Meet Darren Milsom

As Jacobs’ Program Manager for the Port of San Francisco Waterfront Resilience Program (WRP), what’s your favorite part of working on such a program?

The WRP is a huge program that’s making seven and a half miles of the San Francisco waterfront resilient to earthquakes and sea level rise. With this comes an opportunity to improve the waterfront to really maximize the potential for all communities in San Francisco, a revenue generating potential from the waterfront to create jobs, and an opportunity to help people connect with the Bay all while improving or, as much as possible, building something that’s smarter for the environment. 

The most exciting part for me is the opportunity of shaping what the waterfront could be in 20 years and the huge benefits that it can bring to San Francisco – and helping the city to collaborate and move toward realizing this opportunity. It's not easy or cheap, but doing nothing is a decision in itself with huge consequences – so there’s a need to do something. 

We need to adapt to sea level rise; we've got to prevent flooding of the city and we've got to make the city resilient to that potential future. We know there's going to be an earthquake and the better prepared San Francisco can be for it, through work to make the waterfront more resilient to an earthquake, all of these decisions and improvements will benefit the city and its population into the future.

What is the biggest opportunity/challenge you’ve encountered in working on a program of this scale and complexity? 

A big challenge is how many of the city's systems are interconnected along the waterfront – there’s the port and all its infrastructure. Immediately adjacent to that you have the city’s transportation and transit infrastructure as well as major utilities networks that run alongside the waterfront. This infrastructure can be implicated by any changes made to the shoreline, so a challenge is bringing the different parties together to come up with a solution that meets the needs of the program to reduce the impacts of earthquakes and coastal flooding, while not causing unnecessary or undue impacts on their infrastructure or their mission.

On the flip side, it's also important to think about how we can achieve additional benefits that can support these various stakeholders. An ongoing opportunity within the program is partners from different city agencies coming together to help shape the work that's being delivered and maintain alignment through the process. This close coordination can identify efficiencies and opportunities that otherwise would not be possible. 

What excites you for the future of this industry? 

The opportunity for our industry to shape the future as we think about decarbonization. 

We should be trying to wean our planet off fossil fuels – and specifically within our own industry, rethinking material use and reusing materials to reduce our impact on the planet. I see the potential of digital solutions and artificial intelligence and what that might mean for being able to support that shift. There’s also huge opportunity to improve how we manage our existing assets to get more life out of them and reduce their overall toll on the planet rather than just building something, waiting for it to deteriorate and then rebuilding it again.

What is one tip you can give to someone looking to get involved in coastal resilience or who’s passionate about climate response? 

Don't give up. It can be hard. Not everyone is always moving in the same direction. Not everyone is always trying to get to the same outcome, so don't give up pushing to do the right thing – but also be open to new ideas. Maybe there are other ways that could deliver better outcomes.

When you aren’t working, what are we most likely to find you doing? 

Spending time with and entertaining my children. I enjoy taking my kids to their activities and watching them do the different things that they enjoy. I’ve recently started helping with my eldest son's scout troop. I love snowboarding, if I could, I would chase winter around the world. I also enjoy running and cooking – between all of the activities and work, there isn't much time left in the day!

What is your favorite part of working at #OurJacobs?

Our company culture. Our leadership is quite outspoken about their views on big issues within the U.S. and the world. They are really supporting our staff – not just speaking out about doing the right thing, but also implementing systems and change within our company to make things better within Jacobs. They back up what they've said, and I see that filtering down within our organization. You can see it at different levels throughout the company, that we're all trying to move in that direction, do better. Our employee networks also help foster that change within our company. I've recently started a training course, which Jacobs is providing to help men advocate for change in the workplace. All of these aspects and initiatives really make me want to work for Jacobs. You could do interesting work anywhere, but I want to work for a company that believes in equality and has us all working toward that common goal.