Job Description:
HR Project Partners is currently accepting résumés for a Director of Public Works on behalf of one of our clients, City of Iqaluit. This is an on the ground operational leadership role. The City possesses a separate engineering capacity; this role requires a hands-on leader who deeply understands heavy machinery, municipal utilities, northern municipal operations, and logistics.
The Director operates in a high-pressure environment under close public scrutiny. The ideal candidate is cool, calm, and collected, but possesses the instinct to step in decisively when matters become urgent. They must maintain a sharp focus on customer service and the City's public image at all times.
The department utilizes a hybrid delivery model - approximately 50% self-performed by in-house municipal crews and 50% contracted out.
The Director will inherit a large department led by four Superintendents. A primary mandate is active mentorship training the leadership team to proactively see issues, engage with them immediately, and elevate the standard of service delivery.
This is a full-time position located in Iqaluit, NU. Housing is included.
Essential Job Functions:
The Director will oversee a large, diverse workforce managed through four direct-report Superintendents, covering the following portfolios:
Superintendent of General Operations
- Roads: Direct grading, maintenance, and snow-clearing operations for all municipal roadways using heavy equipment.
- Building Maintenance: Oversee the upkeep and structural integrity of all municipal facilities.
- Fleet Maintenance: Direct the municipal garage, ensuring maximum uptime for a diverse City fleet of Light Duty, Heavy Truck, and Heavy Equipment.
Superintendent of Water Works
- Utilidor Network: Manage the operation and maintenance of the piped utilidor network, directing rapid-response efforts for line freezes and main breaks in a permafrost environment.
- Treatment Facilities: Oversee the operational realities of the municipal waterworks and wastewater treatment facilities, ensuring safe and compliant service delivery.
Superintendent of Trucked Services
- Schedule Efficiency & Delivery Demands: Optimize routing and dispatch protocols to meet rigorous daily delivery demands for the City's critical trucked water, sewer, and curbside garbage operations, ensuring seamless, continuous service execution despite extreme weather or equipment challenges.
- Driver & Helper Development: Focus heavily on the structured onboarding, training, and retention of drivers and helpers. Enforce adherence to standard operating procedures (SOPs).
Superintendent of Sanitation
- Manage municipal landfill operations, ensuring both self-performed and contracted heavy-equipment resources are deployed efficiently.
Leadership, Administration & Contractor Oversight
- The Director of Public Works will be responsible for providing clear, consistent, and ongoing operational communication upwards, ensuring executive leadership is never caught off guard to the Deputy CAO.
- Collaborate continuously with the Deputy CAO to identify systemic bottlenecks, implement quality improvements, and drive modernization across all department branches.
- Exercise a discretionary signing authority of up to $50,000 within the approved budget to ensure agile, frictionless procurement for daily operational needs and emergency repairs.
Mentorship & Crew Leadership (The 50/50 Dynamic)
- Proactive Mentorship: Coach the four Superintendents not just to execute tasks, but to proactively identify emerging operational issues and solve them before they escalate.
- Contractor Management: Define clear scopes of work for the 50% of operations handled by local private contractors. Issue tenders, monitor service level agreements, and enforce strict quality control and financial accountability.
- Labor Relations: Lead fairly but firmly in a unionized environment, standardizing protocols and ensuring frontline supervisors are supported in holding crews accountable.
Education and Experience Requirements:
- Heavy Equipment & Fleet Expertise: Deep, hands-on understanding of heavy equipment capabilities, maintenance cycles, and life-cycle management. Must be able to speak the language of mechanics and heavy equipment operators.
- Municipal Operations Leadership: Extensive experience (10+ years) in municipal public works, civil infrastructure, or heavy industrial operations.
- Hybrid Model Fluency: Demonstrated ability to seamlessly transition between leading in-house labor forces and managing external vendor contracts.
- Extreme Weather Operations: Experience managing infrastructure and emergency response in harsh, freezing, or remote environments is highly desirable.
Knowledge, Skills, and Attributes:
- Calm Under Pressure: Maintains a highly professional, calm demeanor when faced with operational crises, severe weather events, or public frustration, while knowing exactly when to take urgent, hands-on control.
- Public-Facing Customer Service Mindset: Acutely aware that public works is the most visible municipal service; deeply committed to improving the resident experience and managing the City's public image through reliable service delivery.
- The "Coach" Mentality: A natural mentor who prioritizes team building, succession planning, and empowering mid-level managers to lead independently.
How to Apply:
When submitting your application to HR Project Partners for this opportunity, please submit a PDF version and clearly state the job title for which you are applying.
About Us:
HR Project Partners Inc. (HRPP) is a Human Resources consulting company offering various services in Human Resources, both to individuals and to companies. One of those services is recruitment for companies on a provincial and national basis.
HR Project Partners is an equal opportunity employer.
Please apply directly to this job posting. For questions regarding the position, please feel free to email [email protected]. While HR Project Partners appreciates all applications we receive, we advise that only candidates under consideration will be contacted.
