Who is NTE, NTE 35W, and LBJ?The
North Tarrant Express (NTE) was the first design-build-finance-operate-maintain managed lanes project in Texas and consisted of the complete reconstruction of 13.3 miles of the existing I-820/SH-183 corridor between Dallas and Fort Worth. Since opening in October 2014, nine months ahead of the contracted completion date, the general highway lanes are experiencing a 70% decrease in congestion time and a 15% increase in average speed. This Cintra-led project has doubled capacity and significantly improved mobility along this heavily congested corridor that traverses the heart of six cities through Northeast Tarrant County.
The
North Tarrant Express 35W (NTE 35W) project spans 16.8 miles from I-30 in downtown Fort Worth to Eagle Parkway at the north end of Alliance Airport. The project is operated and maintained by the Cintra-led consortium in North Texas. This project has improved mobility by adding additional road capacity through a combination of general highway lanes and continuous frontage roads, along with tolled express lanes that use variable pricing to keep traffic moving.
The
LBJ Express (LBJ) is currently the largest P3 operation in Texas and one of the largest ever undertaken in the U.S. It is a regionally-significant transportation improvement project in North Texas that is relieving severe congestion in the dense urban area of north Dallas. In 2009, the Cintra-led consortium was selected to complete the design, construction, finance, operation, and maintenance of the project along I-635 and I-35E. Since opening in September 2015, the general highway lanes are realizing a 60% decrease in congestion time and a 10% increase in average speed.
What makes us different? Our people come first. We want every single employee to develop both professionally and personally. With a strong focus on growth potential, we look to our internal employees as potential candidates for both national and international opportunities. We aim to achieve greatness by promoting from within every chance we get. We work hard and play hard and strive every day for success and achievement. With a diverse group of professionals working in a fast-paced environment, we achieve milestones constantly. And if that weren't enough, we also offer our employees highly competitive insurance benefits, Paid Time Off, and a matching 401(k) program.
Job Description:About the RoleThe role reports to the Chief Information Officer (CIO), who holds enterprise architecture and IT systems accountability. It works in close, ongoing coordination with two peer functions:
- Chief Operating Officer (COO) - receives regular reporting on roadmap, program status, supplier performance and technology risk in a review chaired by the CIO with the COO participating; disputed root cause and sequencing decisions escalate to a joint CIO- and COO-chaired review; unresolved disputes between this role and Field Systems escalate to the COO for direct resolution.
- Field Systems Director - shares a joint technical acceptance gate: no system transfers into operation without both signatures. This role confirms the system meets specification; the Field Systems Director confirms it is operable and maintainable. Maintainability input is sought from Field Systems at the design stage, and this role provides continuing technical support once systems transfer to steady-state operation.
Key ResponsibilitiesTechnology Strategy and Roadmap- Own the multi-year roadside technology roadmap across LBJ, NTE and NTE 35W TEXpress Lanes, reconciling three sets of CDA obligations, performance regimes and hand back conditions.
- Own renewal sequencing across the estate, testing the plan against hand back dates, equipment condition, obsolescence exposure and available annual delivery capacity.
- Maintain a lifecycle and obsolescence position for every major roadside asset class, including toll rate signs, and translate it into capital planning input.
- Track technology developments in electronic tolling - sensing, classification, imaging, transaction formation, connected vehicle and satellite-based approaches - and advise the business on what merits adoption, what merits monitoring, and what does not.
- Maintain a structured watch on electronic tolling and mobility trends - sensing, classification, imaging, connected vehicle, satellite-based and mobility-as-a-service tolling models - and translate developments into adopt, monitor or disregard recommendations for the estate.
- Represent the company in relevant industry forums and benchmark the estate's technology position against peer operators.
Technical Authority in Supplier Engagement- Act as the company's lead technical voice with toll system suppliers and integrators across design reviews, technical negotiations, change proposals and issue resolution.
- Interrogate supplier proposals, performance claims and design submissions on their engineering merits, and require evidence proportionate to the claim.
- Write the technical content of specifications, requests for proposal and evaluation criteria so that obligations are unambiguous, measurable and enforceable, in coordination with the Field Systems Director on procurement content shared between the two roles.
- Support the commercial and legal teams in shaping contract terms, service levels and performance regimes, so that technical obligations survive contact with a claim.
- Lead technical evaluation of supplier proposals and make technical recommendations on award.
Program Delivery- Drive renewal and upgrade projects from concept through design, procurement, testing and acceptance, working with the Field Systems organization throughout implementation.
- Approve designs, factory acceptance test plans and site acceptance test plans before work proceeds.
- Witness factory and site acceptance testing and hold formal technical acceptance authority as one signature of the joint acceptance gate with Field Systems.
- Provide continuing technical support to the Field Systems organization after transferring to steady-state operation, and own remediation where a defect traces to specification or design.
Documentation and Records Management- Own the ITS documentation and data repository for the roadside estate, including as-built drawings, Issued-for-Construction (IFC) packages, equipment and configuration records, and test and acceptance evidence.
- Maintain document control standards - versioning, retrieval and retention - sufficient to support CDA hand back obligations and long-term lifecycle management across a heterogeneous estate spanning several equipment generations.
Testing, Standards and Performance- Develop and maintain, jointly with Field Systems, the company's testing and acceptance framework - criteria, methods, evidence standards and sign-off.
- Maintain a failure and defect trend database across the roadside estate, categorized by asset class, equipment generation and failure mode.
- Produce recurring failure-trend reporting, distinguishing design defects, manufacturing defects, maintenance-driven failures and environmental or wear factors.
- Define toll system performance measures - transaction accuracy, read rate, classification accuracy, image quality, availability - and own analytics that evidence them, coordinating with the Field Systems analysis function.
- Investigate systemic performance issues to root cause across the roadside chain and distinguish design causes from maintenance and environmental ones on evidence; escalate disputed root cause findings to the joint CIO/COO review.
Governance and Compliance- Own the technical content of CDA obligations relating to toll systems and advise on compliance, technical reporting and hand back condition across the three concessions.
- Ensure technical compliance with Texas interoperability requirements and the applicable interface control specifications, coordinating with the Tolling Manager on interoperability with NTTA.
- Own the technical content, data and analysis behind TxDOT compliance and quality-performance reporting, including KPI definitions and ETCS-related metrics. The Commercial team owns the formal reporting relationship with TxDOT and submission of record; this role supplies the technical substance on a defined cadence.
- Report on roadmap, program status, supplier performance and technology risk in a regular review chaired by the CIO, with the COO and Field Systems Director participating.
Team Leadership and Capability Building- Supervise and develop the ITS Engineering Manager and Junior ITS Engineer, providing technical direction, reviewing work products and setting individual development priorities.
- Scale the team's size and structure as the renewal program and capability-building mandate develop.
- Develop technical depth within the Field Systems and Tolling organization and the wider team, with the explicit objective of transferring technical acceptance capability over time.
- Build the specification libraries, test standards and documented technical positions that allow the company's knowledge to outlast any individual.
- Own an innovation pipeline for roadside tolling technology, including scoping and running pilots or proofs-of-concept ahead of full-scale procurement decisions.
- Assess emerging regulatory, vehicle-technology and mobility trends (e.g., EV adoption, autonomous vehicles, connected vehicle mandates) for their impact on tolling infrastructure requirements over a 5-10-year horizon.
Qualifications and ExperienceRequired- Master's or bachelor's degree in electrical, electronic, systems, computer or civil engineering, or a closely related technical discipline. Equivalent experience will be considered.
- Ten or more years in electronic or all-electronic tolling systems, with substantial depth on the roadside side of the system.
- Demonstrable hands-on knowledge of roadside toll collection technology: automatic vehicle identification, automatic vehicle classification, image capture, license plate recognition, lane controllers and transaction formation.
- Experience gained working for or directly alongside toll system suppliers or integrators, sufficient to engage those organizations as a technical equal.
- Proven ownership of technical specifications, test plans and formal system acceptance - not solely schedule, budget and coordination responsibility.
- Experience holding suppliers to contractual and performance obligations, including technical dispute and claim situations.
- Ability to work effectively across organizational boundaries - including with a CIO, COO and Field Systems Director - and to build agreement with peers who do not report to the role.
Preferred- Experience within a concession, P3 or long-term toll operator environment or a consultancy serving one, and familiarity with the obligations these carry.
- Experience of a system renewal, migration or technology replacement on a live tolling facility, as distinct from greenfield delivery.
- Prior experience supervising or mentoring engineering staff, even informally.
- Familiarity with dynamic pricing environments and the toll rate sign chain, including the exposure created when a displayed price and a charged price diverge.
- Knowledge of Texas tolling interoperability arrangements and regional toll agency practice.
- Experience building an internal engineering or integration capability, rather than only operating within an established one.
- Working knowledge of roadside network and communications infrastructure.
- Spanish language ability, useful across the wider group.
Competencies- Technical judgement under commercial pressure - able to hold a position when a supplier or a schedule push against it, and to change position when the evidence warrants.
- Clear written communication, particularly in specifications and technical positions that will later be read adversarial.
- Credibility with both executive audiences (CIO, COO) and field technicians.
- Independence of thought - willing to recommend against a familiar solution, a preferred supplier, or a previous employer's product.
- Developing others; genuine interest in building capability rather than concentrating on it.
Working Conditions- Based in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, on site, with regular presence across the three concession corridors.
- Periodic fields work in an active highway environment, including roadside and gantry access under traffic. Full compliance with the company's health and safety requirements is a condition of the role.
- Occasional out-of-hours work in support of testing, cutover and commissioning windows.
- Approximately 15% travel, including supplier facilities for factory acceptance testing and occasional engagement with other groups tolled assets.
- Valid driver's license required.
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