Deputy Project Manager - Major Municipal Utility Programs

WSP · Los Angeles, CA · $102,200 - $182,200 · hybrid WSP is seeking a Deputy Project Manager - Major Municipal Utility Programs to support large utility accounts in Southern California. The successful candidate will combine an engineering foundation with strong project-management discipline. The role involves leading the day-to-day administration, commercial management, technical coordination, and client delivery of multiple concurrent task orders under an on-call professional services contract. Your Impact Serve as deputy to the senior program and account leadership team for a major municipal utility client. Manage assigned task orders from proposal and authorization through kickoff, execution, invoicing, modification, closeout, and lessons learned. Act as a responsive day-to-day point of coordination among the client, WSP technical teams, project accountants, contract administrators, leadership, and subconsultants. Develop and maintain clear task-order scopes, assumptions, deliverables, work breakdown structures, staffing plans, cost estimates, schedules, and responsibility matrices. Lead project kickoffs, recurring client meetings, internal coordination calls, schedule reviews, financial reviews, risk discussions, and action-item follow-up. Prepare concise agendas, meeting minutes, executive summaries, monthly progress reports, decision logs, action trackers, risk registers, and leadership briefings. Monitor labor hours, revenue, backlog, burn rates, invoicing percentages, expenses, subconsultant commitments, estimate-to-complete, estimate-at-completion, margin, and remaining authorized capacity. Partner closely with project accounting to reconcile budgets and invoices, maintain alignment between client task structures and internal systems, resolve billing discrepancies, and support timely collections. Identify scope growth, staffing changes, schedule impacts, and commercial exposure early; prepare task-order modification inputs, change documentation, recovery plans, and management recommendations. Coordinate multidisciplinary engineering and advisory teams across electrical, civil, structural, mechanical, environmental, construction management, utility operations, and business advisory disciplines. Integrate subconsultants into project plans, schedules, budgets, reporting, quality reviews, invoicing, and client communications while preserving clear WSP accountability. Coordinate personnel approvals, onboarding, background-check requirements, training prerequisites, travel planning, and other client-specific compliance or access needs. Maintain disciplined document control and auditable project records, including approvals, notices to proceed, contractual correspondence, deliverable reviews, invoice support, and closeout evidence. Support quality-control planning and verify that deliverables receive appropriate technical, management, and editorial reviews before client submission. Escalate safety, quality, schedule, budget, contractual, resource, and client-relationship concerns with clear options and recommended actions. Support proposals, task-order responses, fee development, staffing strategies, client presentations, capture planning, and account-growth initiatives. Help translate project-delivery performance into stronger client relationships, repeat work, and future opportunities without losing focus on current commitments. Mentor project coordinators and emerging project managers and help standardize practical tools, templates, and controls across the account. Exercise responsible and ethical decision-making regarding company funds, resources, client information, and professional conduct, and comply with WSP policies and procedures. Perform additional responsibilities as required by business needs. Required Qualifications Bachelor's degree in engineering or a closely related technical field. Electrical Engineering is strongly preferred; Civil, Mechanical, Structural, Environmental, Industrial, Construction, or other