Director of Forensic Engineering

Colonial Group; United States; Remote; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

100% Remote work

Employee-focused culture

Strong work-life balance

401k with match

Comprehensive benefits

Paid vacation & holidays

Paid family care/sick leave

Parental leave

Job summary

YA Group’s YA Engineering Services seeks a Director of Engineering to lead and mentor a team of forensic engineers. You will supervise field inspections, perform engineering analyses, and produce defensible reports that determine causes and extents of building distress.

This role emphasizes field work over IT systems and requires strong client rapport. The ideal candidate has a proven client network, extensive forensic experience, and the ability to manage budgets and timelines across projects.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or related field; Professional licensure a plus.
• Fifteen plus years of forensic engineering experience preferred.
• Proven ability to write comprehensive technical reports on inspection results.
• Willingness to travel up to 50% for field work and client engagements.

Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor a team of engineers, supporting their development and project work.
• Reviews junior consultants’ work to ensure accurate, high-quality, and timely deliverables before client submission.
• Ensure project budgets and scope are timely communicated to clients and strictly adhered to.
• Drive timely delivery of all project milestones, consistently meeting or surpassing deadlines.
• Coordinates with clients to set up site visits and complete deliverables on projects.
• Produces project reports that synthesize data from onsite inspections with environmental factors and engineering analysis.
• Performs site visits to collect field data on residential and commercial properties.
• Reviews and interprets relevant building codes as necessary for the scope of work.
• Assist in business development activities; participate in conferences and events to promote the company and capabilities.
• Performs additional duties as assigned.

Skills

Leadership & mentoring

Engineering analysis

Report writing

Client relationship building

Site inspections

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or related field

Job description

The Role:

The Director of Engineering provides technical and people leadership within YA Engineering Services’ forensic engineering practice, focusing on the evaluation of damaged building structures and related mechanical and electrical systems for insurance carriers, law firms, and other stakeholders. The position leads and mentors engineers while remaining hands‑on throughout the project lifecycle—from coordinating site visits and conducting field inspections to performing engineering analysis, interpreting applicable building codes, and producing clear, defensible reports that determine the cause and extent of building distress or failure. Work is field‑based and investigative in nature, emphasizing physical assets, materials, environmental factors, and building performance rather than information technology systems.

The ideal candidate has an established client network and has a strong track record of building rapport and maintaining lasting client relationships.

Please note that this position is not an IT or Software Engineering role.

In This Role, You Will:

• Lead and mentor a team of engineers, supporting their development and project work
• Reviews junior consultants’ work to ensure accurate, high-quality, and timely deliverables before client submission.
• Ensure project budgets and scope are timely communicated to clients and strictly adhered to.
• Drive timely delivery of all project milestones, consistently meeting or surpassing established deadlines.
• Coordinates with clients to set up site visits and complete deliverables on projects
• Produces project reports that synthesize data collected from our onsite inspections with environmental factors, material properties, and engineering analysis to determine the most likely cause and scope of distress and failures to buildings and components.
• Performs site visits to collect field data on residential and commercial properties.
• Reviews and interprets the relevant building codes as necessary for issues pertaining to our scope of work.
• Assist in business development activities. Work with business development representatives to attend conferences, events, dinners, lunches, when applicable, to promote the company and your personal capabilities.
• Performs additional duties as assigned.

What You Bring:

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or a related field, or equivalent experience
• Active PE license
• 15 + years of forensic engineering experience
• Proven ability to write comprehensive technical reports on inspection results
• Willingness to travel up to 50%

Who We Are:

YA Group is an international professional services organization providing forensic consulting, engineering, risk mitigation, and related services. Founded over 25 years ago as a property damage consulting firm, YA has expanded through organic growth and strategic acquisitions. Today, YA has over 800 professionals dedicated to excellence, partnership, and driving innovation.

YA Engineering Services (“YAES”) is a national forensic multi-disciplinary consulting firm. YAES provides immediate response to new assignments, performs investigations in a timely manner, and provides comprehensive reports that are clear, concise, and backed by reasonable analyses and recommendations. YAES offers a team of highly qualified, technically excellent engineering professionals who work seamlessly together to service the needs of our clients in the model of an engineering cooperative.

What We Offer:

• Employee-focused culture
• Strong commitment to work-life balance
• 100% Remote work
• Flexible vacation & Paid holidays
• Paid family care/sick leave
• Parental leave
• Comprehensive benefits
• 401k w/match

Fraudulent Recruitment Alert:

Please be vigilant against fraudulent recruitment attempts. YA will never ask for personal financial information (such as bank account numbers or identification numbers) via social media or chat-based apps. We also will not request money for the purchase of business equipment, post job opportunities on Craigslist or conduct interviews solely via text message.

All official email communications regarding your application will come from [e-mail] or directly from a member of our talent team using an @yagroup.com domain name.

If you suspect any fraudulent activity, please contact us directly at [e-mail].

Disclosures:

As part of our recruitment process, we may use AI-assisted tools to support candidate screening and evaluation. These tools are designed to assist—rather than replace—human decision-making, and all employment decisions are made by our recruiting team in accordance with applicable laws and our commitment to equal employment opportunity.

Where required by law, we will provide additional information about the use of these tools, including their purpose, and offer alternative processes or accommodations upon request.