Senior Manager, Project Controls

CDM Smith is seeking a Senior Manager, Project Controls to provide enterprise leadership across a complex portfolio of integrated design-build projects for municipal, industrial, and federal clients. The role will establish and improve project controls governance, systems, processes, analytics, digital transformation, and organizational capabilities to support safe, profitable, and predictable project delivery.

Responsibilities:

• Define the enterprise project controls strategy, standards, methodologies, and governance model; drive consistent adoption across business units and regions
• Establish project controls approaches for design-build, progressive design-build, CMAR, construction management, and other integrated delivery models. Partner with pursuit and delivery teams to align design, procurement, construction, cost, schedule, risk, and commercial controls from planning through closeout
• Strengthen budgeting, earned value management, forecasting, variance analysis, integrated master scheduling, critical path analysis, change management, contract administration, claims avoidance, and recovery planning
• Develop leading indicators, project health reviews, executive dashboards, and actionable insights for margin, backlog, cash flow, labor productivity, schedule performance, forecasting accuracy, and delivery risk
• Lead modernization of project controls platforms, data, and workflows. Champion automation, integrated reporting, AI-enabled forecasting, predictive risk identification, and performance monitoring in partnership with Digital Delivery and Technology teams
• Establish scalable standards for document management, records, configuration control, collaboration platforms, data quality, traceability, and digital project delivery
• Collaborate with executive leadership, operations, project management, finance, legal, risk management, procurement, and delivery teams to improve project predictability, profitability, and client outcomes
• Lead and develop a geographically distributed organization of schedulers, cost controllers, and document control professionals. Build career paths, competency models, training, succession plans, and a strong enterprise project controls community

Requirements:

• Demonstrated leadership of project controls for large, complex integrated design build portfolios, programs, or enterprise initiatives
• Significant experience supporting integrated design-build, progressive design-build, CMAR, or comparable alternative delivery projects, with the ability to connect design and construction execution through integrated cost, schedule, risk, and commercial controls
• Proven success leading digital transformation or delivery transformation initiatives involving enterprise platforms, data integration, standardized workflows, dashboards, automation, analytics, or AI-enabled capabilities
• Deep knowledge of cost engineering, scheduling, forecasting, earned value management, risk management, commercial management, and document controls
• Strong business and financial acumen, with the ability to translate complex project data into clear recommendations and executive-level decision support
• Ability to influence and lead change across a large, matrixed organization while building alignment among technical, operational, and corporate stakeholders
• Proven success in developing talent and building accountable, collaborative, high-performing teams
• Excellent communication, stakeholder management, analytical, and problem-solving skills
• Bachelor's degree
• 15 or more years of related experience
• PMP or PgM certification required
• Equivalent additional directly related experience will be considered in lieu of a degree
• PMP or DBIA certification
• Experience with Primavera P6, EcoSys, Acumen Fuse, Oracle, Textura, Power BI, or related project controls and reporting technologies
• Experience implementing advanced analytics, integrated data environments, AI-enabled reporting, or digital project controls solutions at enterprise scale
• Experience supporting municipal, industrial, and federal clients in the water industry