Associate Project Director, for COWI in North America

Associate Project Director

Long Beach

Regular, Full-Time

Hybrid

Are you interested in managing complex marine and waterfront infrastructure projects while helping expand a respected engineering consultancy in Southern California? Can you handle evolving market conditions by expanding client relationships, improving business performance, and opening doors to new work? Are you committed to delivering high-quality, innovative solutions while building and developing effective teams? Then this is the place to create the solutions the world needs today to enable a better tomorrow.

Lead with a team of experienced leaders

We are seeking an Associate Project Director to join our team in Long Beach. We are widely recognized for our expertise in marine and port structures, with experience spanning the full lifecycle of marine, coastal, and geotechnical projects -from targeted technical consulting to comprehensive planning, design, and implementation. In this role, you will provide senior leadership across project delivery, client relationships, and business development, while contributing to the growth of our presence in the Los Angeles/Long Beach market.

Your key responsibilities will be to:

• Lead and deliver complex waterfront and marine infrastructure projects for public and private clients, ensuring projects are completed on time and within budget from planning through delivery.
• Provide project management leadership across multidisciplinary teams (civil, structural, coastal, geotechnical) to achieve high-quality, coordinated outcomes.
• Serve as the primary client interface, managing contracts, fee negotiations, schedules, and risk while maintaining strong client relationships.
• Manage project commercial performance with a focus on profitability, technical excellence, innovation, and securing follow-on work and change orders.
• Support business development activities including go/no-go decisions, teaming strategies, and proposals, with a focus on growing the California (LA/Long Beach) market.
• Mentor and develop staff while contributing to local office growth, including team building, hiring decisions, and expanding COWI's presence in the region.

Your skills. Our team. Together we design the future

Like us, you believe that leadership growth comes from setting a clear and meaningful direction for your team and supporting them in taking ownership of their work. You always delegate responsibility and ensure an open and safe dialogue, and you coach your people to achieve their aspirations through constructive, fact-based feedback. Attracting and nurturing a diverse group of high-potential team members is at the top of your agenda, as is creating an inclusive, caring, and trusting culture in your team.

On top of that, you will have:

• A Bachelor's degree in Civil, Structural, or Coastal Engineering (Master's preferred) with 12-15+ years of experience in marine, waterfront, or heavy civil infrastructure.
• A Professional Engineer (PE) license (or ability to obtain in California), with demonstrated technical credibility and delivery expertise.
• Demonstrated experience leading complex, multidisciplinary projects with full accountability for scope, schedule, budget, and commercial performance.
• Demonstrated success in senior client relationship management, including contract negotiations, risk management, and delivering high client satisfaction.
• Demonstrated success in financial and commercial performance, including managing margins and securing follow-on work.
• Background in business development and team leadership, including pursuing proposals, expanding markets on the West Coast, and mentoring and building effective teams.

A place to work and so much more

At COWI, we work together with our customers to shape a sustainable and liveable world. We do it by applying our knowledge and curiosity - and sometimes even our courage - to create the solutions the world needs today to enable a better tomorrow. We support our customers' transition towards increased sustainability. We strive to lead by example by embedding environmental management, social responsibility and good governance into our business practices and the options we provide to our customers.

We value differences and development and cultivate an environment of belonging and having fun. Because that is what brings out the best in you, at work and at home.

With offices primarily located in the Nordic region, the UK, North America and India, we are currently more than 7,500 people who bring their expertise in engineering, architecture, energy and environment into play.

What we also offer:

Being part of the COWI community offers more than just a competitive salary. We take care of our people both professionally and personally.

Some of our benefits include:

Flexible working arrangement | Top-up parental and childbirth recovery leave | Fantastic close-knit team with a wealth of knowledge to share | Full time hires get minimum 5 weeks vacation to start |Floating holiday to celebrate employee diversity | Paid sick leave | Annual fitness subsidy - yes, you can use this for a ski pass, yoga, or gym membership | 401K contribution matching with generous company match | Personal and professional development fund | Parking or public transit allowance | Medical, dental, and vision insurance 80% employer-paid premiums | Employee Assistance Program (EAP) | STD, LTD, AD&D, and Life Insurance | Referral incentive program| Frequent social events

Base compensation: $160,800 to $235,000 for Long Beach only. Actual compensation is subject to variations due to education, experience, skill set, and location.

Got more questions?

Get to know us even better at our website,www.cowi.com, where you can learn more about our projects, our strategy, what we want to achieve and what life is like at COWI.

Equal opportunity employer

COWI provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, colour, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or genetics. In addition to federal law requirements, COWI complies with applicable state and local laws governing non-discrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.

#LI-TIWU

#LI-Hybrid