Water Resource Group Leader

Job Title: Water Resource Group LeaderJob Description

The Water Resource Group Leader serves as a senior leader for the Puget Sound Water Resources practice, combining people leadership, project delivery, client relationship management, and business development. In this role, you actively manage projects and staff, mentor and develop engineers, maintain strong client relationships, lead proposals and pursuits, and help shape the continued growth of the practice. This position is neither a traditional people-management role nor a purely technical position; you will balance staff leadership, active project management, client engagement, utilization, and practice growth.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Puget Sound Water Resources practice by providing strategic direction and day-to-day leadership to the group.
• Actively manage water resources projects from initiation through completion, ensuring quality, schedule, and budget objectives are met.
• Supervise technical staff, including assigning work, providing guidance, overseeing performance, and supporting professional development.
• Mentor and develop engineers at various career stages, fostering technical excellence and leadership growth.
• Maintain and strengthen relationships with existing clients through consistent communication, reliable project delivery, and responsive service.
• Serve as a client-facing project leader, representing the practice in meetings, presentations, and ongoing engagements with public agencies and other stakeholders.
• Lead and support proposal development, including identifying opportunities, shaping technical approaches, preparing scopes and fees, and participating in interviews and pursuits.
• Drive business development efforts by identifying new opportunities, expanding work with cities, counties, and local public agencies, and contributing to long-term practice growth.
• Provide technical leadership on fish passage, hydraulic improvement, and stream restoration projects, ensuring designs meet regulatory and performance requirements.
• Utilize hydraulic modeling tools such as HEC-RAS, SMS/SRH-2D, MGSFlood, or similar software to support analysis and design for water resources projects.
• Coordinate effectively with key staff in Bellevue and across Puget Sound offices to maintain a strong leadership presence and cohesive team culture.
• Promote the use of modern technology and best practices in water resources engineering, supporting innovation and continuous improvement.
• Support a healthy work-life balance within the team by modeling sustainable work practices and helping staff manage workloads.
• Contribute to diverse infrastructure projects across the region, applying water resource engineering expertise to a variety of project types.

Essential Skills

• Minimum of 10 years of progressive water resources engineering experience, including at least 5 years of project management experience.
• At least 8 years of fish passage engineering experience, reflecting fish passage as the highest technical priority.
• Bachelors degree in Civil Engineering or a closely related water resources discipline.
• Professional Engineer (PE) license required, with Washington licensure preferred.
• Strong technical background in water resource engineering, including wastewater, hydraulic systems, stream restoration, and stormwater.
• Proven experience supervising technical staff and managing performance in a consulting or similar environment.
• Demonstrated client-facing project leadership, including responsibility for delivery, communication, and coordination.
• Documented involvement in proposal development and pursuit activities, including scopes, fees, and interview participation.
• Business development capability, with experience growing client relationships and identifying new project opportunities.
• Significant experience working with cities, counties, and other local public agencies on water resources projects.
• Experience delivering fish passage programs, hydraulic improvement projects, and stream restoration projects.
• Familiarity with hydraulic modeling tools such as HEC-RAS, SMS/SRH-2D, MGSFlood, SMS/SRH-2D, or similar software used for analysis and design.

Additional Skills & Qualifications

• Strong leadership skills with the ability to balance staff management, technical delivery, and business development responsibilities.
• Ability to mentor and develop engineers, supporting career growth and technical advancement.
• Comfort operating in a hybrid leadership role that requires in-person presence with the Puget Sound team.
• Experience coordinating across multiple office locations to maintain a cohesive practice and consistent leadership presence.
• Ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly to clients, stakeholders, and internal teams.
• Experience with diverse infrastructure projects that involve modern technology and innovative water resources solutions.

Work Environment

This role is based in the Puget Sound region, with Bellevue strongly preferred due to the presence of key staff and the impact of on-site leadership. Seattle is also an acceptable location, and other nearby offices such as Tacoma remain possible options, provided you maintain a meaningful leadership presence with the Puget Sound team. The position follows a hybrid work model, combining in-office collaboration with flexible remote work, but it is not a fully remote leadership role. You will work within a large, employee-owned engineering firm that offers the stability of an established organization alongside local project involvement, strong career development opportunities, diverse infrastructure work, and access to modern technology. The culture emphasizes professional growth and a work-life balance that many consulting environments struggle to provide, creating a supportive setting for long-term career success.

Job Type & Location

This is a Permanent position based out of Bellevue, WA.

Pay and Benefits

The pay range for this position is $140000.00 - $165000.00/yr.

Individual compensation offered for this position within this range will depend on many factors, including qualifications, skills, relevant experience, job knowledge, geographic location, internal equity, and other pertinent job-related factors.

Medical, dental, and vision insurance. Life insurance with options for additional dependent coverage. Retirement planning and financial wellbeing support are highlighted as part of their benefits program.

Workplace Type

This is a fully onsite position in Bellevue,WA.

Application Deadline

This position is anticipated to close on Oct 17, 2026.

About Actalent

Actalent is a global leader in engineering and sciences services and talent solutions. We help visionary companies advance their engineering and science initiatives through access to specialized experts who drive scale, innovation and speed to market. With a network of almost 20,000 consultants and 5,000 clients across the U.S., Canada, Asia and Europe, Actalent serves many of the Fortune 500. We are proud to be an Engineering News-Record (ENR) Top 500 Design Firm for our engineering design services and a ClearlyRated Best of Staffing® winner for both client and talent service.

The company is an equal opportunity employer and will consider all applications without regard to race, sex, age, color, religion, national origin, veteran status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information or any characteristic protected by law.

If you would like to request a reasonable accommodation, such as the modification or adjustment of the job application process or interviewing process due to a disability, please email actalentaccommodation@actalentservices.com for other accommodation options.

San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance: Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, for all positions located in the city and county of San Francisco, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Massachusetts Lie Detector: It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI): We may use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to support parts of our hiring process, including sourcing, screening, and evaluating candidates. AI helps assess applications and qualifications, but final decisions are made by our hiring team. By applying, you acknowledge and agree that your application may be reviewed using AI tools.