This Opportunity WSP is initiating a search for a Deputy Project Manager- Major Municipal Utility Programs to support large utility accounts in Southern California. The following locations will be considered: Los Angeles, Irvine and Commerce, CA. This position will help lead the day-to-day administration, commercial management, technical coordination, and client delivery of multiple concurrent task orders under an on-call professional services contract. The successful candidate will combine an engineering foundation with strong project-management discipline. The role is designed to initially operate as the deputy to the current program lead, progressively assume responsibility for project and task-order execution, and develop into a primary day-to-day account and delivery leader. The work spans electric utility, power delivery, facilities, water, energy transition, operational improvement, inspection, design, construction support, training, and advisory assignments. The Deputy Project Manager will coordinate multidisciplinary WSP teams, subconsultants, project controls, accounting, contracts, and client stakeholders while maintaining reliable control of scope, schedule, budget, quality, risk, and communications. As demand for AI, cloud computing, and digital infrastructure accelerates, our clients are developing some of the world's largest, most complex, and most power-intensive facilities. In this role, you will help deliver the electrical infrastructure that enables next-generation data center campuses - projects requiring hundreds of megawatts of power and unprecedented levels of planning, engineering, and coordination. You will work across the full project lifecycle, playing a key role in delivering critical infrastructure for some of the industry's most prominent clients. What makes this opportunity unique is the breadth of collaboration across WSP's global organization. You will work alongside top experts in their field to solve highly complex infrastructure challenges. This multidisciplinary environment provides exposure to the full range of technical and strategic considerations required to successfully develop large-scale data center campuses. You will contribute to the planning and design of substations, transmission interconnections, and site electrical infrastructure while supporting fast-paced projects that demand innovation, technical excellence, and strong collaboration. If you're energized by large-scale infrastructure projects, enjoy solving complex technical challenges, and want to help shape the future of digital infrastructure, this is an opportunity to make a lasting impact while accelerating your career on some of the most significant power delivery projects being developed today. Your Impact
- Serve as deputy to the senior program and account leadership team for a major municipal utility client, providing continuity across multiple simultaneous task orders and workstreams.
- Manage assigned task orders from proposal and authorization through kickoff, execution, invoicing, modification, closeout, and lessons learned.
- Act as a responsive day-to-day point of coordination among the client, WSP technical teams, project accountants, contract administrators, leadership, and subconsultants.
- Develop and maintain clear task-order scopes, assumptions, deliverables, work breakdown structures, staffing plans, cost estimates, schedules, and responsibility matrices.
- Lead project kickoffs, recurring client meetings, internal coordination calls, schedule reviews, financial reviews, risk discussions, and action-item follow-up.
- Prepare concise agendas, meeting minutes, executive summaries, monthly progress reports, decision logs, action trackers, risk registers, and leadership briefings.
- Monitor labor hours, revenue, backlog, burn rates, invoicing percentages, expenses, subconsultant commitments, estimate-to-complete, estimate-at-completion, margin, and remaining authorized capacity.
- Partner closely with project accounting to reconcile budgets and invoices, maintain alignment between client task structures and internal systems, resolve billing discrepancies, and support timely collections.
- Identify scope growth, staffing changes, schedule impacts, and commercial exposure early; prepare task-order modification inputs, change documentation, recovery plans, and management recommendations.
- Coordinate multidisciplinary engineering and advisory teams across electrical, civil, structural, mechanical, environmental, construction management, utility operations, and business advisory disciplines.
- Integrate subconsultants into project plans, schedules, budgets, reporting, quality reviews, invoicing, and client communications while preserving clear WSP accountability.
- Coordinate personnel approvals, onboarding, background-check requirements, training prerequisites, travel planning, and other client-specific compliance or access needs.
- Maintain disciplined document control and auditable project records, including approvals, notices to proceed, contractual correspondence, deliverable reviews, invoice support, and closeout evidence.
- Support quality-control planning and verify that deliverables receive appropriate technical, management, and editorial reviews before client submission.
- Escalate safety, quality, schedule, budget, contractual, resource, and client-relationship concerns with clear options and recommended actions.
- Support proposals, task-order responses, fee development, staffing strategies, client presentations, capture planning, and account-growth initiatives.
- Help translate project-delivery performance into stronger client relationships, repeat work, and future opportunities without losing focus on current commitments.
- Mentor project coordinators and emerging project managers and help standardize practical tools, templates, and controls across the account.
- Exercise responsible and ethical decision-making regarding company funds, resources, client information, and professional conduct, and comply with WSP policies and procedures.
- Perform additional responsibilities as required by business needs.
Who You Are Required Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in engineering or a closely related technical field. Electrical Engineering is strongly preferred; Civil, Mechanical, Structural, Environmental, Industrial, Construction, or other relevant backgrounds will be considered.
- 7+ years of progressive experience in engineering consulting, utility infrastructure, capital programs, project delivery, or a comparable owner/consultant environment, including meaningful project-management responsibility.
- Experience managing multiple concurrent projects, work orders, or task orders with responsibility for scope, schedule, budget, staffing, quality, risk, and client communications.
- Demonstrated ability to understand technical engineering work well enough to coordinate discipline leads, challenge assumptions, identify interfaces, and communicate issues accurately without needing to be the technical designer for every assignment.
- Strong commercial and financial-management capability, including labor planning, forecasting, invoice review, budget reconciliation, change management, subconsultant tracking, and profitability awareness.
- Experience developing and maintaining project schedules, action logs, risk registers, decision logs, staffing plans, cost estimates, and monthly status reports.
- Ability to organize incomplete or conflicting information, establish a practical path forward, and drive decisions and follow-up across large stakeholder groups.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to produce concise client-ready correspondence, meeting materials, executive summaries, and management recommendations.
- Professional presence and judgment appropriate for regular interaction with a large public-sector utility, executive stakeholders, technical specialists, contract administrators, and project accountants.
- Advanced proficiency with Microsoft Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams; working knowledge of scheduling and project-controls tools such as Microsoft Project or Primavera P6.
- Ability to work in Southern California and attend in-person client meetings, project sites, and WSP offices as project needs require.
- Ability to travel periodically for project meetings, site activities, supplier or factory inspections, and team coordination.
Preferred Qualifications
- Project Management Professional certification or comparable formal project-management training.
- Experience supporting a municipal utility, public agency, or large regulated utility under an on-call, master-services, or task-order contract.
- Experience with electric transmission, distribution, substations, generation, grid modernization, renewable energy, energy storage, water infrastructure, facilities, or utility asset-management programs.
- Experience with engineering design, procurement, construction support, commissioning, inspection, owner’s engineering, or program-management assignments.
- Experience managing subconsultants and coordinating geographically dispersed or international technical teams.
- Experience with public-sector contract administration, formal personnel approvals, small/diverse business participation reporting, and auditable invoicing requirements.
- Experience supporting proposals, capture planning, account planning, and client relationship development.
- Master’s degree in engineering, business, construction management, or a related field.
WSP Benefits:
WSP provides a comprehensive suite of benefits focused on 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): $102,200 - $182,200 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.
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.
