Design Manager

In a world of possibilities, pursue one with endless opportunities. Imagine Next!

At Parsons, you can imagine a career where you thrive, work with exceptional people, and be yourself. Guided by our leadership vision of valuing people, embracing agility, and fostering growth, we cultivate an innovative culture that empowers you to achieve your full potential. Unleash your talent and redefine what’s possible.

Job Description:

Parsons is looking for an amazingly talented Engineering Discipline Manager to join our team! In this role you will get to provide overall managerial and technical leadership for a major engineering discipline or multidisciplinary engineering function on large and complex programs. You will lead engineering resources, technical delivery, staffing, quality, productivity, and discipline governance while supporting project execution, business development, and continuous improvement initiatives across the organization.

What You'll Be Doing

• Provide overall managerial and technical direction for a major engineering discipline or multidisciplinary engineering function.

• Lead engineering delivery on large and complex projects and programs, including assignments exceeding $250 million in total installed cost.

• Review and approve discipline staffing budgets, resource plans, staffing assignment schedules, and workforce forecasts.

• Monitor staffing requirements across assigned projects and ensure appropriate engineering resources are available to meet delivery commitments.

• Monitor the quality, progress, productivity, and technical performance of the discipline across multiple projects.

• Work closely with Project Managers and Project Directors to identify and resolve staffing, quality, schedule, productivity, and technical delivery issues.

• Establish, implement, and maintain engineering standards, procedures, technical manuals, and discipline-specific best practices.

• Recommend improvements to department procedures, workflows, technical standards, and delivery methodologies.

• Provide technical oversight for complex engineering issues and ensure solutions comply with applicable codes, standards, project requirements, and industry best practices.

• Lead the preparation of the discipline’s annual salary plan and manage salary actions in accordance with approved budgets and company procedures.

• Recruit, interview, evaluate, and select engineering and technical personnel.

• Manage employee development, succession planning, performance evaluations, coaching, counseling, and corrective actions as required.

• Ensure new employees receive appropriate orientation, technical onboarding, and awareness of company policies and procedures.

• Provide leadership and mentoring to engineers, designers, CAD personnel, and technical support staff.

• Support pre-contract, proposal, and business development activities by serving as a senior technical consultant.

• Provide technical input to proposals, project execution strategies, staffing plans, technical presentations, and client discussions.

• Ensure discipline activities are performed within approved overhead and project budgets.

• Monitor department performance and implement measures to improve productivity, resource utilization, and cost efficiency.

• Actively participate in and promote Quality Improvement initiatives across the engineering discipline.

• Lead technical committees, working groups, or improvement initiatives designed to develop staff capability and enhance engineering performance.

• Promote collaboration across engineering disciplines, project teams, clients, consultants, contractors, and other stakeholders.

• Maintain awareness of current engineering technologies, software capabilities, digital tools, and industry developments.

• Evaluate opportunities to implement new technologies and engineering processes that improve technical quality, productivity, and project delivery.

• Represent the engineering discipline in internal management meetings, project reviews, client meetings, and technical workshops.

• Perform other responsibilities associated with this position as appropriate.

What Required Skills You'll Bring

• Bachelor's Degree in Engineering or a related technical discipline.

• Minimum 20+ years of progressive engineering experience, including significant managerial experience leading large groups of engineers, designers, and technical support personnel.

• Proven experience managing major engineering disciplines on large-scale infrastructure, transportation, buildings, utilities, industrial, or complex multidisciplinary programs.

• Demonstrated ability to manage engineering activities involving complex technical issues and multidisciplinary interfaces.

• Strong experience in engineering resource planning, staffing forecasts, workforce management, and budget control.

• Proven ability to monitor and manage engineering quality, schedule performance, productivity, and technical delivery.

• Extensive knowledge of:

  • Engineering design principles and practices
  • Industry codes and standards
  • Technical governance
  • Quality assurance and quality control
  • Engineering resource management
  • Project delivery methodologies
  • Multidisciplinary coordination

• Strong understanding of engineering department operations, organizational planning, and performance management.

• Experience establishing engineering standards, technical procedures, discipline manuals, and quality processes.

• Proven experience recruiting, developing, mentoring, and managing engineering professionals.

• Strong understanding of current engineering technologies and discipline-specific design software.

• Ability to assess the capabilities and efficiencies of engineering software and digital tools used in project delivery.

• Experience supporting technical proposals, business development activities, and pre-contract engineering efforts.

• Strong commercial awareness and understanding of project budgets, resource utilization, and overhead management.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

• Strong presentation, leadership, negotiation, and stakeholder management capabilities.

• Ability to work effectively with clients, government agencies, consultants, contractors, and multidisciplinary internal teams.

• Professional Engineer registration or equivalent professional qualification may be required depending on the assignment.

What Desired Skills You'll Bring

• Professional Engineer (PE), Chartered Engineer (CEng), or equivalent internationally recognized professional registration.

• Active membership in a recognized professional engineering institution or society.

• Experience managing engineering delivery on mega-projects or major programs exceeding $250 million in capital value.

• Experience working within PMC, Delivery Partner, EPC, design consultancy, or client-side environments.

• Experience leading multidisciplinary engineering teams across multiple concurrent projects or packages.

• Strong understanding of digital engineering, BIM, automation, and emerging engineering technologies.

• Experience implementing engineering governance, quality improvement, and organizational transformation initiatives.

• Experience supporting major technical proposals, client presentations, and business development opportunities.

• Strong knowledge of international engineering standards, regulatory frameworks, and authority requirements.

• Experience managing geographically dispersed or multicultural engineering teams.

• Strong ability to develop high-performing teams through mentoring, coaching, and succession planning.

• Demonstrated ability to drive technical innovation, productivity improvement, and operational efficiency.

• Strong strategic thinking and ability to align engineering resources with business and project objectives.

• Commitment to technical excellence, quality, continuous improvement, and professional development.

Parsons equally employs representation at all job levels no matter the race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age, disability or genetic information.

We truly invest and care about our employee’s wellbeing and provide endless growth opportunities as the sky is the limit, so aim for the stars! Imagine next and join the Parsons quest—APPLY TODAY!

Parsons is aware of fraudulent recruitment practices. To learn more about recruitment fraud and how to report it, please refer to https://www.parsons.com/fraudulent-recruitment/.