Coastal and Hydrodynamic Modeling Engineer

WSP in the U.S.; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 90,000 - 157,000; Full time

Job summary

WSP USA is seeking a Coastal & Hydrodynamic Modeling Engineer to join our Water Resources and Coastal Engineering practice in New York City. The role focuses on coastal resilience, flood risk management, waterfront infrastructure, and climate adaptation through advanced hydrodynamic modeling and sediment transport.

Based in our NYC office with the option to work from other NY state locations, you will collaborate with multidisciplinary teams to develop, calibrate, and apply numerical models,

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering, Water Resources Engineering, Coastal Engineering, or related field.
• PE license in NY or ability to obtain via comity within a defined period.
• 4–6 years of professional experience in coastal/water resources engineering or hydrodynamic modeling.
• 2+ years of project experience in NYC or NY metro area is a plus.
• Experience developing, calibrating, validating, and applying numerical models for coastal/estuarine/urban flood systems.
• Experience evaluating coastal flooding, storm surge, tidal processes, sea level rise, waves, or sediment transport.
• Proficiency with coastal/hydraulic modeling platforms listed above.

Responsibilities

• Develop, calibrate, validate, and apply numerical hydrodynamic, coastal, and flood models for planning and design.
• Perform coastal flooding, storm surge, sea level rise, tidal hydraulics, waves, sediment transport analyses.
• Support coastal resilience planning and waterfront infrastructure design.
• Analyze geospatial, hydrologic, hydraulic, meteorological, and oceanographic datasets.
• Prepare technical memoranda, reports, model documentation, graphics, and client presentations.
• Collaborate with engineers, scientists, planners, and GIS specialists across practices.
• Participate in field investigations and data collection efforts.
• Contribute to model QA/QC and internal modeling practices.
• Support proposal development and client-facing technical discussions.

Skills

Coastal engineering

Hydrodynamic modeling

GIS

Technical writing

Verbal communication

Independent work

Education

Bachelor's in Civil/Water Resources/Coastal Engineering

Professional Engineer license in NY or comity

Tools

EFDC+

ADCIRC

Delft3D

MIKE 21

SWAN

HEC-RAS 1D/2D

CMS

Job description

Job Description

WSP is currently initiating a search for a Coastal & Hydrodynamic Modeling Engineer to join our growing Water Resources and Coastal Engineering practice in New York City. This position will support a diverse portfolio of projects focused on coastal resilience, flood risk management, waterfront infrastructure, climate adaptation, storm surge analysis, hydrodynamic modeling, sediment transport, and coastal engineering design.

The successful candidate will work with a multidisciplinary team of water resources engineers, planners, GIS specialists, coastal engineers, and climate adaptation professionals to deliver practical and technically rigorous solutions for public-sector clients throughout the New York metropolitan region. Experience in northeast area is a plus.

This position is based in WSP's New York City office. The selected candidate is expected to work from the NYC office at least two days per week to support collaboration with the local team. Alternative WSP offices, including Morristown, Lawrenceville, Philadelphia, Albany, Buffalo, or other New York State locations are available, with periodic travel to NYC as needed.

Your Impact

• Develop, calibrate, validate, and apply numerical hydrodynamic, coastal, and flood models for planning, design, and resilience studies.
• Perform coastal flooding, storm surge, sea level rise, tidal hydraulics, wave, sediment transport, and shoreline process analyses.
• Support coastal resilience planning, waterfront infrastructure design, flood-risk evaluations, and climate adaptation projects.
• Analyze and interpret geospatial, hydrologic, hydraulic, meteorological, and oceanographic datasets.
• Prepare technical memoranda, reports, model documentation, graphics, and client presentations.
• Collaborate with engineers, scientists, planners, and GIS specialists across WSP practices.
• Participate in project coordination meetings, field investigations, and data-collection efforts.
• Contribute to model QA/QC, technical reviews, and the advancement of internal modeling practices.
• Support proposal development, scopes of work, level-of-effort estimates, and client-facing technical discussions.

Who You Are

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering, Water Resources Engineering, Coastal Engineering, or a closely related discipline.
• Professional Engineer (PE) license in New York, or the ability to obtain New York licensure through comity within an agreed period.
• Four to six years of professional experience in coastal engineering, water resources engineering, hydrodynamic modeling, or a closely related field.
• Minimum 2 years of project experience in New York City or the New York metropolitan market is a plus.
• Demonstrated experience developing, calibrating, validating, and applying numerical models for coastal, estuarine, riverine, or urban flood systems.
• Experience evaluating coastal flooding, storm surge, tidal processes, sea level rise, waves, or sediment transport.
• Proficiency with at least one coastal or hydraulic modeling platform such as EFDC+, ADCIRC, Delft3D, MIKE 21, SWAN, HEC-RAS 1D/2D, CMS
• Working knowledge of GIS, including ArcGIS Pro, for model development, spatial analysis, and results presentation.
• Strong technical writing, analytical, organizational, and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively within multidisciplinary project teams.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree in Coastal Engineering, Water Resources Engineering, or a related field.
• Hands‑on experience with EFDC+ for hydrodynamic, sediment transport, or water‑quality modeling.
• Experience with coastal sediment transport, shoreline change, dredging, or waterfront infrastructure studies.
• Experience evaluating compound flooding, including interactions among tides, storm surge, precipitation, drainage, and riverine flows.
• Programming or data‑analysis experience using Python, MATLAB, R, or comparable tools.

Compensation

Expected Salary (all locations): $89,600 - $156,600

WSP USA is providing the compensation range that the company in good faith believes it might pay and offer for this position, based on the successful applicant’s education, experience, knowledge, skills, 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.

About WSP

WSP USA is the U.S. operating company of WSP, one of the world's leading engineering and professional services firms. Dedicated to serving local communities, we are engineers, planners, technical experts, strategic advisors and construction management professionals. WSP USA designs lasting solutions in the buildings, transportation, energy, water and environment markets. With more than 15,000 employees in over 300 offices across the U.S., we partner with our clients to help communities prosper.

www.wsp.com

WSP provides a flexible and agile workplace model while meeting client needs. Employees are also afforded a comprehensive suite of benefits including medical, dental, vision, disability, life, and retirement savings focused on providing health and financial stability throughout the employee’s career.

At WSP, we want to give our employees the challenges they seek to grow their careers and knowledge base. Your daily contributions to your team will be essential in meeting client objectives, goals and challenges.

WSP USA (and all of its U.S. companies) is an Equal Opportunity Employer Race/Age/Color/Religion/Sex/Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity/National Origin/Disability or Protected Veteran Status.

The selected candidate must be authorized to work in the United States.