Regional and State Water Supply Planning Discipline Leader
Listed on 2026-06-30
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Engineering
Environmental Engineer, Water Management, Water Engineer
Job Description
This is a strategic leadership position to serve as a Discipline Leader (DL) for Regional and State Water Planning in our One Water Community of Practice. The DL will develop creative approaches to planning for multi‑jurisdictional groups, coalitions, state agencies, and stakeholders during both the pursuit and delivery phase of projects. The DL works alongside the One Water Practice Leader (PL) and other leaders and also collaborates with other DLs across practices due to the multidisciplinary nature of large‑scale planning studies.
The DL helps grow the firm’s technical presence and may engage in R&D projects, professional society committees, development of conference abstracts or journal articles, and conference attendance.
As a strategic member of the CDM Smith team, the DL helps develop new tools, grow the firm’s technical capabilities, develop and mentor team members, and partner with Client Service Leaders (CSLs) and Sales Leaders to identify, prioritize, pre‑sell, and pursue mutually beneficial work. The role requires strong communication, teamwork, and effective interaction with clients, management, project team members, and vendors.
Responsibilities- Provides guidance and coordinates with subject matter experts (SMEs) on delivery of regional and state water plans and water supply plans for individual utilities with regional resources, including coordination with regional team leaders on project staffing.
- Collaborates with the One Water PL and sales staff to support RFPs, reviews draft proposals for adherence to firm, industry, state, local, and federal regulations, and best practices; meets with current and potential clients to review planning needs, and works with CSLs and sales staff to identify opportunities for clients to collaborate with regional partners.
- Attends and presents at conferences and symposia to enhance the firm’s technical visibility in collaboration with PLs, DLs, and sales staff.
- Provides technical guidance and training to senior, mid‑level, and junior staff on large‑scale supply‑planning projects; mentors staff for future growth and supervises work, delegating to SMEs as needed.
- Supports stakeholder facilitation and consensus‑building to advance multi‑disciplinary planning projects.
Minimum qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Environmental, Civil, Coastal, or Chemical Engineering or related discipline.
- Professional engineering (PE) license.
- 12 years of related experience.
- Domestic and/or international travel may be required; frequency of travel depends on specific duties.
- Equivalent additional directly related experience may be considered in lieu of a degree.
Preferred qualifications
- Strong creative problem‑solving skills and strategic thinking.
- Ph.D. or Master’s degree in Environmental, Civil/Environmental Engineering, Water Resources Engineering, or related discipline (e.g., Planning).
- Active participation and leadership positions with local and national professional organizations and associations.
- Past leadership roles in projects across multiple states.
- Experience with stakeholder facilitation on multi‑disciplinary projects.
- Experience working on water demand and supply planning projects.
The ideal candidate will have excellent verbal and written communication skills, strong knowledge of water supply planning and management policies, capital projects, alternative supplies, demand management, consensus‑building, and stakeholder facilitation. The candidate must recognize when CDM Smith needs to steer a client or stakeholder group and when to facilitate them through technical support.
Skills and Abilities- Documented experience with water supply modeling software such as CDM Smith’s Water Integration Tool, GoldSIM, WEAP, SWAM, and MCDA tools (Criterion Decision Plus, EVAMIX).
- Expert knowledge of geospatial data analysis and summary at detailed and generalized levels.
- Expert knowledge of water availability and reliability assessment, supply‑demand gap analysis, alternative water supply trends, climate resilience, and adaptive management.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
- Expert knowledge of Microsoft business software (Excel, Word, etc.).
- Work…
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