US Director, Project Governance & Execution

Job description

This Opportunity The US Director, Project Governance & Execution is the senior leader responsible for strengthening project delivery governance, execution discipline, commercial performance, project management, technical quality, and delivery capability across all US business lines. The role exists to help the US business deliver projects safely, profitably, on schedule, at high quality, and with satisfied clients, consistent with the mission reflected in the US project delivery organization design. This leader establishes standards, tools, governance routines, and execution practices to enable consistent project performance across a complex, multi-business-line organization. Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer and serving as part of the US Leadership Team, this role works closely with the regional, functional and global teams, in addition to leaders within each of the Business Lines in WSP US. The successful candidate will bring demonstrated operational results, commercial acumen and discipline, enterprise influence, and the ability to move key business priorities across a matrixed organization. This role requires a leader who can set the bar, build alignment, enhance collaboration, make high-stakes decisions, hold accountabilities, and drive practical execution across policy, process, people, tools, and governance. What This Role Owns The US Director, Project Governance & Execution owns the enterprise framework for how WSP US governs and improves project delivery performance across the full project lifecycle. Key areas of ownership include: Project delivery governance and standards: Establish, maintain, and continuously improve policies, procedures, guidelines, tools, best practices, lessons learned, and practical how-to guidance across all US business lines. Commercial and risk management: Drive commercial excellence, pricing discipline, contract review governance, risk identification and mitigation, contingency management, subconsultant oversight, change management, claims and dispute resolution, commercial terms negotiation support, RDOA approval governance, and Work at Risk review. Technical quality governance: Oversee QA/QC frameworks, technical standards, design reviews, technical audits, lessons learned, client expectation processes, and client satisfaction feedback mechanisms. Project controls, tools, and reporting: Develop and evolve project delivery processes and procedures, including integration with ERP and Horizon, cost management, pricing development, scheduling, forecasting, EAC, earned value, and project performance reporting. Stay at the forefront of project management technology tools, including -enabled capabilities, and lead their practical adoption to improve project delivery insight, consistency, efficiency, and decision-makingPM advancement and development: Strengthen project manager and project director onboarding, ongoing development, WSP best practices training, project leadership training, and coordination with global project leadership programs. Acquisition integration: Lead the project delivery component of acquisition integration, including gap analysis, project analysis, ERP transition support, training, and continued support. Global and regional alignment: Represent the US region in global project delivery forums and ensure the US execution model aligns with global initiatives while remaining practical for US business needs. Your Impact Enterprise Project Delivery Governance Set and maintain the US project delivery governance framework across all business lines. Establish clear standards for project planning, readiness reviews, project reviews, delivery controls, issue escalation, and recovery planning. Ensure governance practices are practical, business-focused, scalable, and consistently applied. Serve as the senior US decision maker on project delivery governance matters. Represent project delivery in US and global leadership forums. Participate in go/no-go governance for pursuits that meet defined size, risk, complexity, commercial, contract, or delivery-risk thresholds. Commercial Performance and Risk Management Drive commercial excellence and standards across the US business. Strengthen pricing discipline, rate development, and commercial decision-making in partnership with Finance, Legal, Sales, Procurement, and business line leadership. Enable contract review and compliance processes for high-risk opportunities and projects in conjunction with the Legal team and enforce good risk management practices resulting from that process in line with WSP’s approach. Oversee change management, contingency management, subconsultant management, and provide direct engagement on claims, dispute resolution and commercial terms negotiation. support Legal function in RDOA approval governance. Lead Work at Risk governance, and high-risk project/pursuit reviews. Technical Quality and Delivery Assurance Establish and oversee US Technical quality frameworks, technical standards, and technical assurance processes. Ensure consistent use of independent technical reviews, design reviews, technical audits, and lessons learned. Monitor client expectations and client satisfaction feedback to identify improvement opportunities. Partner with business line, geographic, sector, and quality leaders to improve project performance and reduce delivery risk. Project Controls, Tools, and Performance Reporting Oversee US project delivery tools, dashboards, and performance reporting. Support consistent practices for cost management, scheduling, forecasting, EAC, earned value, pricing development, and project performance reporting. Partner with Finance, BI & Analytics, IT, and Global teams to improve data quality, reporting discipline, and adoption of tools including Horizon. Ensure project controls are used to drive action, not simply reporting. PM and Project Director Capability Lead the development and execution of project delivery training, onboarding, and ongoing development fo