Water Resources Technical Director or Senior Director

About the opportunity

SWCA Environmental Consultants is seeking a Water Resources Technical Director or Senior Water Resources Technical Director to lead the continued growth, innovation, and technical excellence of our water resources practice. Water-focused technical services are experiencing strong demand and SWCA is expanding our capabilities with a senior leader who can shape the long-term direction of our water resources technical practice.

SWCA is a growing, 1,850 staff, employee-owned firm, providing a full-spectrum of environmental services. Our Vision (the North Star)isto make

SWCA the best workplace and industry leader in sustainability, bringing sound science and creative solutions to global environmental challenges while maintaining a dedication to employee-ownership.

We live our core values: we collaborate as#OneSWCA;weare#Always Learning, we#Never Settle,and we#Give Back.

The Water Resources Technical Director will provide enterprise-level leadership in advancing SWCA's water resources strategy, enhancing technical capabilities, developing future leaders, and supporting growth across our offices, clients, and business lines. This position will ensure exemplary technical quality, foster innovation in methodologies and tools, and position SWCA as an industry leader in water resource services.

The selected individual will be an experienced leader with recognized water resources expertise. The Director will report to one of SWCA's Vice Presidents of Scientific and Technical Services. This is a full time, regular status position, eligible to work in any of our offices, or 100% distributed in the domestic US.
It is expected that travel will be between 10-20% of the time. This requisition can hire at either the Director or Senior Director level, depending upon experience and expertise.

This position is available at the below levels and title will be based on years of relevant experience or expertise:

• Water Resources Technical Director - Requires a minimum of 10 years of progressively responsible experience in environmental consulting and/or natural resources management with a strong emphasis on water resources, including demonstrated growth in technical leadership as well as project and program management.
  Salary range: $121,140 - $158,496 annually.
• Senior Water Resources Technical Director - Requires a minimum of 15 years of progressively responsible experience in environmental consulting and/or natural resources management with a strong focus on water resources, along with advanced technical leadership and extensive project and program management experience.
  Salary range: $138,445 - $179,755 annually.

Final date to receive applications: Our team will begin reviewing applications immediately, and interviews will be scheduled with qualified candidates on a rolling basis. We anticipate arranging panel interviews the week of January 19, 2026. We appreciate the time and effort invested by all applicants and will carefully review each submission.

A letter of interest and resume are required for this application.

Strategic Technical Leadership (50%)

• Lead long-range strategic planning and implementation for the national water resources practice, developing enterprise-level initiatives that expand, diversify, and innovate technical service offerings.
• Identify and leverage emerging scientific, regulatory, and technological trends to position SWCA as an industry leader in water resources; build and participate in external scientific/professional networks and ensure continuous internal dissemination of new knowledge.
• Serve as the enterprise technical leader and mentor for the national water resources practice, setting the standard for excellence, innovation, and state-of-the art methodologies and tools.
• Drive consistency, scalability, and integration of technical approaches across geographies; lead cross-company initiatives in partnership with regional and technical leaders.
• Build and elevate the next tier of technical leadership by delegating water resource practice group functions (e.g., resource hubs, tools, communications) to sub-discipline and regional leads.
• Align practice strategies with other company leaders including operations, client services, talent acquisition, and technology leaders to develop shared key performance indicators (KPIs) and integrated solutions that support enterprise objectives.
• Partner with the Senior Quality Director to establish discipline-specific quality standards and partner with operational leaders to ensure consistent adoption across the company.
• Work with leaders in talent acquisition and operations to build a scalable technical talent pipeline identifying strategic skill gaps and anticipating future needs to achieve high-impact hiring.
• Serve as an ambassador for SWCA's Safety Culture and implementation.

Strategic Project Work & Business Development (50%)

• Serve as a senior subject matter expert on strategic, complex, and innovative water resources projects across multiple…