Executive Advisor- Water Economics & Infrastructure Investment Strategy

At GHD Advisory we are invested in creating sustainable commercial outcomes with clients driving change in water, energy and urbanization. 

Join a team committed to solving complex challenges across the value chain, from capital deployment to asset management, enabling resilience, growth and sustainability.

Together, we’ll help create a future for generations to come.

This role exists to take GHD upstream in the life-cycle of major capital projects. It positions GHD earlier in client and investor capital allocation decisions so that we shape, win and deliver larger enterprise opportunities across the full asset lifecycle, combining GHDs advisory and technical capabilities.

Advisory is seeking a senior leader in Economics & Infrastructure Investment Strategy and Client Coverage to grow our financial advisory and investment facilitation capabilities and broader infrastructure advisory platform from the NYC Metro Area. This is a senior, client-facing and development leadership role for someone who operates at the intersection of client development, infrastructure economics, and private capital mobilization.

You will serve as a trusted intermediary between public and private clients and private sector investors, strategic partners, developers, and delivery participants, helping clients unlock new funding pathways, structure innovative financing, and deliver infrastructure more effectively. You will bring deep knowledge of U.S. municipal finance alongside a working understanding of international alternative delivery and investment models, including P3/PPP frameworks used in Australia, the UK, Canada, and Asia-Pacific and help translate those approaches for the U.S. market.

The role will expand client coverage and relationships across public authorities, private clients, developers, infrastructure investors, lenders, and delivery partners, originating and shaping opportunities that connect capital needs with commercial, investment, asset-management and delivery expertise. Critically, the successful candidate will convert those relationships into opportunities that leverage the GHD enterprise, not solely for the Advisory business.

• Originate opportunities upstream, at strategy, portfolio, development and transaction stage and convert them into enterprise scopes spanning advisory and technical  delivery services.

• Identify and shape needle-moving pursuits (large-scale, multi-year or strategically significant), and position GHD for downstream implementation roles, rather than discrete tactical engagements.

• Connect investor and developer mandates to opportunities across the GHD network, and connect GHD's existing client base to capital.

• Work with markets, regions and technical service lines to translate an investor-side conversation into a defined, deliverable GHD proposition, including the delivery model and commercial structure needed to execute it.

• Take accountability for named enterprise pursuits and their progression from pipeline to backlog, tracked through Salesforce alongside the wider team.

• Develop targeted coverage of private-sector clients, including private companies, developers, infrastructure investors, lenders, and delivery partners. Maintain relationships, gain trusted advisor status, and cross-sell applicable services.

• Act as the local NYC face for in-flight investor engagements, managing day-to-day relationship continuity in coordination with the Investment Advisory lead and corresponding GHD teams.

• Identify opportunities to extend existing relationships into asset management, capital planning, funding/financing, commercial advisory, alternative-delivery, and investment-readiness assignments, and into the technical and delivery scopes that follow them.

• Conduct market positioning, client outreach, opportunity qualification, and pursuit leadership.

• Lead proposal development, interview preparation, scope development, and pricing strategies for priority pursuits, working through / with the relevant business groups.

• Build and maintain relationships with regulatory agencies, utilities, private companies, and partner firms.

• Support development of market perspectives and client materials on infrastructure business and commercial perspectives.

• Coordinate with internal technical and advisory teams to identify cross-selling and integrated-pursuit opportunities.

• Build a market pipeline of enterprise-scale opportunities, prioritized against Investment Advisory criteria.

• Lifecycle costing and long-term financial modeling

• Investment strategies and rate/fee impacts

• Business case development using economic, financial, and risk frameworks

• Program governance, policy, and organizational design

• Program management and owner advisor delivery

• Funding and financing strategy, including public funding, grants, loans, rate/fee considerations, alternative delivery, and private-capital options

• Finance-readiness assessments for capital projects, programs, and M&A processes, identifying the commercial, financial, technical, governance, contractual, and data requirements needed to engage lenders or investors

• Commercial assessments, including readiness, market entry, demand analysis, revenue considerations, bid & board advisory, business-model review, delivery-model assessment, and risk allocation

• P3/alternative-delivery analysis, including value-for-money assessment, public-private comparators, pay-mechanism structures and procurement strategy, for both owner-side and bidder-side advisory support

• Technical, commercial, and financial due-diligence support, drawing on GHD's technical bench; scope and capacity to be confirmed with the relevant business groups before commitment to clients

• Asset-management and operational-improvement strategies for utility portfolios, private operators, and infrastructure platforms, including asset condition, operational-performance, capacity, capex/opex, and lifecycle assessments

• Integrate investment, commercial, asset-management, sustainability, and data insights into practical client recommendations

• Manage multidisciplinary teams across advisory, engineering, and data groups

• Engage client executives and senior decision-makers to provide trusted advisory insights.

• Engage senior leaders across public authorities, private companies, developers, infrastructure investors, lenders, and delivery partners.

• Support senior client discussions with lenders and investors through analysis, structuring, readiness assessments, and decision materials; this role does not act as a capital-placement agent.

• Bring the GHD enterprise into client conversations, introducing appropriate colleagues early, and building GHD's brand and standing in the investor community.

• Mentor team in infrastructure economics, capital planning, commercial analysis, asset-management strategy, and investor-oriented communication.

• Develop reusable methodologies, tools, and client deliverables for finance readiness, commercial assessment, asset management, and investment/diligence support, contributing to a repeatable playbook that can scale across clients, regions and sectors.

• Participate in the Investment Advisory operating rhythm: weekly working team meetings for pipeline triage and priorities; monthly business alignment with regional leadership and with markets, sector leads and relationship managers; quarterly executive review of priority pursuits, pipeline and backlog.

• Route opportunities to the right business groups and markets, and hand off BAU opportunities to Americas Business Advisory business group leaders rather than absorbing them.

• Build internal networks and credibility across regions, the Enterprise Client Program and technical service lines, including structured time in GHD offices and with delivery teams as appropriate.

• Invest time in learning GHD's capability, delivery model and client base, and act as an advocate for early, consultative client engagement across the wider business.

• Operate with a named internal sponsor and a defined onboarding plan for the first 12 months, structured quarter by quarter, covering client access, internal relationships and pursuit accountability.

• Design the project architecture, building on the initial proposal and client interviews to develop a solution that meets the client's stated requirements and addresses identified client issues.

• Structure integrated advisory engagements that combine investment, commercial, asset-management, sustainability, and data-analytics workstreams, and identify the follow-on technical and delivery scopes each engagement can unlock.

• Collate and analyse information gathered through interviews and research to diagnose underlying client issues and design solutions.

• Diagnose issues across the transaction timeline: funding constraints, affordability, asset condition, lifecycle risk, operating performance, delivery strategy, commercial risk, and organizational capability.

• Translate findings into prioritized services spanning the full GHD offering.

• Maintain client coverage and contact for discovery at different levels, including finance and asset-management leaders, operations teams, regulators, delivery partners, and investors.

• Clarify client objectives, capabilities, and needs.

• Act as a subject matter expert in infrastructure economics, finance and investment.

• Maintain external accreditations and an in-depth understanding of current and emerging regulation and industry best practice through continuing professional development, conferences, and specialist media.

• Maintain working knowledge of U.S. municipal finance, infrastructure regulation, infrastructure investment trends, P3/PPP and alternative-delivery models, and relevant global practices.

• Lead complex advisory assignments that help clients make capital, asset-management, commercial, delivery, and investment decisions.

• Support the development of an advisory platform that can expand, when appropriate, to adjacent infrastructure sectors and client groups, with the explicit purpose of growing enterprise backlog.

• 20+ years of experience in infrastructure finance, water/wastewater utility economics, investment advisory, or related fields
• Professional Engineer (PE) or equivalent professional credential (CFA, PFM, or comparable financial certification also valued)
• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Engineering, Economics, Finance, Public Policy, or related field
• Deep expertise in water and wastewater utility operations and finance — including rate structures, capital planning, CIP development, and regulatory frameworks
• Proven experience structuring or facilitating P3/PPP transactions, alternative delivery, or private capital placement for municipal infrastructure
• Strong working knowledge of U.S. municipal finance instruments — municipal bonds, SRF, WIFIA, environmental impact bonds, credit facilities
• Familiarity with international alternative delivery and financing models (e.g., Australian alliance contracting, UK DPC, Asian infrastructure investment models)
• Demonstrated ability to engage and advise C-suite utility executives and municipal finance leaders (GMs, CFOs, finance directors, elected officials)
• Experience working with or alongside private investors, infrastructure funds, investment banks, or development finance institutions
• Strong understanding of asset management principles — lifecycle planning, risk-based investment prioritization, capital optimization — and their connection to financial strategy
• Exceptional communication skills — able to translate complex financial and technical concepts into clear, executive-ready recommendations
• A relationship builder with a strong network in the water/wastewater utility and infrastructure finance community

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