Technical Director - Water Resources Engineer

Reporting into the Mining Business structure, the primary focus for the Technical Director, Water Resource Engineer includes project delivery and direction, provision of technical expertise in water resources engineering design, business development, understanding and maintaining our existing key client relationships, training and mentoring of junior staff and active development of new client relationships and opportunities in line with our strategy. This role is predominantly within the mining business, with the potential to also work with other local sectors, including infrastructure and land development.

The Technical Director, Water Resource Engineer role is a senior leadership role within the mine water team, with a specific focus on technical excellence, mentorship, business development and project delivery. The role includes responsibility for building and maintaining mine water team project backlog and supporting the day-to-day delivery of projects, with a focus on financial performance, client service excellence and technical service excellence, staff engagement and long-term professional development of technical staff.

Your new role, whats involved?

• Provide senior technical direction, review, and sign-off of work within your area of professional practise.
• Deliver practice-leading consulting services to internal and external clients in the areas of conceptual model development, hydraulics, engineering design, mine water management, stormwater management, flood-lines, hydrology, water conservation and demand management, water balances and mine water management.
• Direct and review water resource aspects of a range of international mining and water resources projects, including environmental assessments, environmental permitting, and engineering design projects.
• The type of work undertaken as part of these projects could include the following:

• • Climatic, hydrological, and hydraulic assessments, including fieldwork, data management, data analysis, and modelling;
  • Integrated water management plans and completing conceptual design of water management infrastructure;
  • Water balance modelling to assess water management solutions and to estimate water demand, treatment, storage, and discharge volumes;
  • Pre-feasibility, feasibility and detailed designs of water management infrastructure (e.g. open channels, sewers, culverts, spillways, energy dissipators, holding and settling ponds, pumping systems) including capital and operating cost estimates;
  • Dam break analyses of water and tailings dams, including developing inundation maps, delineating self-rescue zones and classifying dams in terms of risk to population, property and the environment; and
  • Dilution and assimilative capacity assessments of surface water receivers of effluent.
  • Flood Risk Assessments (FRA) and Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SuDS) design for land development projects;
• Assist with developing projects and services which support climate change reporting, resilience and adaptation, including nature-based solutions;
• Participate in and direct multi-disciplinary project teams on local, regional and international consulting projects, so they are delivered safely, on time, within budget and to client and WSPs standards.
• Achieve and maintain a utilisation target to be agreed with your People Manager and reviewed annually or as determined by specific business need.
• Undertake project-based travel and site work, working away both in the UK and internationally. The frequency and duration of this will depend on business and client need.

Wed love to hear from you if you have:

Skills and Qualifications

• Bachelor degree in engineering, hydrology or a related field / postgraduate qualification in engineering or environmental management;
• Registered Chartered/Professional Engineer or member of a related professional body;
• Proactive approach in technical service delivery.
• Experience in developing client relationships and contributing to business and market share growth;
• Ability to operate within and guide high performing teams;
• High level communication and presentation skills;
• Track record of winning work individually and for others; and
• Developed project delivery and direction experience.

Competencies

• Technical excellence: interest and involvement in technical communities, professional committees, expert panels, publications and conferences
• Client focus: introduces intermediate staff to their existing clients, pursues new business opportunities, seeks new opportunities through regular client contact, positive networking and cross-selling
• Leadership: able to involve others in establishing a shared vision of where the team is going, sets an example by aligning behaviours with values
• Strong mentor: actively mentors a number of people in their group or in other groups or offices
• Strategist: can sense and respond to changes in the market, helps the organisation change and adapt
• Diplomat: skill in diplomacy, able to tactfully address and resolve difficult situations
• Ownership attitude: willing to jump in and sort out higher-level issues (rather than wait for someone else)
• Corporate awareness: able to translate regional initiatives to the office level, wants to understand what is happening at broader level of organisation