Engineering Director, Flood Mitigation

Position Overview:

The Engineering Director, Flood Mitigation, serves as a senior executive leader for overseeing the strategic planning, execution, and successful delivery of Harris County’s large-scale neighborhood drainage improvement initiatives and long-term infrastructure resiliency programs. Reporting directly to the Office of the County Engineer’s executive leadership, the Director provides vision, direction, and management for all drainage-related capital projects, ensuring alignment with the County’s flood mitigation priorities, disaster recovery goals, and community resilience strategies.

This role has broad authority over the end-to-end lifecycle of complex capital programs—including planning, design, permitting, right-of-way acquisition, procurement, construction, inspection, contract administration, project controls, and stakeholder communication. The Director leads multidisciplinary teams, may oversee Assistant Directors and Senior Project Managers, and coordinates extensively with internal divisions, consulting engineers, contractors, public officials, and community partners to ensure timely, cost-effective, and high-quality project delivery.

The Director may serve as the primary liaison, representing the department in high-profile public forums, interagency meetings, and executive-level decision-making sessions.

• Provide executive leadership for the County’s drainage improvement portfolio, overseeing hundreds of active design and construction projects totaling significant capital investment.
• Establish long-range program goals, priorities, standards, and performance expectations aligned with countywide flood mitigation and resiliency strategies.
• Develop strategic plans for subdivision drainage programs, major infrastructure upgrades, and community-level resiliency initiatives.
• Lead policy development, strategic program planning, and continuous improvement initiatives across all drainage project delivery functions.
• Direct the planning, scheduling, design, permitting, procurement, construction, and closeout of capital drainage and resiliency projects.
• Oversee project performance through project management system(s), ensuring accurate tracking of cost, schedule, scope, documentation, and reporting.
• Implement and monitor quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) standards across all program phases.
• Ensure accurate compliance with regulatory frameworks, including FEMA, HUD (CDBG-DR), USACE, and state/local permitting authorities.
• Lead, mentor, and oversee management teams including Assistant Directors, Senior Project Managers, and support staff.
• Establish workforce strategies to support recruitment, training, performance management, and succession planning.
• Allocate staffing resources across multiple programs and ensure appropriate workload distribution for optimal efficiency.
• Serve as the department’s primary representative for drainage capital programs in meetings with Commissioners Court, elected officials, community organizations, and intergovernmental partners.
• Coordinate closely with federal and state agencies, including FEMA, GLO, HUD, TxDOT, HCFCD, and local municipalities.
• Lead public engagement for major capital projects, including community meetings, workshops, and communication campaigns.
• Oversee program budgets, financial planning, and capital allocations for drainage improvement projects.
• Ensure compliance with federal and state funding requirements and oversee preparation of mandated reports and documentation.
• Lead long-term capital planning, project prioritization, and funding strategies, incorporating risk assessments and cost/benefit analyses.
• Develop, implement, and maintain division Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to ensure consistency, accountability, and regulatory alignment.
• Oversee internal audits, process evaluations, and performance improvement initiatives related to drainage capital project delivery.
• Manage division-wide governance processes and report program status to executive leadership.
• Serve as Acting Executive Director/Deputy in the absence of senior leadership.
• Provide expert guidance with County leadership on drainage and resiliency…