Senior Partner – Capital and Deals — Urban Infrastructure Platform

The mandate

Canadian infrastructure investors and operators are asking for transaction advice that connects capital structure with operational reality. A new Senior Partner will establish a sector-specific capital-and-deals proposition able to determine how incident patterns, asset condition, insurance, contractual remedy and operating culture affect price, structure and ownership choice.

The client-value perimeter represents approximately C$17,750 million in projects and operating assets, supported by 475 employees and material partners. The role covers senior client origination, deal strategy, commercial diligence, capital options, transaction execution, claims and safety integration, alliance governance and practice development. Engagement partners retain professional conclusions within their disciplines. The Senior Partner owns the combined investor question and whether the advice changes a real capital decision.

Urban assets rarely present risk in neat categories. A recurring near miss may indicate maintenance backlog, weak contractor control, design limitation or under-reporting. A claims register may contain ordinary case volume, a systemic coverage dispute or future precedent. The practice must trace operational causes and financial consequences without acting as insurer, engineer or legal counsel beyond its competence.

The first priority is to define the evidence threshold for advising a bid, refinancing, partnership or exit during the reset. Clients should understand which uncertainties can be priced, which require contractual protection and which should prevent commitment. False precision is as damaging as an unbounded risk premium.

Why this seat is open

This urgent new role has no predecessor. Client demand and the live safety-and-claims reset developed after the partner plan was approved, leaving distributed specialists without one accountable market leader. The council intends to appoint within six to eight weeks once a qualified shortlist is available. Interim engagement governance continues, but the new proposition will not be launched until permanent authority is in place.

What you will own

• Frame capital questions around asset behaviour and investor control.
• Integrate safety, claims, insurance and technical evidence into diligence.
• Govern valuation adjustments, protections and walk-away advice.
• Build senior client relationships without compromising independence.
• Establish multidisciplinary delivery, quality and conflict controls.
• Develop partners and reusable transaction insight beyond personal billings.

Engagement acceptance will start with purpose and decision authority. A vendor seeking a defensible risk story, an investor testing downside and a lender considering covenant protection require different work. The Senior Partner will confirm access to incident, condition, insurance, contract and operational evidence before accepting a conclusion-based scope. Limitations will be explicit in both the workplan and client decision paper.

Claims analysis will distinguish frequency, severity, latency and common cause. The team will reconcile notified, reserved, disputed and unreported exposure, while specialist counsel retains legal interpretation. Safety evidence will extend beyond lagging injuries to precursors, assurance findings, maintenance and contractor behaviour. Where records are inconsistent, the advice will show a range and a route to reduce uncertainty rather than selecting the most convenient dataset.

Capital options will reflect control. Price adjustments may compensate for a quantifiable liability, but uncertain systemic exposure may require escrow, indemnity, warranty, insurance, staged ownership or governance rights. The Senior Partner will test whether protection is enforceable and aligned with the party able to change operations. A contractual remedy that leaves the buyer unable to prevent harm is not a sufficient risk strategy.

The practice will maintain professional separation between advocacy and evidence. Vendor work cannot suppress adverse findings, and buy-side work cannot inflate fear to justify a discount. Conflicts around insurers, operators, authorities or competing bidders will be reviewed before teams receive information. The partner council will see high-risk judgements and scope changes early.

Practice assets will capture anonymised patterns, decision trees and evidence requirements rather than client conclusions. Teams should become faster at asking the right question, not reuse a historic answer. The Senior Partner will coach deal, engineering, insurance and operations leaders to challenge one another in a controlled forum.

The first 12 months

During the first 75 days, the partner will review the ten largest relevant pursuits, set engagement-acceptance standards and assess multidisciplinary capability. The council will receive a proposition boundary, priority-client map and decisions on opportunities to pursue, reshape or decline.

By month eight, three transactions should apply the integrated safety-and-claims framework, two unrelated clients should have purchased the proposition, and every high-risk engagement should carry documented evidence limits. At least one capital recommendation must show a changed structure, price range or walk-away condition attributable to operating findings.

At year-end, qualified pipeline coverage should exceed twice the next-year plan, delivered contribution remain within 10% of forecast and 90% of material quality findings close by their due dates. No engagement may suffer a preventable independence breach, while 70% of priority clients have credible multi-partner coverage.

What the board will measure

• Capital advice changed by traceable operating and claims evidence.
• Honest treatment of uncertainty, control and professional boundaries.
• Paid adoption beyond a single anchor relationship.
• Strong engagement quality, conflicts and commercial discipline.
• A partner bench capable of sustaining the proposition.

The person

You are a Senior Partner in capital, deals or infrastructure advisory with 22–28 years of experience. You have carried client-value or accountable portfolio scope above C$10,300 million and led at least 325 people. Your history includes complex infrastructure transactions where safety, insurance, claims or asset condition materially changed the capital recommendation.

The council will test one deal you advised against, one uncertainty you converted into a workable protection, and one proposition built across professional disciplines. You must distinguish your judgement from legal and technical specialists while demonstrating respect for their independence. References should confirm realised client decisions rather than presentation quality.

This hybrid Toronto appointment requires travel to client boards, assets and transaction teams across Canada. Candidates must complete rigorous client and personal conflict review.

Compensation and terms

Base compensation is C$330,000–440,000 plus annual incentive. Measures include client decisions, profitable adoption, quality, independence, partner development and succession. Final economics follow the approved practice perimeter and ordinary partnership conditions.

Confidentiality

The practice, investors, assets, incidents, claims and transactions are confidential. Further details follow reciprocal interest and an undertaking. Facts are rounded and combined to prevent identification of any client or live deal.