HDR

Engineering Principal

HDR$120K — $160K *
Technical Services
15+ years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree in Engineering
  • 20+ years of relevant experience
  • Requires a professional engineering license (e.g., PE or P.Eng)
  • Extensive project execution experience
  • Proficient in Microsoft Office and standard design software
  • Technical expertise in engineering analysis and design
  • Commitment to an employee-owned culture

Responsibilities

  • Lead business development initiatives to win work for BES and partners
  • Cultivate relationships with clients and stakeholders to enhance collaboration
  • Develop project scope, schedule, and fee structures
  • Facilitate clear communication across the design team
  • Provide strategic leadership in project delivery
  • Mentor junior staff and build leadership potential
  • Represent HDR at professional events and community engagements

Benefits

  • Opportunity to influence company culture and morale
  • Engagement in mentoring and leadership development
  • Participation in community and industry boards
  • Collaborative work environment that fosters innovation
  • Recognition and rewards for demonstrating core company values
Full Job Description
Engineering Principal

Engineering Principals are leaders in the practice who influence culture, morale, and recruiting as well as provide leadership in the pursuit and delivery of work. An Engineering Principal not only has deep engineering expertise in their discipline, but they understand how cross discipline teams' function. They couple that understanding with leadership and communication abilities to positively impact the success of the business. The behaviors represented by Engineering Principals are indicative to our staff, clients, and recruits of the behaviors and characteristics HDR rewards.

Winning Work

Engineering Principals have a significant impact on winning work for HDR - both for the Building Engineering Services (BES) Business Group (BG) and partner BGs. They have business development skills to identify opportunities and take the initiative to be responsive and establish relationships to win work. They promote and represent BES to our internal and external clients - they foster relationships that make people want to work with us.

There are three ways in which BES wins work and Engineering Principals contribute to each:

  1. Book work in BES market sectors.
  2. Collaborate with partner business groups to help them win work in their market sectors by developing and leveraging our expertise, relationships, and reputation.
  3. Capture building engineering scope of work on HDR non-BES projects by selling our services internally.


Engineering Principals are expected to help develop scope, schedule, and fee for projects. They must communicate regarding the pursuits they are leading with operational leadership to address staffing, expertise requirements, and business needs. Engineering Principals help us identify how to engage the right people in the right work in alignment with our strategic goals: "differentiating ourselves in our markets by amplifying our collective talent and knowledge".

Project Succe

Engineering Principals understand the building design process in the market sectors in which they practice. They facilitate clear communication and provide leadership for the entire design team. An Engineering Principal needs to be a conceptual thinker who can engage and challenge our architectural designers and engineering team during the early stages of projects to inform design. They should leverage our integrated practice to add value to our project delivery process and lead engineering teams to deliver well-coordinated, high-quality designs to our clients. Engineering Principals are expected to not only provide leadership for their discipline but act more broadly as leaders in our practice. The role requires a passion for maximizing high performance design within the project constraints. They are the team members who proactively look out for all BES disciplines on project teams to elevate design while ensuring that scope, schedule, and budget are understood and respected by the team and concerns are communicated to project management in a clear and timely manner. Engineering Principals are protecting HDR's Client relationships (internal and external) and project successes. Their leadership has a direct impact on HDR's financial plan.

Culture, Morale & Recruiting

Engineering Principals are leaders in the company that exemplify the company culture. They demonstrate expectations of how project teams' function and emphasize collaboration and design excellence. These individuals are responsible for mentoring and building the next generation of leadership at HDR by developing technical, client and business acumen in others.

Principals recognize gaps in our expertise and project teams. They identify ways to fill those gaps by mentoring junior staff, identifying where we can shift or train staff, or identifying where we need to hire additional expertise. Principals network in the local community - leveraging their relationships to identify talent and recruit for HDR. Engineers in this role are contributing to BES's strategy to develop expertise and strategy required to build a successful engineering practice.

Engineer Principals represent HDR through their participation in the professional and local community. They are expected to represent HDR in the engineering community, participate in speaking engagements, author white papers and technical publications and participate on industry and community boards.

Clarification from SME or Senior Engineer

  • The role of Engineering Principal is a progression beyond Senior Engineer or Subject Matter Expert. But this is not a recognition that all Senior Engineers can expect to earn with time as the next step on the ladder.
  • Competencies are not solely based upon technical skills.
  • Subject Matter Expert/ Senior Engineer
    • Exemplary technical performance and expertise.
    • Hold the resume required to win work.
    • In-depth market sector expertise.
    • Interview performance to win work.
    • Mentor to junior staff.
    • Execute projects with little to no direction.
  • Many Engineering Principals will also be SMEs.


Framework

  • Report or meet regularly with Area BG Management (Business Group Manager, Professional Services Leader, Project Delivery Leader, etc.)
  • Participate in strategy/visioning sessions


Values from HDR Strategic Plan:

Engineering Principals are expected to guide teams to see the bigger picture beyond the immediate problem or project in front of them. Influence people to align with our company values:

  • Live the network.
    • We think global and act local, and as a result we learn from each other.
    • We bring together the right people for each individual client and engagement, e
      nsuring the right skills, expertise, experience and the highest level of teamwork. Every time.
  • Listen first.
    • To find the best answer, we need to understand the root and complexity of the problem.
    • We start by listening.
  • Hold ourselves accountable.
    • We are empowered to find the best solutions for our clients and for our own company.
    • We do the right things for the right reasons. And we take personal responsibility to see things through.
  • Push boundaries.
    • We strive to do things better and stretch further. From our internal processes to the work we deliver, and from the projects we do, to the careers we enable.
  • Design smart.
    • We have the skills and ability to tailor our approach to each situation, whether it's tried and tested, or something more cutting edge. We deliver our best work by designing smart.


Qualifications

Required Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree in Engineering
  • A minimum of 20 years of experience
  • Requires professional engineering license recognized by the licensing board for the location of the position offered. Example: Professional Engineer (PE or P.Eng) license.
  • Extensive experience in project execution
  • Proficient computer skills in Microsoft Office as well as standard design software.
  • Must be comfortable being viewed as a technical expert in engineering analysis and design and have proven background of technical leadership on these types of projects
  • An attitude and commitment to being an active participant of our employee-owned culture

About HDR

HDR is an architecture, engineering, and consulting firm based in Omaha, Nebraska. The company was founded in 1917 as Henningson Engineering Company and has since grown to become one of the largest engineering firms in the United States. HDR provides a wide range of services, including architecture, engineering, environmental consulting, and construction management. The company has worked on a number of high-profile projects, including the Hoover Dam Bypass and the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. HDR is committed to sustainability and has been recognized for its efforts in this area by organizations such as the U.S. Green Building Council.
Learn more about HDR
Size
10,000 employees
Industry
Founded
1917

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