5 Questions with an Expert: Reuben James

We're excited to share with you our latest 5 Questions with an Expert interview with Senior Project Manager Reuben James.

1. Starting with some background about yourself, can you share how you got started in this field and what inspires you most in your work?  

Engineering has been my professional calling for as long as I can remember. As a young child, I was curious about how things worked and constantly questioned, "Why?" My father, an Engineering professor at Texas A&M University, exposed me to engineering concepts throughout my childhood, even if I didn't realize it then. He instilled in me problem-solving and critical-thinking skills. He could fix just about anything, so figuring out how things worked was both fun and educational.   

A particularly influential experience during my childhood was a small facility called Safety City, built near our elementary school. This miniature town, designed to teach children how to safely navigate public roads and sidewalks, featured small storage sheds painted like city buildings, narrow roads with striping mimicking city streets, real street signs, sidewalks, and traffic signals. Some kids would ride tricycles on the streets, pretending to be cars, while others acted as pedestrians. A police officer taught the basic rules of right-of-way and pedestrian safety. I was fascinated by the idea that order could be brought to potential chaos with just a few stripes and signs. 

My first engineering job was with crash testing at the Texas Transportation Institute, where I spent two summers in the Roadside Safety division. I worked with crews setting up and implementing crash testing on new designs for guardrails, illumination poles, street sign bases, and other roadside appurtenances. This was an incredible experience for a young engineering student and solidified my interest in transportation engineering. Not many young engineers get the opportunity to intentionally crash cars and trucks for research. 

I also have an extensive background in CAD. Early in my career, I worked at an electrical engineering company and in the water resources department of a large civil engineering firm, where I honed my CAD and design skills. These experiences prepared me for my role at HVJ, where I have spent roughly 20 years applying and passing on these skills to the next generation of engineers. 

I am passionate about all aspects of public infrastructure, including planning, design, construction, and maintenance. The projects I undertake at HVJ allow me to be involved at every level, which I find rewarding. Improving public infrastructure is a great way to give back to the community. 

2. Please tell us about your role at HVJ. What is important to success in this role, and which aspect of your work or daily routine do you like best?  
 
I am a Senior Project Manager at HVJ. The short answer is that my primary responsibility is the success of the projects under my supervision. This involves focusing on schedule and budget, ensuring that we execute our scope to the best of our abilities, and delivering a product that satisfies the client. 
 
At this stage in my career, I spend more time coordinating and communicating than performing the design and production work myself. This is a natural career progression, with my days filled with meetings, phone calls, and a constant stream of emails. Clear communication is the foundation of all successful projects, and I believe that organizational and time management skills are equally crucial. I'm continually working to improve these skills, as I expect most project managers to do. 

One of the most rewarding aspects of my job is witnessing our younger engineers' growth, learning, and success. Watching them take on newer and bigger responsibilities is genuinely gratifying. Their growth enables the entire team to tackle larger and more complex projects. Helping the team grow and improve is always a priority for me, and I strive to encourage my staff to develop their skills and advance in their careers. 

3. Can you briefly describe one of your recent projects and what you found most interesting or rewarding? What was the most significant achievement of the project?  

 At HVJ, one of the aspects I truly enjoy is the wide variety of projects we encounter daily. Among the many projects we've tackled, one that stands out is our ongoing, long-term collaboration with Austin Energy. We provide on-call traffic control design services across the City of Austin for Austin Energy. They call us whenever they need to replace a power pole, string new electrical conductors, or access any of their facilities within the public right-of-way. Based on the access details, we develop traffic control plans to ensure their electrical distribution infrastructure work can be performed safely. 
 
Individually, each traffic control plan we create is straightforward. However, what makes this project significant is the sheer volume. Our team has developed over 400 individual traffic control plan sets, each meticulously crafted to meet the City of Austin's permitting requirements. Managing such a high volume is challenging, and our team needed to adapt our process compared to our larger projects, which typically have longer schedules. 

To adapt to the increased pace and volume, I developed an assignment tracking tool tailored to our department's operations and keeping the client updated on the status of their requests. I created a workflow that alerted the appropriate staff when they needed attention. This system, enabled by Smartsheet, automatically notified the client at each step of the production process. Additionally, I developed a client-facing dashboard that allowed Austin Energy to check the status of their pending requests and view statistics such as the number of jobs completed, in the queue, or on hold. 

These tools and tracking systems were crucial in ensuring we delivered a quality product to our client on time. This project highlights not only our team's technical skills but also our ability to innovate and adapt processes to effectively meet our clients' demands. 

4. HVJ places a high priority on ongoing learning, personal growth, and mentorship. How have these values helped you develop leadership skills that you've needed to apply in your everyday work life or on complex projects? 

 Ongoing learning has been crucial for me to become an effective leader. What I've learned has empowered me to guide and support the next generation of engineers. I feel fortunate to have worked with the same two senior engineers throughout my tenure at HVJ. They are more than colleagues; they are mentors who have taught me countless valuable lessons. Observing their work ethic and leadership skills has allowed me to continually improve and expand my skill set. 

With their guidance, I've progressed from a novice Engineer in Training (EIT) in a small department to a Senior Project Manager leading a team of EITs and technicians. I am deeply grateful for their influence and guidance in managing both staff and projects effectively. Continuous learning is not just a personal goal but a professional necessity. I aim to provide the same level of mentorship to the younger engineers following in my footsteps as was given to me. 
 
5. What other disciplines do you most often work with during projects? What do you find to be most important in successful collaboration? 

Many of our projects revolve around utility infrastructure maintenance and construction. By the nature of these projects, I often collaborate with electrical transmission engineers, water and wastewater design engineers, and hydraulic engineers. The projects are technically complex, but cross-team solid communication is frequently the most challenging and critical component for a successful project.  

Clear communication in collaboration is more challenging than it seems. Language barriers, cultural and generational differences, and the nuances of written versus oral communication can all create potential pitfalls. To navigate these challenges, we need to clearly define and articulate goals, requests, and acceptable results. Ensuring that everyone on the team fully understands these aspects is key to keeping a project on track. Effective communication can bridge gaps, align our efforts, and allow us to work toward a common objective.