Specialized Interfaces Manager

SYSTRA Canada is part of the SYSTRA group an international consulting and engineering group a world leader in the design of transport infrastructures. SYSTRA Canada is an engineering and consulting firm whose primary focus is to offer transportation solutions whether for passengers or goods: feasibility studies of building a new railway line increasing the capacity of the existing infrastructure privatization of a railway.

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Project overview

The ALTO project is a major infrastructure initiative in Canadian history aiming to develop over 1000 km of new passenger High-Speed Rail (HSR) service connecting major urban centers including Toronto Ottawa Montreal and Quebec City.

The project requires complex coordination and integration across multiple disciplines and stakeholders including municipalities utility owners railway owners operators regulatory authorities provincial ministries and other public-sector entities.

Role

The Specialized Interfaces Manager is responsible for managing senior-level relationships and strategic interfaces with key institutional stakeholders across the ALTO corridor including Hydro One Hydro-Québec the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario the Québec Ministère des Transports et de la Mobilité durable and other provincial governmental and strategic entities as required.

The role ensures that strategic stakeholder requirements priorities approvals commitments risks constraints and decisions are identified coordinated tracked and escalated in a structured manner. The role acts as a senior interface between the project and external decision-makers whose input or agreement is critical to project development design progression approvals and delivery planning.

The Specialized Interfaces Manager works closely with project leadership external interface teams design teams to ensure stakeholder engagement is coordinated consistent and aligned with project objectives.

The role does not replace the technical utilities leads responsible for utility conflict identification utility design coordination and detailed technical resolution. Instead it manages executive-level alignment strategic agreements escalation commitments and relationship management with major utility energy and government stakeholders.

The role also supports executive briefings strategic negotiations issue resolution and the development of formal engagement plans with provincial ministries and other high-impact stakeholders

Key Responsibilities:

Leadership and Stakeholder Management

Lead the management of strategic stakeholder relationships across Ontario and Québec.

Act as the primary project point of contact for designated senior stakeholders

Establish and maintain strong working relationships with senior representatives executive offices ministries agencies utilities and public-sector partners.

Coordinate engagement activities across technical commercial legal communications government relations and executive project teams.

Ensure stakeholder engagement is proactive structured consistent and aligned with project priorities and approved governance protocols.

Specialized Interface and Commitment Management

Identify and manage strategic interfaces that may affect project scope design approvals cost schedule delivery strategy.

Develop and maintain stakeholder interface matrices responsibility registers action trackers commitment registers and decision logs.

Ensure stakeholder requirements commitments assumptions constraints and dependencies are captured and communicated to relevant project teams.

Coordinate with discipline leads to ensure stakeholder inputs are reflected in design planning permitting utilities coordination environmental approvals property matters and delivery strategies.

Specialized Stakeholder Coordination

Coordinate senior-level engagement with stakeholders.

Support the resolution of strategic utility and energy issues related to corridor constraints power supply relocations protection easements access agreements permits and long-term asset integration.

Ensure alignment between strategic utility discussions and the work of utilities leads design teams environmental teams and project objectives.

Track commitments and decisions arising from utility-owner and energy stakeholder discussions and ensure they are translated into actionable project requirements.

Support negotiations governance structures memoranda of understanding and agreement frameworks required for major utility or energy interfaces.

Approvals Decisions and Escalation

Establish and maintain a strategic stakeholder approvals and commitments tracker.

Track decisions approvals dependencies open actions and escalation items required from strategic stakeholders.

Define escalation pathways for unresolved sensitive or time-critical matters and support timely resolution through the appropriate governance channels.

Ensure stakeholder decisions are documented traceable and communicated to relevant project functions.

Contribute to decision-making at project leadership level by presenting clear options recommendations risks and required actions.

Risk and Issue Management

Identify strategic stakeholder risks including approval delays policy misalignment utility constraints jurisdictional issues conflicting stakeholder priorities reputational sensitivities and unresolved commitments.

Develop mitigation strategies in coordination with project leadership legal/commercial teams communications teams and discipline leads.

Support risk workshops and executive reviews related to strategic stakeholder matters.

Provide early warning of stakeholder issues that may affect schedule cost scope approvals or delivery strategy.

Ensure stakeholder risks and issues are integrated into the projects formal risk and issue management processes.

Reporting and Governance

Develop regular stakeholder status reports for project leadership.

Provide concise updates on key relationships open issues required decisions upcoming meetings escalation items commitments and approvals.

Contribute to project governance forums leadership briefings external interface reviews and strategic coordination meetings.

Ensure stakeholder records meeting minutes action logs correspondence decisions and approvals are maintained in accordance with project governance requirements.

Support continuous improvement of stakeholder management processes tools and reporting practices.

Requirements

Bachelors or masters degree in electrical engineering or a related discipline.

20 years of experience in stakeholder management external interface management infrastructure delivery or major program coordination.

Experience in large linear infrastructure projects such as rail transit highways energy utilities or major transportation corridors.

Strong understanding of multi-jurisdictional project environments involving Ontario and Québec stakeholders.

Experience supporting executive-level briefings negotiations issue resolution decision papers and governance forums.

Experience managing stakeholder commitments interface registers action trackers approvals trackers and escalation processes.

High-Speed Rail (HSR) experience is a strong asset.

Experience in HT TPS and Railway power supply systems

Bilingual: English and French strongly preferred.

Skills and Competencies

Strong leadership diplomacy and relationship management skills.

Ability to operate effectively at both executive and technical levels.

Excellent communication briefing writing presentation and issue-framing skills.

Ability to structure complex stakeholder problems and drive them toward resolution.

Ability to manage multiple senior stakeholders with competing priorities.

Strong judgment and ability to handle confidential sensitive or reputationally significant matters.

Excellent organizational skills and attention to commitments actions decisions and approvals.

Collaborative mindset with the ability to align technical commercial legal communications and executive teams.

SYSTRA Canada is committed to having a diverse and inclusive workforce. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer that values applications from all and offers employment equity based on the merits and abilities of candidates and personnel.

Note: In this description the masculine gender is used for easy reading purposes and includes the feminine.

We use AI-enabled tools in our recruitment platform (iCIMS) for tasks like resume parsing and candidate matching. These tools do not make hiring decisions; all applications are reviewed by a human recruiter and final decisions are made by our hiring team.

For questions about our hiring process or AI tools please contact