Structural Business Class Lead

HDR•Walnut Creek, CA

3d•Onsite

About The Position

At HDR, our employee-owners are fully engaged in creating a welcoming environment where each of us is valued and respected, a place where everyone is empowered to bring their authentic selves and novel ideas to work every day. As we foster a culture of inclusion throughout our company and within our communities, we constantly ask ourselves: What is our impact on the world? Watch Our Story:' https://www.hdrinc.com/our-story' Each and every role throughout our organization makes a difference in our ability to change the world for the better. Read further to learn how you could help make great things possible not only in your community, but around the world. We believe building engineering is more than systems and structures, it’s about powering progress and enabling innovation. As part of HDR’s Building Engineering Services Group, you’ll help design the critical infrastructure that supports the digital age and shapes the spaces where people work, connect, and thrive. From high-performance data centers driving the future of AI to dynamic commercial environments, your work will directly support technological advancement, sustainability, and human experience. We bring together mechanical, electrical, structural, and civil engineering experts to solve complex design challenges with precision, creativity, and collaboration. Whether you're optimizing energy efficiency, integrating resilient systems, or engineering the backbone of next-generation facilities, your contributions will help define the future of the built environment. This isn’t just a job, it’s a chance to lead innovation, engineer impact, and build a legacy of excellence. HDR is looking for a Structural Business Class Lead to join our Building Engineering Services (BES) Business Group in Walnut Creek or Folsom, CA. Business Class Leads are leaders in the practice who influence culture, morale, and recruiting as well as provide leadership in the pursuit and delivery of work. A Business Class Lead not only has deep engineering expertise in their discipline, but they understand how cross discipline teams function. They couple that understanding with leadership abilities to positively impact the success of the business. The behaviors represented by Business Class Leads are indicative to our staff, clients, and recruits of the behaviors and characteristics HDR rewards. The Structural Business Class Lead will be responsible for providing structural expertise and mentoring as well as be responsible for the production of structural systems design for a variety of markets including Water/Wastewater, Municipal, Industrial, Federal, Resources, Transportation, Health Care and Technology/ Media/Telecommunications,. They will be responsible for the operation of the Northern California BES structural business class including staff development, workflow and forecasting, scheduling, profitability, morale, and quality control, and will function as a technical lead on projects in addition to staff management responsibilities. They will select, train, develop, and manage technical personnel, and help identify/ recruit talented staff to enable our structural section to grow to meet the design needs of the BES business group. They will be administratively responsible for the group and technical service functions and will lead and coordinate services with other disciplines. They will be directly involved with clients in project production and related issues, and will implement, monitor and support company policy. As a technical lead, they will be expected to coordinate and work closely with a multidiscipline design team throughout the entire life cycle of projects from planning stages, through the development of construction documents, and construction administration. They will be responsible for the development of construction drawings, specifications, and supporting engineering calculations, as well as the review of shop drawings during construction. Experience in structural design and detailing of building related projects is required. This individual should be self-motivated, collaborative and possess strong leadership skills with an initiative to deliver high quality, technically sound structural engineering designs. Experience in implementing Building Code in the design of building structural systems is required. This individual should be self-motivated and possess strong leadership skills with an initiative to deliver high quality, technically sound structural designs. In the role of Structural Business Class Lead, we'll count on you to:

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in a Professional, Architecture, Engineering or closely related field
10 years of experience
Committed to quality, improvement and HDR values
Maintains a professional or engineering registration and has related technical experience
Experienced in development and management of diverse teams
Works cooperatively with other area business class leaders, operations managers, technical directors and marketing managers on business class efforts
An attitude and commitment to being an active participant of our employee-owned culture is a must

Nice To Haves

Licensed California Professional Engineer (PE) required
Minimum of 1 year of direct supervision of engineers
Previous experience with an architectural/engineering or engineering consulting firm
Experience leading teams delivering structural design projects required
Ability to manage, lead and mentor other team members
Strong knowledge of structural modeling software such as SAP or other 3D analysis and finite element modeling software
Prior leadership, business development and mentoring experience
In-person office culture
Actively engaged in professional or industry associations to enhance HDR technical expertise brand
MS in Civil or Structural Engineering
Licensed California SE
Experience with ASCE 41 seismic retrofit design
Experience with ACI 350 water containing structures design
Experience with OSHPD Projects
Experience with structural condition assessment, repair, and rehabilitation
Experience and/or interest in sustainable design/LEED

Responsibilities

Take responsibility for area coordination, monitoring and improvement of technical competencies of area structural business class staff and products to meet clients needs and market drivers, all within direction and goals of business class plans.
Participate in structural business class strategic planning, budgeting and plan implementation
Collaborate on structural business class efforts with area operations, marketing and project management
Participate in structural business class practice and professional discipline groups, project teams and activities to continually improve standards and best practices, and implement effective quality assurance and quality control reviews
Participate in delivery of Project services to meet client expectations.
Implement, monitor, and support company policy.
Maintain outward facing exposure, promoting the HDR brand in the industry through networking and participation in Professional organizations.
Establish client relations and be involved with marketing and client development activities.
Monitor change in codes, relations, and client standards and keep staff up to date on current industry practices.
Manage and be responsible for the technical and operational activities of the area structural business class.
Schedule and coordinate all work performed inside the business class.
Establish work priorities and assignments for staff.
Monitor scope of work and scope changes within the business class.
Conduct interviews in support of the hiring of new staff for the business class and provide new employee mentoring.
Advance the skill level of personnel through training, education, experience, etc.
Plan, direct and monitor all structural aspects of large multidiscipline projects or medium-sized projects with high degree of technical complexity, typically involving a large project staff.
Prepare/review project budgets and scopes for the structural business class and track budget status.
Facilitate and encourage coordination with other business classes/disciplines.
Coordinate with the Business Class Leads and Structural Section Managers in other areas to review workload, project status, and staffing requirements.
Conduct schematic, design development and contract document work sessions at project sites in conjunction with other Project Managers, appropriate technical professionals and other disciplines.
Work with the Business/Accounting Managers, Project Controllers or Company Controllers and Department Manager or Managing Principal for project reviews.
Implement QA/QC procedures and perform QAQC and execute training for personnel as established.
Perform other duties as needed.