Senior Transit & Rail Design Manager

This Opportunity

The Transit & Rail Design Manager leads the planning, design, and delivery of complex rail and transit infrastructure projects throughout the US region. This role provides technical leadership and program-level oversight for multidisciplinary teams delivering conceptual planning through final design, permitting support, and construction-phase engineering services for heavy rail, commuter rail, light rail, BRT, stations, yards/shops, interlockings, bridges, tunnels, and supporting civil/utility works.

This position will be based out of our New York, NY Office.

Your Impact

• Technical leadership: Serve as the discipline/design lead for transit and rail projects, establishing design criteria, technical approaches, and quality expectations across the project lifecycle.
• Program and project management: Plan and manage scope, budget, schedule, and resourcing for multiple concurrent assignments; develop work plans, staffing plans, and cost forecasts; monitor performance and implement corrective actions.
• Design development: Guide production of concept alternatives, preliminary engineering, and final design packages, including alignment/track geometry, civil/site, drainage, utilities, structures interfaces, roadway interfaces, station layouts, and maintainability considerations.
• Rail systems coordination: Coordinate with signaling, traction power, communications, fare collection, and systems integration teams to ensure constructible, operable designs and well-defined interfaces.
• Constructability and phasing: Develop and review construction staging, work windows/outage plans, temporary works concepts, and rail service maintenance (MOW) strategies to minimize operational impacts.
• Code, standards, and compliance: Ensure designs comply with applicable regulations/standards (e.g., FRA, FTA, MTA/LIRR/Metro-North standards, AREMA, NFPA 130, ADA, AASHTO as applicable) and project-specific design criteria.
• QA/QC and risk management: Implement discipline QA/QC plans; lead independent technical reviews; manage design risks, technical issues logs, and decision registers.
• Permitting and third-party approvals: Support environmental and permitting documentation and obtain third-party approvals/clearances (utilities, municipalities, railroads, agencies); coordinate design responses to comments.
• Construction support: Provide engineering during construction including RFIs/submittals review, design clarifications, field changes, and as-built record support.
• Mentorship and team development: Coach and develop engineers and designers; establish best practices, templates, and training for transit/rail design delivery.

Who You Are

Required Qualifications

• Experience: 15+ years of progressive experience in transit and/or rail infrastructure planning, design, and delivery, including leadership of multidisciplinary design teams on complex, operationally constrained projects.
  • 20 years of experience preferred.
• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering or related engineering discipline (Master’s degree a plus).
• Technical background: Demonstrated expertise in civil/trackway and corridor design and coordination with rail systems and structures; strong understanding of design criteria development, interface management, and constructability.
• Standards knowledge: Working knowledge of applicable rail/transit codes and standards (e.g., FRA/FTA, AREMA, NFPA 130, ADA) and agency-specific criteria used in the NY region.
• Project controls: Proven ability to manage scope, schedule, budget, and resources; experience with cost estimating, forecasting, and change management.
• Communication: Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including ability to lead technical presentations and author/review design narratives, basis-of-design reports, and technical memoranda.
• Authorization: Ability to work in the United States without sponsorship (or as required by employer policy).

Preferred Qualifications 

• New York State P.E. license.
• Experience delivering projects for NY/NJ regional agencies and owners (e.g., MTA/NYCT, LIRR, Metro-North, NJ TRANSIT, Amtrak, PANYNJ, NYSDOT, NYC DOT), including navigating their review and approval processes.

WSP Benefits

WSP provides a comprehensive suite of benefits focused on providing health and financial stability throughout the employee’s career. These benefits include coverage related to medical, dental, visi