Senior Environmental Project Manager
At HDR, our employee-owners are fully engaged in creating a welcoming environment where each of us is valued and respected, a place where everyone is empowered to bring their authentic selves and novel ideas to work every day. As we work to weave diversity, equity, and inclusion into our work and foster a sense of belonging throughout the company and within our communities, we constantly ask ourselves: What is our impact on the world?
Watch Our Story:' https://www.hdrinc.com/our-story'
Each and every role throughout our organization makes a difference in our ability to change the world for the better. Read further to learn how you could help make great things possible not only in your community, but around the world.
We believe industry drives progress. As part of our Industrial sector, you’ll help shape efficient, advanced infrastructure and environmental stewardship. We partner with clients across industries to responsibly optimize processes, modernize facilities and solve complex challenges. Our work spans the full project life cycle, from up-front evaluation and planning studies through design and into construction monitoring and operations. You can help clients push boundaries and meet evolving industrial demands while supporting resilient infrastructure and responsible growth. This isn’t just a job, it’s a chance to engineer smarter solutions, drive industrial innovation and make a lasting impact.
The primary duties of the Senior Environmental Project Manager include working on and managing a wide variety of local, state, and federal environmental regulatory permits, transmission routing and siting projects, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) projects, and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) documents for private and public clients. This position will be based in Lafayette, Louisiana. In the role of Senior Environmental Project Manager, we'll count on you to:
Primary Responsibilities
In the role of Senior Environmental Project Manager, we'll count on you to:
- Work as a member of HDR’s Louisiana/Mississippi and South Central Region environmental sciences and planning teams
- Provide technical expertise at project level and assist with growing HDR’s environmental practice through development of new and existing client relationships and identification of opportunities for expansion of our environmental services
- Take responsibility for project and staff management, such as tracking project deliverables, schedules, workload, reviewing invoices, and managing subconsultants
- Establish sequencing of environmental tasks/projects, from financial management through successful completion of the project, utilizing our technology, standards, and project delivery practices
- Plan, direct, and monitor all aspects of large, multidisciplinary projects or medium-sized projects with high degree of technical complexity
- Produce high-quality project deliverables and coordinate several projects concurrently
- Participate in schematic design reviews and work sessions at project sites in conjunction with Project Engineers, Project Architects, and other disciplines
- Coordinate workload with project team throughout entire project development to complete documents on schedule
- Supervise and mentor project teams and act as mentor for less-experienced environmental staff
- Provide project guidance to internal and external clients
- Be an effective written and oral communicator through reports, memos, emails, and in person and virtual meetings with clients and agencies
- Create proposals with scopes of work and man hours, create qualifications response packages, and work with marketing staff to review environmental and regulatory opportunities
- Building key relationships with HDR staff relevant to the project work
- Strategic thinking, networking, client relations and lead development
- Perform other related duties as needed
Routing and Siting Responsibilities
- Responsible for developing buildable routing and siting solutions to support utility and developer infrastructure
- Working with project teams including utility and developer staff and consultants
- Working with stakeholders including government agencies, regulators, communities and landowners
- Preparing testimony and technical documentation including studies to present defensible line route and facility site selection
FERC Responsibilities
- Serve as Senior Project Manager for natural and built environment studies, environmental permitting, and NEPA documentation
- Lead and direct teams through FERC environmental processes for assessment, resource reporting, and permitting
- Support the growth of our FERC pipeline program by developing client relationships and identifying new opportunities
- Oversee project management activities including proposals, cost estimates, budgeting, invoicing, and tracking project financial performance
- Coordinate schedules, provide technical QA/QC, and lead problem resolution for environmental studies and NEPA deliverables
- Direct field surveys, data interpretation, environmental analysis, and technical writing
- Develop and implement permitting strategies, coordinate with regulatory agencies, and prepare permit applications
- Participate as a senior member of HDR staff for FERC 3rd Party opportunities
Ideal Candidate
- The ideal candidate has prior experience managing and providing technical leadership on projects and is looking for a broader leadership role overseeing all aspects of larger and more complex projects. Candidates have the desire and drive to grow a high-performing team to help execute these projects
- The successful candidate will be expected to perform non-routine tasks on multiple projects in various market sectors simultaneously; contribute to researching and writing concise technical documents; assist with diverse projects and innovate and follow through to completion of all assigned and delegated tasks
- This position requires the ability to work independently and as part of a team as well as complete tasks within tight deadlines
Applicants must be detail-oriented, organized, effective communicators, and a team player with a strong focus on quality and client service
Preferred Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in environmental planning, environmental science, or a related field
- Minimum 10 years of experience leading complex environmental planning and compliance projects, including linear infrastructure, land acquisition, routing, and siting
- Minimum 8 years of experience developing proposals, scopes, budgets, and schedules for multidisciplinary, multi-agency environmental projects, with a strong emphasis on routing and siting studies; local, state, and federal permitting and NEPA
- Demonstrated knowledge of the NEPA process and experience managing large, complex EA and EIS documents for oil and gas, power, water resources, major facilities, land management, or other infrastructure projects
- Technical expertise in designing and implementing environmental studies and investigations and interpreting and presenting resulting data
- Experience preparing applications for state utility regulatory agencies and system operators, with a strong understanding of permitting and regulatory approval requirements
- Experience preparing and delivering expert witness testimony
- Proficiency with Microsoft Office and excellent technical writing, verbal communication, conceptual, organizational, analytical, problem-solving, and research skills
- Self-starter able to support multiple complex, time-sensitive projects, resolve issues efficiently, and work independently and collaboratively with design, construction, and multidisciplinary teams
- Staff management and mentoring experience is beneficial
- Commitment to active participation in HDR’s employee-owned culture
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- Bachelor's degree in related field or an equivalent combination of education and related professional experience
- 10 years related experience
- A minimum of 5 years of project management experience
- Familiar with Microsoft Office, estimating and scheduling software, project management software
- Must have the ability to interact with various design teams, have excellent organizational, project management and communication (both written and verbal) skills
- An attitude and commitment to being an active participant of our employee-owned culture is a must
What We Believe
HDR is our company. Together, we build on each other's life experiences and perspectives to make great things possible every day. This shapes our collaborative culture, encourages organizational trust and connects us closer to the clients and communities we serve.
Our Commitment
As employee owners, we all have a role in creating an inclusive environment where each of us is welcomed, valued, respected and empowered to bring our authentic selves to work every day.
Our eight Employee Network Groups (Asian Pacific, Black, Hispanic/Latino(a), LGBTQ+, People with Disabilities, Veterans, Women, Young Professionals) help create a sense of belonging and foster a supportive environment where everyone is empowered to engage and contribute. Each group has an executive sponsor and is open to all employees.