With the demand for roadwork in Missouri at or near an all-time high, Haskell is seeking a Senior Transportation Engineer as it expands its Civil Transportation Division to its well-established St. Louis, Missouri, office.
As a full-service design, design-build and construction firm, Haskell employs engineers across all disciplines, and many are already represented in St. Louis. Civil Transportation has not been one of them because, frankly, there wasn’t a need. The Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) operated on a need-to-fix basis because lawmakers stood pat on the state’s motor fuel tax for more than 20 years.
That roadblock disappeared when the legislature imposed a 2.5-cent-per-gallon increase to the existing gas tax in October 2021 and again in July 2022. The tax will continue to increase by 2.5 cents each July through 2025 for a total increase of 12.5 cents per gallon. That revenue and funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act have put MoDOT back in the road-building business.
“There's never been a better time in the last 40 years to jump in and start on the ground floor somewhere,” said Mark Grossenbacher, Director of Engineering, Civil Infrastructure Design.
With its established St. Louis presence, Haskell has a unique opportunity to grow its Transportation practice quickly because while demand for highway design is high, the supply of designers is low.
“MoDOTis very happy to see new consultants, especially local consultants,” Grossenbacher said. “They’re very happy to see the additional capacity come to the region because, over the last 25 years, a lot of the doers have left. So now that the program is turned up and turned on, there's a real scramble to find the capacity to do all the work that MoDOT wants to do.”
Grossenbacher has worked solely in transportation in Missouri for over 35 years, is a former MoDOT engineer and has connections in each of the department’s seven districts. Haskell recently pursued some on-call work to begin establishing relationships and the brand.
The Senior Transportation Engineer will hold a leadership position within the Transportation group, managing and mentoring junior designers while also playing a business development role.
“We'd love to get somebody who has existing relationships with the DOT, and any municipalities would be beneficial,” he said. “This will be an opportunity to take on responsibility and grow. Talking about Haskell specifically, I've worked at a number of design consultancies, and it's a very people-centric company with a lot of emphasis on work-life balance and a true commitment to training, which you don't find many other places.”
Haskell is ranked No. 1 in Training Magazine’s annual APEX Awards rankings, an exclusive list of the leading training organizations worldwide. It provides a highly collaborative environment and operates with the direction of six strategic pillars, the first of which is to “Provide Team Members the BEST Job of Their Lives.” It offers highly competitive pay, a robust benefits package that includes a 401k match and an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), which creates stock ownership for every full-time team member.
“You don't get these opportunities very often in your career,” Grossenbacher said. “In an environment where funding is more than ample, building the group is almost guaranteed. It's an opportunity to step into a leadership position a bit earlier than maybe you could somewhere else as well. I need that right-hand person that I can hand a lot of responsibility. So, if you're looking for that challenge, looking for that responsibility, that's what this offers.”
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