Dewberry

Senior Water Resources Engineer

Dewberry$100K — $120K *
Energy & Utilities
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • BS, MS, or PhD in Civil Engineering, Water Resources Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering, or related discipline.
  • 10+ years of relevant industry experience in hydraulic engineering and river modeling.
  • Demonstrated experience with large-scale watershed and riverine model development.
  • Proficiency with hydraulic modeling software (e.g., HEC-RAS, SWMM) and GIS platforms (e.g., ArcGIS Pro).
  • Professional Engineer (PE) license required.

Responsibilities

  • Lead technical projects in hydraulic engineering for diverse municipal, state, and federal clients.
  • Develop innovative approaches for hydraulic and flood risk analysis.
  • Conduct and oversee hydraulic modeling of riverine systems and floodplains.
  • Evaluate river hydraulics and floodplain dynamics under various conditions.
  • Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams for cohesive project delivery.
  • Prepare technical reports and present findings to clients and stakeholders.
  • Mentor junior engineers and promote best practices in hydraulic modeling.

Benefits

  • Diverse and inclusive workplace culture.
  • Opportunities for professional development and mentorship.
  • Engagement in impactful, data-driven projects.
  • Participation in external publications and conference presentations.
Full Job Description
Job Description

Dewberry is seeking an experienced and innovative Senior Hydraulic and Water Resources Engineer to join our Resilience Solutions Group. This role focuses on advancing the state of the science in fluvial, pluvial, and lacustrine hydraulics, floodplain analysis, flood risk assessment, and fluvial processes to improve water resources engineering, planning, and design. The successful candidate will combine deep technical expertise in hydraulic modeling, riverine systems, and water resources engineering with a passion for innovation, applied research, and technical leadership. Working collaboratively with engineers, scientists, planners, and programmers, this individual will develop and implement advanced analytical workflows, cloud-enabled modeling solutions, and next-generation approaches for evaluating and managing flood risk under existing and future conditions. In addition to supporting complex projects for federal, state, and local clients, the candidate will help shape the future of hydraulic modeling practice through the advancement of probabilistic and risk-informed methodologies, integration of emerging technologies, development of scalable computational workflows, and mentorship of technical staff. The ideal candidate will serve as a recognized subject matter expert and change agent, delivering impactful, data-driven resilience solutions while advancing organizational capabilities in hydraulic modeling, flood risk analysis, and water resources planning and design.

 

Responsibilities
  • Leverage expertise in hydraulic engineering and river modeling to lead or support technical needs of diverse projects across municipal, state, and federal markets.
  • Lead or contribute to the development of innovative hydraulic and flood risk analysis approaches to meet project requirements.
  • Conduct and oversee one-dimensional and two-dimensional hydraulic modeling of riverine systems, floodplains, bridges, culverts, and hydraulic structures.
  • Evaluate river hydraulics, sediment transport, channel stability, and floodplain dynamics under existing and future conditions.
  • Productively collaborate with multidisciplinary teams of engineers, hydrologists, planners, scientists, and software developers for integrated project delivery.
  • Participate in client and public engagement meetings.
  • Develop technical reports and provide formal and informal presentations to clients and stakeholders.
  • Demonstrate subject matter leadership and professional development through external publications, conference presentations, and professional organizations.
  • Serve as a technical mentor and subject matter expert, providing coaching, training, and quality assurance for junior engineers while promoting best practices in river hydraulics, flood risk assessment, and numerical modeling.
  • Lead research, development, testing, and validation of next-generation hydraulic analysis methodologies to address evolving client and industry needs.
  • Develop and implement a strategic roadmap for advancing hydraulic modeling capabilities, including the integration of probabilistic and risk-informed approaches, technical standards, quality management procedures, and operational best practices.
  • Serve as a technical leader and change agent by mentoring staff and promoting adoption of emerging methods for uncertainty analysis, probabilistic flood hazard characterization, and risk-based decision support.
  • Evaluate and integrate emerging technologies, computational methods, and analytical frameworks to enhance hydraulic modeling practice.
  • Design computational workflows that leverage cloud computing, automation, parallel processing, and large-scale model execution.
  • Partner with scientific programmers, data scientists, and engineers to operationalize advanced hydraulic modeling solutions.
Required Skills & Required Experience

Required Skills & Experience

Candidates must demonstrate knowledge and expertise in performing complex hydraulic analyses using advanced numerical modeling software. Preferred candidates will have experience evaluating riverine systems in the context of extreme events and changing environmental conditions, including an understanding of the interactions among hydrology, hydraulics, geomorphology, and infrastructure.

  • BS, MS, or PhD in Civil Engineering, Water Resources Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering, or related discipline.
  • Expertise in hydraulic engineering and river modeling with 10+ years of relevant industry experience.
  • Demonstrated experience developing, calibrating, and applying large-scale watershed and riverine hydraulic models spanning multiple watersheds, river networks, and interconnected floodplain systems.
  • Proficiency with industry-standard hydraulic modeling software and analytical tools, such as HEC-RAS and SWMM.
  • Experience with floodplain mapping, FEMA studies, and regulatory flood risk assessments.
  • Experience with GIS platforms, including ArcGIS Pro and spatial analysis workflows.
  • Excellent technical writing, communication, and client engagement skills.
  • Professional Engineer (PE) license.

Preferred Qualifications

  • Advanced degree (MS or PhD) in Hydraulic Engineering, Water Resources Engineering, or related field.
  • Experience performing dam-break and levee breach analyses.
  • Experience integrating hydraulic models with hydrologic and meteorological datasets.
  • Experience implementing computationally intensive, cloud-based workflows for flood forecasting, inundation mapping, and risk analysis.
  • Experience supporting federal agencies such as FEMA, USACE, NOAA, USGS, or state water resource agencies.

Don’t meet every single requirement? At Dewberry we are dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workplace for our employee’s. So if you’re excited about this role, but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the position description, we encourage you to apply anyways. You may just be the right candidate for this or other opportunities.

 

*At this time, Dewberry will not sponsor a new applicant for work authorization.

About Dewberry

Dewberry is a professional services firm specializing in engineering, architecture, environmental sciences, and planning services. The company was founded in 1956 and is headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia. Dewberry has over 50 locations throughout the United States and employs over 2,000 professionals. The company provides services to a variety of industries, including transportation, water, energy, and government. Dewberry has been recognized for its work on a number of high-profile projects, including the World Trade Center Memorial in New York City and the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.
Learn more about Dewberry
Size
2,000 employees
Industry
Founded
1956

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