Design Manager - Illinois Tollway

Be involved in projects with our Illinois Tollway General Engineering Consultant (GEC) Team and be a part of a growing organization that meets our client's objectives and solves their challenges.

At WSP, we are driven by inspiring the right people to be part of our future-focused business objectives. Our devotion to teamwork has allowed us to build communities and expand our skylines. Here at WSP, anything is within our reach- and yours as a WSP employee. Come join us and help shape the future!

WSP is initiating a search for a
Design Manager
to lead design excellence across one of the nation's leading transportation agencies, shaping technical standards, strengthening quality, and implementing practical innovations that keep the Illinois Tollway at the forefront of the transportation industry.

This position is designed for a respected transportation design leader who combines deep Illinois Tollway experience, strong technical judgment, and proven people-management skills. The successful candidate will remain technically engaged in complex design issues while operating at the program level.

The Design Manager will be supported by technical specialists and subject matter experts, providing access to deep institutional knowledge and technical resources.

This position requires a blend of technical depth, leadership, staff management, and strategic coordination, with the opportunity to influence how projects are delivered and sustained across the Illinois Tollway system.

• Report through and work in close partnership with the GEC Project Manager while serving as a trusted technical advisor to Illinois Tollway leadership and industry.
• Provide multidisciplinary leadership across roadway, structures, maintenance of traffic, drainage, geotechnical, utilities, signing and pavement markings, lighting, landscape, and tolling and intelligence transportation systems.
• Maintain strategic awareness of capital program efforts, conduct technical reviews, and advise when technical risks, design exceptions, policy questions, innovation opportunities, or cross-program consistency issues arise.
• Provide sound engineering judgment on complex design matters.
• Build consensus among Illinois Tollway stakeholders, Design Section Engineers (DSEs), and technical specialists to advance objectives.

• Champion consistent interpretation and application of Illinois Tollway design criteria, manuals, specifications, policies, and procedures across projects and consultant teams.
• Proactively identify gaps, conflicts, outdated requirements, and opportunities for improvement within existing technical guidance.
• Lead the development, update, and implementation of design manuals, specifications, criteria, technical policies, and guidance documents, including annual industry outreach event.
• Evaluate proposed design exceptions and engineering decisions by balancing requirements with operational performance, constructability, life-cycle cost, risk, maintainability, and accepted industry practice.
• Maintain awareness of evolving AASHTO, FHWA, IDOT, TRB, and other relevant national guidance and evaluate its practical applicability to the Illinois Tollway.
• Promote consistent engineering judgment, documentation, and decision-making across disciplines, projects, and delivery teams.
• Ensure lessons learned from design, construction, operations, and maintenance are incorporated into standards, guidance, training, and future project delivery.

• Serve as a leader who respectfully challenges the status quo and helps position the Illinois Tollway as a leader in the transportation industry.
• Identify, evaluate, and champion practical innovations in design methods, digital delivery, model-based design, QA/QC, sustainability, resiliency, project delivery, and emerging transportation practices.
• Focus innovation efforts on measurable improvements in design quality, mobility, efficiency, maintainability, long-term value, and outcomes.
• Maintain awareness of industry trends and professional organizations.
• Supervise and develop GEC staff, establish priorities, balance workloads, and support accountability for quality and delivery.
• Provide guidance to industry in engineering judgment, multidisciplinary coordination, quality, communication, and program leadership.
• Lead technical communities of practice that encourage consistency, knowledge sharing, and continuous improvement.
• Identify…