Lead Plumbing Engineer - Buildings

This Opportunity

Join our Property & Buildings Team and be a part of a growing organization that meets our client's objectives and solves their challenges. WSP is currently initiating a search for a full-time Lead Plumbing Engineer for our Kansas City, MO office. You will lead the planning, design, and delivery of building plumbing systems across healthcare, higher education, laboratory, mission‑critical, and commercial projects in the public and private sector. You’ll own technical direction, coordinate across disciplines, guide quality, and mentor designers, while engaging directly with clients, partners, and contractors. This position is best suited for an engineer who is seeking an opportunity to work within a team-focused local office, for a large world-wide engineering firm that is focused on career development, mentoring and employee satisfaction.

Your Impact

• Lead plumbing system design for buildings: Steer the design for domestic water, sanitary waste, vent, storm, natural gas, fire suppression and protection, specialty lab & medical gases. Oversee and monitor junior engineers, technicians, and/or other scientific professionals to execute project work on multiple concurrent projects, including tracking design budget hours and expenses, monitoring task completion, overseeing technical calculations, schematics, and project documentation, including regulatory and technical analyses.
• Engage with Clients and Lead: lead meetings, present options and trade‑offs, and drive informed decision-making during project design. Interact and collaborate with our clients, design professionals, other engineers, architects, sub-consultants, contractors, trade contractors, and building and infrastructure authorities on Federal, State, and regional agencies in a confident and professional manner.
• Conduct on-site observations of existing and proposed building site conditions, equipment, utilizes, resources, infrastructure, and current usage. Provide junior engineers with guidance on collecting, compiling, and analyzing data from the physical work site, surveys, legacy blueprints, schematics, data, technical drawings, computer-generated reports.   
• Develop design deliverables: Apply high-level plumbing engineering techniques and processes to identify improvements for various building projects. Prepare calculations, equipment sizing, engineering reports, design narratives. Develop design from conceptual phase through detailed design onto construction documents and implementation plans and technical specifications.  
• Manage multi‑discipline coordination with mechanical, electrical, fire protection, architectural, and civil teams; integrate design with BIM workflows (Revit/AutoCAD)
• Own Quality: ensure compliance with codes and standards (IPC/UPC, NFPA e.g., 13/14/20) and firm design standards and guidelines. Coordinate, review and approve design plans, ensuring compliance with all applicable codes, ordinances, and regulations. Stamp/seal deliverables as appropriate.
• Support construction administration: respond to RFIs, review submittals and shop drawings, attend site visits, and verify installation against plans and specifications.
• Embody Our Culture: Develop, Review, Disseminate, and abide by site Health and Safety Plans (HASPs). Exercise responsible and ethical decision-making regarding company funds, resources and conduct, and adhere to WSP’s Code of Conduct and related policies and procedures. 
• Grow and Learn: Remain current in latest engineering techniques and practices. Maintain your credentials and advance in your field. Bring a good helpful attitude so that you will be eager to teach what you know, learn what you don’t know, and be ready to have fun!
• Perform additional responsibilities as required by business needs.

What You’ll Bring

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Architectural/Building System, Plumbing, or Mechanical Engineering, or closely related discipline.
• 7 to 10 years of relevant post education experience in engineering discipline and prior plumbing or mechanical design experience related to buildings. 
• A portfolio spanning at least two of the following sectors: healthcare, higher education, mission‑critical/data center, laboratory, process or advanced manufacturing, or commercial real estate.
• Experience with building planning, design, and construction management; including active involvement in a variety of renovation, expansion, rehabilitation, and new design projects.
• Ability to plan and conduct inspections and investigations on various aspects of the construction and design of facilities, structures and systems, applying applicable regulations and policies.
• Demonstrated ability to lead project designs, coordinate with architects and other engineers, guide junior designers, and communicate clearly with clients and field teams. Highly effective interpersonal and communication skills when interacting with others, expressing ideas effectively and professionally to an engineering and non-engineering audience. Works independently with minimal oversight as well as provide guidance and leadership to junior team or project members, with strict adherence to QA/QC.

• High proficiency in technical writing, office software and automation, load calculations methods, discipline-specific design software technology, math principles, spreadsheets, and related tools. Proficiency in Revit, AutoCAD, and Bluebeam.

• Well-defined specific knowledge of relevant plumbing and mechanical engineering and construction laws, codes, regulations, compliance practices, and record-keeping requirements. A deep knowledge of IPC/UPC, NFPA standards, and local authority requirements is a must.
• Well-developed critical thinking and problem-solving skills required to apply technical knowledge to reach conclusions from testing results, data collation, load calculations, computations, statistical analysis and arriving at the most effective, economical, and logical solution.
• Proven track record of upholding workplace safety and ability to abide by WSP’s health, safety and drug/alcohol and harassment policies.
• Ability to work on a schedule that is conducive to project-specific requirements that may extend beyond the typical workday or workweek.
• Occasional travel may be required depending on project-specific requirements.
• Candidates must reside in or relocate to the Kansas City area; this is not a fully remote position. While we provide flexibility, regular in-office days are part of the schedule as our team uses in person time for coordination and mentoring.

 Preferred Qualifications:

• ASPE Certified in Plumbing Design (CPD)
• Professional Engineer License, with the ability to seek comity in Kansas and Missouri withing 6 months of hire.
• LEED AP Certification
• Master’s Degree in Engineering.

WSP Benefits:  

WSP provides a comprehensive suite of benefits focused on a providing health and financial stability throughout the employee’s career. These benefits include coverage related to medical, dental, vision, disability, and life; retirement savings; paid sick leave; paid vacation (or other personal time); paid parental leave; and paid time off for purposes of bereavement, voting, and/or attendance at naturalization proceedings.  

Compensation: 

Expected Salary: $103,500 - $140,000

WSP USA is providing the compensation range that the company in good faith believes it might pay and/or offer for this position within the state of Colorado, based on the successful applicant’s education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities in addition to internal equity and specific geographic location. WSP USA reserves the right to ultimately pay more or less than the posted range and offer additional benefits and other compensation, depending on circumstances not related to an applicant’s sex or other status protected by local, state, and/or federal law. 

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