Delivering excellence: Sander Quartero on adaptability and team empowerment

From delivering major transit projects to driving strategic goals, Sander Quartero, Alberta portfolio manager and urban transit and mobility principal project manager, thrives on collaboration and solving complex challenges. We caught up with him to explore his career journey, the role of trust in leadership, and how curiosity shapes his approach to urban mobility.

What do you do at Mott MacDonald and what are you currently working on?

I currently have two roles at Mott MacDonald. First, I serve as the transit and urban mobility team leader in Alberta, helping to deliver a range of rail and bus transit projects. In Calgary, we are working on a few very interesting projects including the development of a new 18km rail service called the Green Line, supporting research and planning for hydrogen fuel cell bus operations, planning the development of a new bus storage and maintenance facility, and planning of new bus rapid transit (BRT) corridors around the city.

My other role, the Alberta portfolio manager, is quite new. This role supports the western Canada division manager with oversight of business operations, including projects and pursuits within the province. It is about driving collaboration, encouraging excellence, and implementing strategic business goals.

What does a typical day look like for you at Mott MacDonald, and how do you find opportunities to excel in your role?

No two days are the same, and I feel it would be nearly impossible to describe what a typical one looks like. Given the range of projects that I’m lucky to manage or contribute to, and the diversity of needs in my functional roles leading a team, it’s often a total guess what the day or week will hold. I try to focus on tasks that enable me or the team to be more effective and more productive, which sometimes has my priorities changing on short notice.

What opportunities have you had to grow your specialism or develop your career here?

I sometimes joke that my specialism is generalism. The trust Mott MacDonald and our clients place in me to lead teams and projects gives me constant opportunities to learn and grow. What I love most is that within Mott MacDonald, there’s always someone more knowledgeable who can contribute to a solution or help validate an idea or strategy I want to explore. As an integrator and project leader, access to this kind of expertise is essential.

Recently, I was also invited to participate in Mott MacDonald’s Emerging Leaders, a program recognizing individuals aspiring for senior leadership roles within the business and setting them down a path for further skill development. So far, it has been one of the most rewarding and empowering career development opportunities of my career.

What does it mean to you to be trusted to do brilliant things at Mott MacDonald?

I derive a huge amount of enjoyment from the trust that my clients and leaders place in me and the teams that I work with. Hearing from clients that they want Mott MacDonald to help solve a unique and challenging problem is the greatest compliment I can imagine.

I have been very fortunate in my career to have been afforded opportunities to demonstrate my creativity. As I find myself leading larger teams and larger projects, I feel a responsibility to extend that same trust to others in my team.

What advice would you give to someone looking to start their career at Mott MacDonald?

Be curious and avoid saying no. The range of expertise and the depth of talent that I have found here is second to none. It’s a source of so much learning! Opportunities come in all shapes and sizes... you never know what project or task will inspire your career path.