Business Unit Leader

Department: Water/Wastewater

Employment Type: Full Time

Location: Jackson, MS

Compensation: $220,000 - $260,000 / year

Waggoner Engineering, Inc. is seeking a Business Unit Leader to join our team. The Business Unit Leader is accountable for the strategic, operational, and financial performance of a defined profit center(s) within a company. This senior leadership role drives sustainable growth, elevates portfolio and profit and loss (P/L) performance, and builds future talent, all while cultivating a purpose-led performance culture and safeguarding the financial, risk, and safety foundations that enable our mission.

This role is specifically designed for the Mississippi Business Unit and is positioned as an enterprise transformation leadership role — not simply a traditional regional operations or seller-doer leadership position. Under Vision 2030, the Mississippi BU must evolve into a scalable enterprise platform capable of supporting growth, operational standardization, acquisition integration, leadership development, and strong portfolio performance discipline.

Strategy & Growth

• Develop and communicate a clear business unit vision and strategy aligned with company goals and the broader Waggoner and Trilon enterprise direction including Waggoner’s Vision 2030.
• Set market strategy, prioritizing attractive markets, clients, and service offerings to grow the portfolio.
• Drive Business Development with your team to build and strengthen relationships with key clients, partners, and industry influencers.
• Steward pursuit strategy and go/no-go decisions to expand the portfolio and drive profitable growth.
• Lead proactively — anticipate market shifts, capability gaps, and growth opportunities rather than reacting to them.
• Support acquisition integration and growth initiatives, creating enterprise value and alignment with the Waggoner platform.

Success Factors: Pipeline, Backlog, Net Revenue

Portfolio Management

• Provide strategic oversight across the full portfolio of projects, ensuring consistent performance relative to gross margin, schedule, risk exposure, and client satisfaction.
• Oversee monthly “Project Reviews”, working with Operations and Finance, to outperform on quality, client service, and financial performance.
• Maintain strong governance over portfolio budgets, forecasts, and estimates to complete (ETCs), ensuring accuracy and early issue identification.
• Lead timely intervention on underperforming projects, driving action plans, recovery strategies, and change order management.
• Optimize Cost Budget and Direct Labor Multiplier (DLM) across the portfolio through effective labor planning, strategic pricing, rate structures, and fee strategies.
• Implement disciplined portfolio-level pricing strategies including fee types, mark-ups, escalation, and commercial positioning.
• Maintain strong oversight of portfolio-wide risks, ensuring early identification, escalation, and mitigation plans.
• Reduce exposure to claims, disputes, and rework through disciplined contract review, scope clarity, and rigorous governance.
• Drive utilization, DLM, backlog, and portfolio governance rigorously using data, KPIs, forecasting analytics, and leading indicators.
• Create operational consistency and forecasting discipline across the BU.

Success Factors: Cost Budget, Gross Margin, DLM;
Recovery Ratio, Conversion Ratio (Gross/Net Revenue Gap)

Enterprise Transformation & Operational Leadership

• Lead organizational and operational transformation of the Mississippi BU into a scalable, high-performance enterprise platform.
• Champion the implementation and adoption of the enterprise operating model and common operating disciplines across the BU.
• Drive change management…