish the vision, charter, governance model, organizational structure, operating plan, and service-delivery framework for the organization.
- Develop and execute a workforce strategy to grow the organization to approximately 200 staff through recruitment, internal transitions, talent development, and appropriate use of global delivery resources.
- Build a leadership structure that includes business-line leads, functional subject matter experts, project-deployed professionals, and centralized support capabilities.
- Define roles, responsibilities, competencies, career paths, staffing ratios, and succession plans for the organization.
- Recruit, develop, engage, and retain a diverse, high-performing national team.
Develop & Implement the Operating Model
- Lead the development of responsibility matrices and rules of engagement that clarify ownership, decision rights, escalation paths, and handoffs.
- Define how Project Controls services will be requested, prioritized, priced, staffed, deployed, and evaluated.
- Establish clear interfaces and accountability among Project and Program Managers, Finance, Operations, Commercial Management, project controls, quality, risk, and other enabling functions.
- Coordinate the integration of resources, responsibilities, and workflows that may transition from existing functions into the new organization.
- Lead a phased rollout beginning with strategy and mobilization, followed by pilot deployment, business-line expansion, optimization, and national implementation.
- Manage growth in a disciplined manner while maintaining quality, consistency, utilization, and responsiveness.
- Establish standardized and consistent processes for project setup, forecasting, reporting, contract compliance, milestone tracking, invoicing, risk monitoring, and closeout.
- Create a data-management strategy that supports reliable project and portfolio-level decision-making.
- Advance automation and responsible AI-enabled solutions that improve efficiency, data quality, forecasting, and management insight.
Establish Project Controls Services
- Provide executive oversight for a consistent suite of project controls and support services spanning the project lifecycle, including:
- Proposal-phase pricing and project-planning support. Project onboarding, WBS/CBS setup, and baseline development.
- Project Execution Plan and Project Management Plan support.
- Governance frameworks, RACI development, and action and decision tracking.
- Contract administration and contractual requirements tracking. Subconsultant and vendor administration, invoicing, and MWDBE compliance.
- Change-order management, insurance coordination, and audit support.
- Task-level scope, schedule, and budget tracking. Earned value, Estimate at Completion, and Estimate to Complete tracking.
- Forecasting, margin monitoring, invoicing, and financial-performance visibility.
- Milestone, deliverable, risk, quality, client-feedback, and document-management coordination.
- Reporting, dashboarding, project reviews, and management oversight.
- Contract and financial reconciliation, records archiving, lessons learned, and closeout reporting.
Strengthen Financial and Delivery Performance
- Partner with business, operational, and financial leadership to improve forecasting accuracy, cost visibility, invoicing timeliness, budget monitoring, and action resolution.
- Develop escalation and intervention protocols for projects requiring additional attention.
- Promote proactive management of scope, schedule, cost, risk, change, contracts, subconsultants, and project documentation.
- Demonstrate the measurable value of the function through improved project outcomes and actionable performance insight.
Who You Are
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in engineering, construction management, business, finance, project management, or a related discipline.
- 15 years of progressive leadership experience in project controls, program management, project delivery, commercial management, operational excellence, or a closely related function.
- Experience leading large teams through multiple levels of management and across geographically dispersed operations.
- Strong understanding of project governance, cost management, scheduling, forecasting, earned value, risk, change management, contract administration, invoicing, reporting, and project closeout.
- Demonstrated ability to develop operating models, organizational structures, workforce plans, standards, procedures, and performance measures.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Master’s degree in business administration, engineering, construction management, finance, or a related field.
- Professional certifications such as PMP, AACE CCP, AACE PSP, PMI-SP, PgMP, or an equivalent industry-recognized credential.
- Experience establishing a shared-services, center-of-excellence, PMO, enterprise project controls, or project performance organization.
- Experience with Power BI, InEight, enterprise financial systems, scheduling platforms, document-management systems, forecasting applications, and integrated project-performance reporting.
- Experience incorporating data analytics, automation, or AI into project-performance processes.
- Familiarity with multiple project delivery models and a broad range of market sectors.
Why Join WSP
This role offers the opportunity to build a national function with a direct impact on project delivery, financial performance, governance, risk management, and leadership decision-making. The organization is intended to create a scalable and sustainable delivery model, institutionalize consistent project performance practices, and enable Project and Program Managers to place greater focus on clients, teams, and technical excellence. #LI-MP1
WSP Benefits:
WSP provides a comprehensive suite of benefits focused on a 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): $250,000-$300,000/year
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.
Expected Salary (Colorado only): $250,000-$300,000/year
WSP USA is providing the compensation range that the company in good faith believes it might pay and/or offer for this position within the state of Colorado, based on the successful applicant’s education, experience, knowledge, skills, and 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.
About Us
About WSP
WSP USA is the U.S. operating company of WSP, one of the world's leading engineering and professional services firms. Dedicated to serving local communities, we are engineers, planners, technical experts, strategic advisors and construction management professionals. WSP USA designs lasting solutions in the buildings, transportation, energy, water and environment markets. With more than 15,000 employees in over 300 offices across the U.S., we partner with our clients to help communities prosper.
www.wsp.com
WSP provides a flexible and agile workplace model while meeting client needs. Employees are also afforded a comprehensive suite of benefits including medical, dental, vision, disability, life, and retirement savings focused on providing health and financial stability throughout the employee’s career.
At WSP, we want to give our employees the challenges they seek to grow their careers and knowledge base. Your daily contributions to your team will be essential in meeting client objectives, goals and challenges. Are you ready to get started?
WSP USA (and all of its U.S. companies) is an Equal Opportunity Employer Race/Age/Color/Religion/Sex/Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity/National Origin/Disability or Protected Veteran Status.
The selected candidate must be authorized to work in the United States.
NOTICE TO THIRD PARTY AGENCIES:
WSP does not accept unsolicited resumes from recruiters, employment agencies, or other staffing services. Unsolicited resumes include any resume or hiring document sent to WSP in the absence of a signed Service Agreement where WSP has expressly requested recruitment/staffing services specific to the position at hand. Any unsolicited resumes, including those submitted to hiring managers or other business leaders, will become the property of WSP and WSP will have the right to hire that candidate without reservation – no fee or other compensation will be owed or paid to the recruiter, employment agency, or other staffing service.
