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Mannik Smith Group

West Regional Director of Engineering

Mannik Smith Group, Oakland, California, United States, 94616

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West Regional Director of Engineering Department:

Engineering

Employment Type:

Full Time

Location:

Oakland, CA

Compensation:

$175,000 - $215,000 / year

Overview Alta is seeking a dynamic

West Regional Director of Engineering

to join our team in

Oakland

and lead our growing engineering practice across the West. This is a fantastic opportunity for an engineering leader who believes in the importance of active, multimodal, and sustainable transportation to shape communities while driving business excellence and operational performance.

In this role, you will work with the Engineering Director to provide strategic leadership and operational oversight for our West region engineering teams, driving innovation in sustainable transportation design while fostering a culture of collaboration, professional growth, and excellence. You will be responsible for setting technical and strategic direction for engineering initiatives across our West region of offices, which include Oakland, Portland, Los Angeles, Seattle, Phoenix, Denver, Salt Lake City, and Reno ensuring our projects create positive impacts on communities nationwide while meeting financial and operational performance standards.

If you are passionate about leading transformational change in transportation engineering while developing talent and advancing organizational excellence, apply with Alta today!

About Alta

Alta Planning + Design is a sustainable transportation company dedicated to creating active, healthy communities through planning, landscape architecture, engineering, and education/encouragement programs. Alta was founded in 1996 when communities were calling for safer streets for people walking and bicycling as the non-motorized transportation movement developed into a profession in the United States. We pioneered the field of active transportation, evolving our planning and design work into a visionary global practice that empowers people to live active, healthy lives and gets them to where they need to go.

Our core values and work bring about positive change by creating places that are geared toward moving people rather than cars, connecting community members to daily needs and human experience, and empowering every person to live an active healthy life. As a global leader in mobility innovation for over 27 years with over 230 staff, we are dedicated to connecting people to places by working across disciplines and scale to address social justice, safety, and environmental resilience.

Leadership Responsibilities As West Regional Director of Engineering, you will be the strategic leader responsible for driving engineering excellence and organizational growth across our western operations while collaborating with other regional directors to help lead the engineering practice as a whole. Your leadership will directly impact the success of our mission to create active, healthy communities, while ensuring strong financial performance and operational excellence.

Strategic Leadership & Vision

Develop and execute long-term strategic plans for the West region engineering practice, aligning with company-wide objectives and market opportunities

Ensure the West Region meets or exceeds annual and quarterly financial targets, with strong emphasis on achieving Net Service Revenue and EBITDA growth

Lead the regional engineering organization through periods of growth and change, ensuring operational excellence and cultural alignment

Champion innovation in active transportation engineering practices and emerging technologies

Drive a culture of fiscal and business acumen that empowers teams to seek continuous improvement in operational efficiency and financial performance

Play an active role in the budgeting process, including prioritization of trade-offs to grow both revenue and earnings

People Leadership & Organizational Development

Lead, mentor, and develop a team of engineering professionals, project managers, and technical staff across multiple office locations

Supervise and evaluate West Region staff, creating clear performance expectations, providing regular feedback, and establishing pathways for career advancement

Build and maintain a high-performance culture focused on professional growth, collaboration, and technical excellence

Recruit, hire, and retain top engineering talent to support regional growth objectives, maintaining forward-looking hiring plans to fill open roles efficiently

Foster cross-disciplinary collaboration and knowledge sharing across engineering, planning, landscape architecture, and other practice areas

Own key performance areas including safety, client engagement, staff development and retention, and cross-business collaboration

Maintain staff utilization at or above predetermined goals while ensuring sustainable workload management

Business Development & Client Relations

Assist regional business development directors in identifying new market opportunities and client relationships

Lead proposal development and client presentations for major regional projects

Maintain and expand relationships with key public sector clients

Ensure compliance with proposal and cost estimation protocols to maintain financial and delivery integrity

Operational Excellence & Project Oversight

Oversee project delivery across the region, ensuring quality, schedule, and budget performance delivering projects on-time and on-budget

Oversee financial and operational performance of projects within the West Region, maintaining close oversight of project managers and their performance relative to plan while delegating effectively

Demonstrate deep understanding of financial metrics and KPIs including book-to-burn ratio, revenue factor, and overhead rate

Implement best practices and process improvements to enhance delivery efficiency and client satisfaction

Provide strategic oversight of project portfolios ranging from natural surface trails to complex multimodal transportation networks

Ensure compliance with professional standards, regulations, and company quality assurance protocols

Apply disciplined approach to managing non-billable labor and overhead costs

Qualifications Required Experience & Education:

15+ years of progressive experience as a Transportation Engineer in consulting environment or public entity

8+ years in project management roles with demonstrated P&L responsibility

5+ years in leadership positions managing engineering teams and business operations

Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering

Professional Engineering (P.E.) license required

Proven track record of business development success and client relationship management

Leadership & Management Competencies:

Demonstrated ability to lead, inspire, and develop high-performing teams in a professional services environment

Strong strategic thinking and business acumen with experience in organizational planning and execution

Financial acumen with ability to analyze business performance and articulate relevant KPIs, financial metrics, and levers of growth and profit

Excellent communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills with ability to influence at all organizational levels

Experience managing regional operations, including budget oversight, resource allocation, and performance metrics

Proven ability to drive cultural change and organizational development initiatives

Budget prioritization skills with experience evaluating trade-offs to optimize both revenue and earnings in a professional services environment

Strong command of numbers and finance, with a bias toward data-driven decision making

Critical thinking abilities with purposeful judgment and reasoned consideration of evidence, context, and objectives

Attention to detail with focus on monitoring KPIs and understanding that long-term success is driven by daily execution

Technical Expertise:

Experience in active, non-motorized transportation planning and design

Comprehensive understanding of project delivery from conceptual design through construction administration

Experience with Plans, Specifications and Estimates packages for complex roadway and transportation projects

Proficiency in project management principles, methods, and techniques for large-scale, multi-disciplinary projects

Working knowledge of MS Excel, Word, MS Project, AutoCAD / Civil 3D or MicroStation / OpenRoads, and enterprise project management tools

Additional Requirements:

Ability and willingness to travel regionally as needed

Strong professional ethics, accountability, and decision-making capabilities

Experience managing competing priorities and multiple simultaneous projects within budget and schedule constraints

Operational discipline with focus on ensuring compliance with project protocols and standards

Advanced Education & Credentials:

Master's degree in Civil Engineering, Business Administration, or related field

Active leadership roles in industry-relevant professional associations and committees

Specialized Experience:

Experience leading large, complex transportation engineering projects

Experience with Deltek VantagePoint or similar enterprise resource planning systems

Background in active, sustainable, multimodal transportation

Mentoring and coaching experience with engineering professionals

Experience leading cross-functional, multi-disciplinary project teams

What We Offer Flexible Schedule

Alta offers a flexible, hybrid work schedule where most employees work from home three days per week. In-office days support our collaborative culture, one of our core values.

Compensation

The pay range for this job in Oakland is

$175,000-$215,000

annually. Placement within the range is based upon experience, skill-sets, and qualifications.

Benefits

Medical : PPO or HSA medical plans

Dental/Vision : PPO

Life Insurance : Alta pays 100% of the premium for life and AD&D, equal to your base compensation

401(k) : Alta provides a match up to 3%

PTO : 21 days accrued annually to start

Holidays : 11 total company paid holidays

Paid Parental Leave/Short-Term Disability

Additional Benefits : Wellness reimbursement up to $800 annually, Alta Gets Around benefit of up to $900 annually, 5-year travel award, and professional development opportunities

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