Discipline Lead - Indigenous Rights and Consultation

We are currently seeking a Discipline Lead to join our Indigenous Rights and Consultation team.

This is an existing position and can be based at any one our Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Saint John, Fredericton, Halifax, Sydney or St. John's offices. We offer flexible work hours and hybrid work arrangement options to help balance the competing demands of work and personal life.

About Dillon
Dillon Consulting Limited (Dillon) is a proudly Canadian, 100% employee-owned professional consulting firm specializing in planning, engineering, environmental science, and management. With over 25 offices and more than 1100 employees across Canada, we offer a wide range of services related to building and improving facilities and infrastructure, protecting the environment, and developing communities.

At Dillon, we strive to remain at the forefront of technology and innovation and thrive on interdisciplinary collaboration, empowering our people to challenge conventional thinking and build careers focused on creating a lasting impact in our communities. We are committed to ongoing professional development and celebrate the unique perspectives that each team member brings to the table.

Employee ownership is available to all Dillon team members, and over 60% of our employees own shares in Dillon. Through employee ownership, we return the financial benefit created by our project work to the very people who created that value. Because we are an employee-owned firm, your voice will be an essential part of our shared success.

Are you someone with strong leadership and technical capabilities? Do you enjoy building relationships and working collaboratively in a team environment with both internal and external stakeholders? Are you a thought leader, a trusted advisor and a problem solver? If you enjoy entrepreneurship and innovation, this opportunity is for you! As someone with excellent communication skills and business acumen, you will thrive in our fast-paced and agile environment.

About the Position

As Discipline Lead, you will be responsible for shaping the future of the Indigenous Rights and Consultation discipline at Dillon. You will set the direction for technical excellence, quality, innovation and efficient service delivery, while building the people and capabilities required to deliver exceptional results for our clients.

This role is about more than maintaining standards. You will have the opportunity and accountability to strengthen the discipline, build high-performing teams, establish leading practices and continually improve how we deliver our work.

• Technical Leadership and Innovation
  • Maintain deep technical expertise and stay current with industry trends and best practices. As Discipline Lead, you will set the direction for technical excellence across the discipline, ensuring Dillon maintains leading technical capability and continuously raises the standard for quality and service delivery.
  • Develop and implement strategies to enhance technical skills and knowledge within the discipline. This includes identifying capability gaps and building the technical depth needed to support our clients and most important projects.
  • Identify and drive opportunities to integrate technology to improve internal processes, enhance efficiency and effectiveness, and reduce costs.
  • Deliver one "called shot" on incremental innovation annually, with a business case and success metrics.
  • Encourage and support the development and implementation of new technologies and solutions within the discipline, and showcase success stories related to efficiency improvements in service delivery. Champion proven innovations across the discipline so successful approaches become repeatable best practices.
• People and Team Development
  • Lead and motivate a team of technical professionals, fostering a positive and collaborative work environment and a culture of continuous improvement. You will be accountable for building and maintaining a high-performing discipline, not simply managing the team that exists today.
  • Build the team and capabilities needed for the future by identifying resource and skill needs, recruiting strong talent, and positioning the right people to support our most important projects and clients.
  • Foster a culture of innovation within the discipline, promoting the development and implementation of new technologies and solutions that meet the needs of our clients.
  • Support the growth and development of a high-performing team of Team Managers.
  • Foster a collaborative work environment, promoting knowledge sharing and teamwork among team members and across disciplines, ensuring effective communication and coordination.
  • Build and maintain strong relationships with Project Managers and Business Units. Partner with Project Managers and Business Units to continually improve how projects are structured, staffed and delivered, improving quality, efficiency, profitability and the overall client experience.
  • Maintain strong industry presence and recognition. Actively position the discipline for industry recognition by advancing leading practices, sharing success stories and strengthening Dillon's reputation in the market.
• Delivery and Operational Excellence
  • Proactively identifies health & safety risks related to service delivery and ensures they are managed.
  • Meet or exceed the financial targets set for the discipline, while ensuring efficient, high-quality service delivery and client satisfaction. Take ownership of the discipline's overall performance, balancing exceptional client service, technical quality, efficient delivery, sustainable growth and profitability.
  • Lead the development and implementation of operational standards, best practices, and quality control processes to mitigate risk and enhance efficiency. Set new benchmarks for how work is delivered and drive consistent adoption of leading practices across teams and projects.
  • Identify and evaluate new technologies relevant to the discipline, promoting their adoption and integration to improve service delivery and internal operations.
  • Identify and mitigate potential risks that could impact service delivery.
  • Maintain high technical quality standards. Ensure quality is embedded in how teams work, with clear expectations, accountability and continuous improvement.
  • Actively solicit and action client and PM feedback to improve service delivery and client satisfaction. Translate feedback into tangible improvements in how work is scoped, staffed and delivered.
  • Make sound business decisions regarding organic growth opportunities. This includes making deliberate decisions about when and where to invest in people and capability to support sustainable growth.

What We Value Most

We highly value Discipline Leads who:

• Demonstrate Technical Excellence: Possess deep technical expertise and stay current with industry trends. Set the direction for technical excellence and continually raise the bar for quality, consistency and leading practice within the discipline.
• Drive Innovation: Proactively identify and implement new technologies and solutions to improve efficiency and enhance effectiveness in our service delivery. Turn successful ideas into repeatable ways of working that improve how Dillon delivers for clients.
• Champion People Development: Foster the growth and development of team members. Build strong teams by recruiting, mentoring and developing people with the capabilities needed for the future.
• Build Strong Relationships: Effectively collaborate with stakeholders and build strong client relationships. Partner effectively with Project Managers, Business Units and clients to improve delivery and the overall client experience.
• Deliver Results: Consistently achieve performance targets and contribute to the practice's success. Take ownership of discipline performance and balance quality, client outcomes, people development and profitability.

Evaluation Process

Your annual review with your supervisor will provide you with a holistic assessment of your performance in the Discipline Lead role including:

• Quantitative Metrics: Your performance will be evaluated against the following key indicators: gross labour revenue, gross margin, labour multiplier, discipline MxU, 90 day backlog conversion, growth of discipline, sales pipeline growth.
• Qualitative Assessment: We'll assess your overall performance as a Discipline Lead, taking into account your leadership effectiveness, proactiveness in process improvement, maintaining high discipline technical quality, and overall contribution to the practice. The qualitative assessment will also consider your success in building a high-performing discipline, improving project delivery, elevating technical quality and best practices, advancing meaningful innovation, strengthening client and Project Manager/Business Unit confidence, and increasing the discipline's internal and external reputation.
• Feedback from Others: We may gather feedback from your direct reports, Practice Leads, Project Managers, Business Units, clients, and other relevant stakeholders to gain a broader perspective on your performance and impact.

More about our discipline

Indigenous Rights, Consultation and Relations

This discipline provides advisory services to support our clients in meeting the delegated procedural aspects of the Duty to Consult, Indigenous Engagement and Relations to support reconciliation initiatives, weaving Indigenous Knowledge with western science to support environmental stewardship, working with Indigenous communities to support jurisdiction, title and rights-based assertions, and assessing impacts to Aboriginal and / or Treaty Rights in provincial and federal regulatory processes. This discipline excludes community planning for Indigenous communities (Community Plans, Approvals, and Policies) and stakeholder consultation (Environmental Planning).

Duty to Consult – e.g. CP Rail Cascade Expansion Project

• Identify potentially afected Indigenous communities, develop and implement consultation programs, prepare record of consultation

Indigenous Relations – e.g. Comox Valley Reconciliation Plan

• Collaborate with client and partner Indigenous communities, create vision, identify reconciliation goals, develop specific actions to achieve goals, prepare reconciliation action plan, staf training, building staf capacity on Indigenous relations

Weaving Indigenous Knowledge – e.g. Fort McMurray #468 First Nation Indigenous Knowledge Program

• Prepare IK collection methods, facilitate IK data collection, assist with IK data management, prepare reports / data sets to support environmental management, third party review of environmental management plans

Jurisdiction, Title and Rights-Based Assertions – e.g. Simpcw Territorial Stewardship Plan

• Prepare territorial plans that assert governance, title and jurisdiction in traditional territories, facilitate planning initiatives between Indigenous communities and other jurisdictions, establish land use designations, policy development, establish Indigenous-community specific consultation protocols and programs

Aboriginal and Treaty Rights Assessments – e.g. Marten Falls First Nation Community Access Road Environmental Assessment

• Identify rights and interests of potentially afected Indigenous communities, identify areas of interests / traditional territories, establish Valued Components based on Indigenous inputs, establish assessment methods based on regulatory jurisdiction, assess Project afects on rights, prepare assessment report, third party review of EA reports.

In addition to a competitive base salary, Dillon offers:

• Flexible work hours and hybrid work arrangement options to help balance the competing demands of work and personal life
• Employee share purchase plan
  • Dillon is 100% employee-owned, and share ownership is open to all employees.
  • Our annual share dividends have historically outperformed the market average
• Dillon’s Overtime Directive.
  • This Management Directive establishes a firm-wide 40-hour weekly overtime threshold, after which premium pay applies, ensuring consistent and fair compensation across all Canadian offices.
• Competitive benefits package, including:
  • Comprehensive health benefits
  • Generous retirement savings plan with employer matching up to 5.5%
  • Student loan repayment assistance
  • Wellness allowance and enhanced mental health benefits
  • Ample paid vacation
  • Employee and Family Assistance Program (EFAP)
  • Goodlife Fitness Corporate Membership rates
• Early Career Development (ECD) program
  • At Dillon, we build careers. Designed for technical professionals with less than three years of consulting experience, the ECD program accelerates the transition into entrepreneurial consultants through monthly ‘Level Up’ sessions that build both technical and consulting capabilities. Own your success; we provide the blueprint.

Health & Safety at Dillon

Prospective employees are expected to fully align with Dillon's core commitment to Health & Safety. This includes active, ongoing engagement with our Health & Safety processes and platform, and the active, ongoing identification and reporting of health and safety hazards.

Employment Equity, Diversity & Inclusion at Dillon

Dillon is committed to employment equity and an inclusive, diverse workplace where opportunities are based on skills and abilities. If you require accommodation during the interview process, please let us know.

Technology enablement and the use of AI at Dillon

Please be advised that Dillon uses AI-assisted tools to support aspects of our recruitment process to increase efficiency and fairness. While AI supports the process, all hiring decisions are made by our human recruiting team. By applying, you acknowledge and consent to this use.

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