Underground and Heavy Civil Group Leader

Mott MacDonald is seeking an experienced Group Leader to set the strategic direction and lead the people, capability, resources, operations, and delivery readiness of our Underground and Heavy Infrastructure Civil Group across Canada. This Group brings together technical teams spanning underground and Tunnelling, Bridges and Civil Structures, Geotechnical Engineering, and Fire & Life Safety to deliver complex underground and above-grade infrastructure solutions across Canada. 

Working across Groups, Divisions, and the Unit, the Group Leader will build an accountable, collaborative, inclusive, and technically excellent culture; align workforce and succession plans with the project pipelines; optimize utilization and capability; uphold safety, quality, ethics, and compliance; and support sustainable business growth. Success will be assessed through measurable organizational outcomes, including resource performance, workforce readiness, employee development and retention, technical quality, operational compliance, cross-business collaboration, and effective pursuit support. 
 

Your Impact:

• Leadership & Culture: Provide visible leadership across the Group, Divisions, and Unit; establish an effective team structure aligned with business plans; foster accountability, collaboration, inclusion, technical excellence, and innovation; and champion safety, ethics, compliance, and our Mott MacDonald values.

• Strategy & Direction: Set and communicate the strategic direction for the Group, translating Unit and Divisional priorities, market opportunities, and client needs into clear business, capability, and workforce plans that support sustainable growth. 

• People & Capability: Lead and support Team Leads while maintaining strong connections with Discipline Leads to drive consistent performance management, career development, workforce planning, and technical capability. Maintain succession plans, oversee development and mandatory training, support promotion, compensation, and retention recommendations, and partner with Talent Acquisition to address capability gaps.

• Resource Management: In collaboration with Portfolio Managers, Development leads, Client Directors, and Account Managers, maintain a forward-looking view of project demand, opportunity pipelines, resource supply, capability, and recruitment needs. Work with Portfolio Managers, other Group Leads, as well as other Divisions and Regions to optimize utilization, balance workloads, and deploy staff effectively.

• Technical Excellence & Delivery Readiness: Set clear expectations for technical quality and project delivery across the group. Champion professional standards, knowledge sharing, lessons learned, innovation, and effective QA/QC, while supporting technical governance and consistent application of BMS, WIN, and DO processes. 

• Supporting Divisional and Unit Leadership: Participate in divisional planning and operational reviews; monitor people, utilization, capability, and delivery performance; ensure compliance with corporate requirements, including safety, ethics, training, and timesheets; cascade business decisions effectively; and dedicate appropriate time to people leadership, operational oversight, capability planning, and continuous improvement. 

Your Leadership in Action:

• Champion the broader interests of the business by working collaboratively across organizational boundaries and applying sound judgement where accountabilities are shared.
• Be a visible technical lead that champions innovation and excellence as part of project delivery across the group
• Proactively resolve resource, capability, quality, and performance issues.
• Prioritize long-term capability, workforce planning, and succession over short-term firefighting.
• Work with Team Leads, technical specialists, project managers to develop them into future leaders.
• Balance technical excellence, delivery readiness, people leadership, operational performance, and business priorities.
• Engage proactively as a member of the Divisional Leadership Team and act as a trusted partner to Portfolio Managers, Resource Managers, and Division leadership. 
  
  

What You'll Bring: 

• Bachelor’s degree in Civil, Structural, Geotechnical Engineering, or a related discipline;
• Professional Engineer (P.Eng.) or eligibility to obtain registration.
• 20+ years of experience in underground infrastructure, structural engineering, geotechnical engineering, major infrastructure delivery, engineering consulting, or a related sector.
• Proven experience leading multidisciplinary engineering, project delivery, or operational teams across multiple technical resource groups.
• Demonstrated success managing business performance, project delivery, utilization, staffing, budgets, and operational growth.
• Strong technical and market understanding of tunnels and underground structures, bridges, civil structures, and geotechnical engineering.
• Experience delivering major transportation, transit, municipal, water, or other complex infrastructure programs through planning, design, procurement, construction, and commissioning.
• Strong understanding of design constructability, temporary and permanent works interfaces, technical assurance, project governance, risk management, quality systems, and commercial delivery.
• Experience with alternative delivery models, including design-build, progressive design-build, alliance, and public-private partnership environments, is an asset.
• Experience supporting business development, strategic pursuits, and key client relationships.
• Proven ability to recruit, mentor, develop, and retain high-performing technical and project teams.
• Strong communication, leadership, stakeholder engagement, and relationship management skills.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively across business units, regions, disciplines, clients, contractors, and delivery partners.
• An established network across water, wastewater, transit, transportation, and civil infrastructure sectors as it relates to contractors, owners and other consultants and the broader Canadian infrastructure market is highly preferred.