Senior Railway Operations Specialist

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Each and every role throughout our organization makes a difference in our ability to change the world for the better. Read further to learn how you could help make great things possible not only in your community, but around the world.

• Plan, direct and monitor all aspects of rail planning, advisory, operations, and/or engineering projects.
• Assist HDR Project Managers in understanding rail operations, regulations and policies, and commercial and strategic practices, and facilitate guidance during project execution.
• Serve as an overall source of guidance for working with freight and passenger railways and associated government agencies.
• Perform periodic project reviews, as needed.
• Establish client relations and be involved with marketing, contractual, design and production meetings.
• Direct work of others in completion of required studies, documents and reports.
• Demonstrate extensive public participation, agency coordination, planning and programming experience.
• Participate in design development and contract document work sessions in conjunction with appropriate technical professionals and other disciplines.
• Coordinate staffing and workload through entire project development to complete documents on schedule.
• Knowledge base includes understanding of the ownership, traffic characteristics, geography, and commercial and strategic roles and value of rail lines and rail traffic types in North America, including intermodal freight, bulk freight, and manifest freight.
• Possess broad knowledge of North American freight rail operations, regulations, networks, markets, and infrastructure; and rail network strategic planning and marketing opportunities.
• Knowledge base includes understanding of the ownership, traffic characteristics, geography, and commercial and strategic roles and value of rail lines and rail traffic types in North America, including intermodal freight, bulk freight, and manifest freight.
• Have good familiarity with the terminology, business practices, labor arrangements, management organization, and regulatory environment of freight railroading at Class I, regional, and short line railways.
• Possess broad knowledge of intercity and commuter passenger rail operations and methods. Must understand the interactions of train operations on shared passenger and freight rail corridors and the technical requirements for developing intercity passenger and commuter rail improvement projects and new services on dedicated and shared-ownership corridors. A strong background in dispatching, corridor management, and service planning would be an asset.
• Ability to independently research and prepare documents about a broad variety of questions concerning railways, and provide technical consulting about rail operations, strategy, business models, and commercial aspects to HDR’s environmental, engineering, and economic disciplines. Ability to research local, state or provincial, and federal requirements for publicly funded rail projects, and develop grant applications. Ability to research, summarize, and communicate to internal and external clients, information and analysis on a broad variety of railway topics including market assessments, operational methods, train scheduling and network design, equipment selection, operation on main tracks and in yards, and industrial switching.
• Have strong experience in writing and preparing documents to support projects that include freight-rail initiatives, shipper initiatives, and projects intended for public funding, including the development of grant applications, operating plans, economic models, Service Development Plans, Project Management Plans, and Project Financial Plans.
• Be accessible and responsive to internal and external HDR clients, on multiple projects.
• Have the ability to identify where a conflict of interest may develop between our proposed projects or projects in execution and notify the appropriate HDR leads of potential conflicts.
• Communicate regularly with the Freight Rail Advisory Practice Lead, Rail Operations & Planning Practice Lead, and with project managers on multiple simultaneous projects.
• Perform other duties as needed

• Will possess memberships in professional transportation organizations and will cultivate relationships with key individuals at freight and passenger railways, and governmental agencies. Candidate will attend special HDR and rail industry events, as required.
• Support marketing and pursuits that are directly or indirectly related to the HDR freight rail practice.
• Be a resource for answering (or obtaining answers) where another project (Highway, Transit, Port, DOT,…