Description

The County of Essex is Canada’s warmest and southernmost County, surrounded on three sides by water and blessed with unrivaled opportunities for boating, fishing, cycling, golfing, and other recreational pursuits. One of Ontario’s best-kept secrets, the County offers an affordable mix of urban and rural living with easy access to world-class amenities and schools. Windsor is the major centre in the region, and we are located just minutes from downtown Detroit.

With a combined operating and capital budget of over $125M and over 900 permanent and part-time employees, the County of Essex is committed to meeting the needs of our seven local municipalities, the business community and nearly 193,000 residents by delivering efficient and effective services. 

Your Opportunity to Make a Difference

Reporting to the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), the Director, Infrastructure and Planning serves as a key member of the senior leadership team and is responsible for the overall leadership of the department. In this key role you will provide vision and clarity for the planning, engineering, construction, administration and maintenance activities required of our infrastructure related assets which includes over 1,500 lane kilometres of the County road network. In addition, you will oversee the planning division related to jurisdictional land use planning, economic development, and the County Official Plan. 

In addition, you will be accountable for long term strategic planning, facilitating capital asset management and associated long-term strategic management. The Director is responsible for coordinating assigned activities with other County departments, outside agencies and managing the department in its statutory, operational, stewardship and advisory responsibilities. 

You will use your strong leadership, technical and financial skills to guide the County through interesting and challenging projects. In addition to leading your department, you will instill corporate values and strategically tie your department to the municipality’s strategic goals and objectives.

Working with the CAO, County Council and member municipalities, you will provide information on emerging policy and relative professional and departmental issues as well as options and recommendations to enable informed decisions on behalf of the County.

Requirements

Key Professional Qualifications

You are a recognized leader in the field of municipal infrastructure, public works operations or planning with experience leading a municipal division preferably in a medium to large scale environment.

• Management: A least 10 years of progressively responsible management experience in municipal infrastructure, public works or planning. Private sector candidates will be considered with the understanding you can quickly learn about the nuances of the municipal sector.
• Strategic and Critical Thinking:  An inspirational, critical thinker with strong demonstrated strategic and operational acumen; can make balanced, evidence based, and purposeful decisions and can take ideas from planning to implementation while navigating complex political environments and ensuring alignment with interested parties and organizational goals.
• Relationship Management: Proven stakeholder / relationship management skills, including the ability to establish rapport as well as develop and sustain strong working relationships with diverse stakeholders, and manage conflict effectively.
• People Leadership: Strong people management and leadership skills, ideally with experience managing managers. Demonstrated team building and development skills, with a demonstrated ability to build cohesive teams focused on evolving business outcomes and on developing leaders. Experience in a multi-union environment is an asset.
• Program/Project Delivery: Experience in project management and vendor management of a significant multi-million-dollar portfolio of multiple, complex infrastructure and public works projects ensuring deliverables and outcomes are met within fiscal frameworks.
• Financial and Resource Management: A high level of competency with respect to managing a broad range of financial and people-related resources including operating and capital budgets, capital assets, vendor partners and project based resources.
• Communications: Excellent communication and relationship-building skills, with the ability to engage stakeholders at all levels across the organization including vendor partners, member Municipalities, the Council and Council Committees.
• Education/Designations: A University degree in a related field such as Planning, Engineering or equivalent; a professional planning or engineering designation in the Province of Ontario such as MCIP, RPP, P.Eng. or equivalent.

Benefits of working for the County of Essex include:

• Compensation and Benefits: a very competitive salary ranging from $168,562 – $206,949, plus a comprehensive benefits package and OMERS pension.
• Growth Opportunities: Expand your leadership skills as you develop and mentor a talented team, with the chance to grow your career within a supportive and evolving municipality.
• Influence and Impact: You’ll be at the forefront of major community building initiatives, helping shape policies that will drive our County’s future.
• Employee Development: leadership training opportunities to further enhance your skills.
• Healthcare: Multiple exceptional hospitals in Essex County and nearby Windsor.
• Low cost of housing: Essex County provides opportunities for a robust and affordable lifestyle. The choices range from more developed urban centres, to rural properties, to waterfront living.  Housing options are significantly more affordable than regions in and around the Greater Toronto Area.
• Location: convenient and centrally located office in Essex, Ontario.

How to Apply

To explore this opportunity please apply via email with a covering letter and resume by May 11, 2026 or sooner to careers@waterhousesearch.net quoting project EC-DIP. 

Should you wish to speak to our Executive Recruiter or to receive a detailed position description and information package please contact Amy Oliveira at 416-214-9299 x4, amy@waterhousesearch.net, or Jon Stungevicius at 416-214-9299 x1, jon@waterhousesearch.net. 

 All applications will be held in strict confidence. We thank all applicants, however, only those selected for an interview will be contacted. Personal information is collected under the authority of the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act and will be used for employment assessment purposes only.