Civil Engineering Project Manager (Land Development)

Pinnacle Engineering Group is seeking a highly motivated candidate that has experience in planning, design, and permitting for Infrastructure and Site Development projects across the Midwest. The desired candidate possesses a desire to continually grow with the firm by accepting new challenges as opportunities are presented.

Please visit our website (www.pinnacle-engr.com) for more information on our Company. We are also seeking other candidates for current openings in our organization.

This position will be based from our Suburban Chicago office but we would consider any Pinnacle Office.

Summary

The Civil Project Manager is responsible for leading engineering projects from design through delivery, ensuring technical quality, financial performance, and client satisfaction. The Civil Project Manager provides direction and mentorship to project teams, manages project resources, contracts, risk, and maintains accountability for all design and project decisions. This role ensures excellence in project execution by guiding teams, fostering strong client engagement, and aligning project outcomes with firm standards and professional obligations.

Duties and Responsibilities: The below statements are intended to describe the general nature and scope of work being performed by this position. This is not a complete listing of all responsibilities, duties and/or skills required. Other duties may be assigned.

• Act in responsible charge of overall engineering project design, delivery, and firm commitments.
• Demonstrate ethical leadership, sound judgment, and total accountability for project outcomes, including technical quality, financial performance, and client expectations.
• Lead, inspire, and motivate multidisciplinary project teams through mentoring, recognition, team-building, and proposals.
• Establish and manage project scope, schedules, staffing plans, and budgets to ensure projects are delivered on time and within budget.
• Coordinate all aspects of engineering design, plan production, and project delivery, meeting established deadlines.
• Serve as the sole point of responsibility for project-level QC/QA, ensuring adherence to firm standards, applicable codes, and regulatory requirements, and coaching teams on quality expectations.
• Provide high-level technical oversight, relying on professional judgment, experience, and providing direction to subordinates or reports, rather than direct drafting or modeling.
• Guide teams in developing appropriate, defensible engineering solutions and accept full responsibility for design decisions.
• Develop and grow strong client relationships, support team members in client communication and satisfaction efforts.
• Lead preparation, review, and negotiation of contracts, amendments, and scope changes.
• Manage project financials, engineering economics, risk exposure, and overall profitability in alignment with firm goals.
• Lead and negotiate critical and potentially controversial technical, contractual, or schedule issues internally and externally.
• Coordinate all project communications directly or through delegation, ensuring clarity, responsiveness, and alignment across teams.
• Mentor engineers and project staff at all levels; assign mentors and ensure mentoring occurs consistently across teams and the firm.
• Ensure all work is performed in accordance with company standards, safety policies, and professional engineering obligations.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree from an ABET-accredited engineering program or related field.
• Professional Engineer (PE) license is required. 
• 10+ years of relevant engineering project management experience.
• Demonstrated experience acting in responsible charge of engineering projects.
• Strong communication, organization, and interpersonal skills for internal and external clients.

• Experience leading complex or multi-disciplinary civil projects.
• Strong background in QC/QA, understanding of project financial reporting, and risk management.
• Experience interacting directly with clients, agencies, and the public.

Core Competencies

• Exceptional oral and written communication skills.
• Ability to negotiate critical and controversial issues of all types inside and outside of organization.
• Leads conversations that shape project goals and objectives while meeting codes, ordinance, and policy.
• Advances project communication of all team members via mentoring.
• Receives and gives mentoring of all types to individuals within the entire company. Demonstrates empathy and critical listening skills.

Work Environment

• Primarily working in an office setting.
• Work hours are 45 hours per week, Monday through Friday.
• Ability to be flexible with schedule to work additional hours and/or weekends as project deadlines demand.
• Occasional travel to job sites.  

Physical Requirements

• Ability to sit for extended periods of time if needed.
• Ability to traverse uneven/muddy/wet/snowy terrain while on the job site.