Regional Director-Africa at Hatch

Job description

Requisition ID: 2907

Job Category: Engineering

With over six decades of business and technical experience in the mining, energy, and infrastructure sectors, we understand that challenges are changing rapidly in every industry. We respond quickly with solutions that are smarter, more efficient, and innovative. We draw upon our 9,000 staff with experience in over 150 countries to challenge the status quo and create positive change for our clients, our employees, and the communities we serve.

This is a senior management position within the Energy Business Unit of a major Canadian engineering firm with a long history of success in the energy sector. The successful candidate will manage African business operations for a power transmission and distribution (T&D) business that involves project delivery, system planning and asset management associated with ac and dc power transmission, stations and distribution systems throughout Africa.

The successful candidate will be responsible for marketing T&D services throughout English Africa (and supporting marketing pursuits in French Africa led by others), and for managing the effective delivery of these services to clients. Reporting the Global Director of Energy, and working closely with Regional Energy and Power leadership in Africa, the Director – Africa will ensure that all project delivery services, system planning services and asset management services are completed in accordance with applicable codes and standards, including all corporate policies and procedures, such as Safety, Environmental, Quality Assurance and Quality Control.

The key accountabilities of the Director - Africa will include:

• Winning new work for the group
• Oversight of profitable delivery of services in the two broad practice areas
• Oversight and leadership of staff
• Project compliance with safety, quality and environmental objectives, and appropriate use of the Hatch QMS, SMS and EMS and other Hatch systems
• Oversight of effective management of client project risks by company project teams, through deployment of company risk identification and analysis frameworks and active management of project risks throughout project execution
• Management of growth across all practice areas
• Maintain and manage executive level contacts with client industry leaders across Africa, including transmission and distribution companies, regional planning agencies and regional operators, regulators, ministries and multilateral/bilateral aid agencies.
• Management of targeted Business Development activities, including development of marketing materials, client engagement processes, proposal development

• Management of company risk, on active project assignments and on new proposals

• Resource planning for delivery of PD&I assignments. Utilizing energy specialist resource pools existing or planned in company offices in Africa and in other global centers. Working in conjunction with energy specialty groups in South America and North America, identify recruitment needs and oversee recruitment initiatives for African requirements.

• Develop and expand the power delivery project capabilities and the Grid Integration & Operations consulting capabilities in Africa, through training, symposiums/conferences and strategic hiring

• Establish and implement improvements to existing methods, procedures and toolsets

Qualifications For The Position Include

• Bachelor or Master in Electrical Engineering
• Demonstrated people leadership skills
• Demonstrated track record in winning project delivery and consulting work in competitive international environments
• 20+ years of professional experience in leadership of power sector development, preferably within consulting (as opposed to utility or vendor employment), preferably with transmission and distribution experience, and preferably with extensive experience throughout Africa.
• Candidate must have experience in team leadership (for transmission design teams, substation design teams, distribution design teams, power system planning/studies teams), and experience in client outreach and relationship development – particularly in Southern Africa (Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique). Experience with clients in West, East and Central Africa is also desirable.
• Connections with senior decision makers in power utility and power project development companies across Africa.
• Strong interpersonal, oral and written communications skills in English is a must. Proficiency in French is highly desirable, and working knowledge of Spanish or Portuguese is an asset