Job Information
Burns & McDonnell Innovation Development Director - Mid-Atlantic Region in Washington, District Of Columbia
Description Purpose of the Role
The regional innovation director will serve as the regional innovation leader for the Mid-Atlantic region, responsible for defining how innovation creates value across the region and ensuring that innovation translates into measurable improvements in speed to market, delivery certainty, and competitive differentiation across all global practices (business units with specific market focus).
This role owns the regional innovation vision and roadmap and leads the regional innovation office, a focused team and engagement model that partners with global practices to rethink end-to-end project delivery, remove systemic friction, and deliver faster and more predictable results for clients.
Innovation in this role is not about experimentation for its own sake. It is about challenging assumptions, interpreting a rapidly changing technology landscape, and turning ideas into execution advantages that materially improve client outcomes, regional business performance, and long-term competitiveness while maintaining a safety-first culture.
Mission and Focus
Mission
Define and lead regional innovation that accelerates project delivery, improves certainty, and strengthens our competitive position while supporting regional growth, margin performance, and long-term value creation.
Focus Areas
Speed to market and schedule predictability
End-to-end delivery acceleration from early sell through commissioning
Practical application of technology, data, and delivery models
Competitive differentiation rooted in execution excellence
This role operates as a peer to global practice leadership, partnering closely to support delivery excellence while constructively challenging how work gets done.
The regional innovation director leads structured analysis of business processes, project lifecycles, and customer engagement models to identify high impact opportunities for acceleration and risk reduction.
The role does not own day-to-day execution of individual improvement initiatives. Once priorities are defined and solution paths are selected, execution ownership transitions to global practices and designated innovation champions. The director remains engaged at a leadership level, monitoring progress, challenging assumptions, and holding teams accountable for measurable impact.
Regional Innovation Office
The regional innovation director establishes and leads the regional innovation office, which includes:
The director
Supporting analysts/staff as determined
Embedded innovation champions within each global practice, designated by global practice leadership and approved by the innovation director to partner with the regional innovation office
The regional innovation office partners with global practices to:
Assess business processes and project delivery lifecycles
Identify recurring bottlenecks, constraints, and delivery risk drivers
Prioritize high value acceleration opportunities based on impact and return
Enable global practices to execute improvements while maintaining leadership level oversight and challenge
Why This Role Matters
Clients do not buy innovation. They buy speed, certainty, and confidence in delivery. The regional innovation director ensures we deliver all three by defining a clear innovation direction, focusing effort where it matters most, and holding the organization accountable for meaningful, measurable improvement. This role shapes how innovation works inside a project delivery firm and how it creates real value at scale.
Primary Duties & Responsibilities
Set and Lead the Regional Innovation Vision and RoadmapDefine, refine, and own the regional innovation vision that articulates how innovation drives accelerated delivery, improved certainty, competitive differentiation, and business value. Partner with regional leadership and global practice leaders to finalize and continuously evolve a regional innovation roadmap that prioritizes initiatives based on impact, scalability, and return on investment. Serve as the region’s primary voice on how innovation supports growth, execution excellence, margin performance, and long-term competitiveness.
Establish and Lead the Regional Innovation OfficeBuild and lead the regional innovation office including analysts and embedded innovation champions. Design a repeatable innovation operating rhythm that moves opportunities from identification to prioritization to execution ownership within global practices. Ensure innovation efforts remain disciplined, outcome-focused and grounded in real delivery conditions rather than isolated problem solving.
Translate Technology Trends into Practical Business InsightMaintain a strong understanding of the evolving technology landscape including artificial intelligence, automation, analytics, and digital engineering. Interpret emerging technologies for regional leadership and global practice leaders by translating them into clear implications, risks, and opportunities for project delivery, client outcomes, and business performance. Identify where technology can meaningfully improve speed, predictability, or confidence without overengineering solutions.
Lead Systematic Delivery and Business Process DissectionLead structured dissection of global practice business processes, project delivery lifecycles, and customer engagement models to identify systemic friction points and leverage opportunities. Facilitate structured problem definition and solution ideation sessions with global practice leadership and innovation champions. Guide narrowing focus to the highest value opportunities, then transition execution ownership to global practices.
Own Business Case Development and Value RealizationDevelop and validate business cases for prioritized innovation opportunities, including time savings, risk reduction, cost impacts, and margin or growth upside. Track progress and realized value at a portfolio level and challenge global practices where outcomes do not meet expectations. Communicate progress and impact clearly to regional leadership.
Coordinate with Enterprise Technology LeadershipServes as the primary regional interface to enterprise technology leadership for innovation-related initiatives coordinating closely with the chief technology officer (CTO) and chief digital technology officer (CDTO) to:
Align regional innovation priorities with enterprise technology strategy and platforms
Leverage corporate technology investments and capabilities to accelerate regional outcomes
Share regional learnings and proof points to inform broader enterprise innovation efforts
Qualifications
Bachelor’s degree in engineering, business, or a related field from an accredited program; an advanced degree (MBA or technical graduate degree) is beneficial but not required.
Minimum of 14 years of professional experience in complex, execution-driven environments such as engineering, construction, consulting, infrastructure, or large-scale enterprise operations.
Strong fluency in emerging technologies, particularly artificial intelligence, data, analytics, and automation, with demonstrated experience applying these capabilities to solve real business problems and improve outcomes.
Ability to interpret a rapidly evolving technology landscape and translate it into practical implications, opportunities, and risks for business leaders and project delivery teams.
Demonstrated experience leading cross-functional business initiatives with a measurable impact on delivery speed, cost, risk, margin, or operational performance.
Proven ability to improve how work gets done by diagnosing workflow, sequencing, and decision-making challenges and translating those insights into actionable changes across teams.
Experience operating at a senior leadership level with the ability to influence, challenge, and partner with business unit leaders as a peer, while driving alignment and accountability.
Demonstrated ability to lead through influence, facilitate problem-solving across diverse teams, and drive the adoption of new approaches in complex organizational environments.
Strong business acumen with the ability to evaluate trade-offs between cost, speed, risk, and value, and to challenge traditional approaches in favor of higher-impact solutions.
Excellent communication skills with the ability to clearly articulate complex ideas, facilitate discussions, and align stakeholders across multiple levels of the organization and with clients.
Ability to balance innovative thinking with practical execution, bringing new ideas forward while ensuring they translate into measurable, real-world results.
Willingness and ability to travel approximately 15%.
This job posting will remain open a minimum of 72 hours and on an ongoing basis until filled.
EEO/Disabled/Veterans
Job Engineering
Primary Location US-DC-Washington
Other Locations US-VA-Norfolk, US-NC-Raleigh
Schedule: Full-time
Travel: Yes, 15 % of the Time
Req ID: 261531
Job Hire Type Experienced #LI-TS #M&S N/A