Mike Burke will take over in March as chief executive of downtown L.A. engineering and technical services firm Aecom Technology Corp., the company announced Wednesday.

Burke, 50, Aecom’s president and former chief financial officer, will succeed John Dionisio, who has led the publicly traded company since 2005. Dionisio, 65 will become executive chairman.

Burke, also nominated to join Aecom’s board, said the succession has been planned for years and that he expects a smooth transition.

“I think John and I together have laid a great foundation for the company,” he told the Business Journal after his appointment was announced. “In the years I’ve been here and the eight years John’s been CEO, the company has tripled in size in terms of revenue, in the number of employees. And those people have watched John and I work together.”

Though Aecom’s headquarters are in Los Angeles, Dionisio spends much of his time in New York. Burke, though, is based in Los Angeles and said he will remain here. He is also a board member of Westwood’s Rentech Nitrogen Partners, a publicly traded fertilizer manufacturer.

One of Burke’s priorities will be to develop Aecom’s brand. He notes that the firm is not widely known outside of construction and engineering circles, though it has been involved in dozens of major projects around Los Angeles, from managing big construction projects at LAX and the local ports to working on the Metro Red Line subway.