Environmental Engineer

Brown and Caldwell; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 85,000 - 116,000; Full time

Job summary

Brown and Caldwell seeks an Environmental Engineer in California to perform analyses and design related to water and environmental systems. You will work under supervision to deliver technical deliverables that protect public health and the environment.

Responsibilities include planning, modeling, and reporting for treatment, conveyance, and sustainability projects, with opportunities to mentor peers and support project teams across diverse topics.

Qualifications

• Understanding of environmental engineering principles and standard practices.
• Developing problem-solving and analytical skills.
• Ability to interpret scientific and engineering data with accuracy and attention to detail.

Responsibilities

• Perform technical analyses to support sustainable water and wastewater management solutions.
• Prepare and review technical reports and documentation for environmental projects.
• Assist in planning and design of environmental protection systems to support public and ecosystem health.
• Contribute to facility, watershed, or strategic resource management plans.
• Analyze data and perform quality control for regulatory compliance.
• Provide technical support for projects, including modeling, vendor coordination, and regulatory input.
• Flexibility to adapt to evolving needs and assignments.
• Mentor junior team members and share knowledge.

Skills

Environmental engineering principles

Analytical reasoning

Written & verbal communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in environmental engineering

Job description

The Environmental Engineering role performs a broader range of environmental engineering tasks related to the analysis, planning, and development of solutions that promote environmental protection, water use sustainability, and responsible water resource management. Working under general supervision of a professional engineer, this role contributes to technical work that improves environmental and public health outcomes across natural and engineered systems. This engineering position addresses environmental and public health protection, mitigation, and prevention of degradation of water, soils, air quality, and habitats. This role may work in one or more diverse areas including water and wastewater treatment and conveyance, stormwater management, solid waste management, hazardous waste management, and related areas. This role conducts analysis, planning, modeling, and design of treatment systems, preparing results, recommendations, plan sets, and other engineering deliverables.

Responsibilities

• Perform technical analyses to support identification and evaluation of sustainable water and wastewater management solutions.
• Prepare and review technical reports and documentation related to environmental engineering projects.
• Assist in the planning and design of environmental protection systems to support public and ecosystem health.
• Contribute to facility, watershed, or strategic resource management plans.
• Analyze scientific and engineering data and perform quality control checks to support regulatory compliance.
• Provide technical support for environmental projects, including modeling of treatment and conveyance systems, vendor coordination, and technical input for permitting and regulatory approvals.
• Flexibility to adapt and execute various additional assignments based on evolving needs.
• May provide mentorship, guidance, support, and knowledge-sharing to help less experienced team members develop their skills and grow within their roles.

Skills and Competencies

• Working knowledge of environmental engineering principles and standard practices.
  Developing problem‑solving and analytical skills.
  Ability to interpret scientific and engineering data with accuracy and attention to detail.
  Effective written and verbal communication skills.

Experience

• Typically, a minimum of 2 years of related work experience in Environmental Engineering or related field.
• Typically certified in the SMS Framework, and progressing through the SMS competencies.

Education

• A bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering or related field is required.

Preferred Requirements

• Ability to support environmental engineering work involving operational data management, performance monitoring, and evaluation of water, wastewater, recycled water, or advanced treatment facilities.
• Familiarity with dashboards, visualization tools, historian data, operational records, laboratory results, and other facility datasets used to communicate treatment system performance.
• Understanding of key water treatment metrics, including production, recovery, flow, pressure, chemical use, membrane productivity, normalized performance, and related operating trends.
• Ability to support advanced water treatment and membrane operational evaluations, including cleaning performance, membrane integrity, fouling assessments, troubleshooting, process optimization, and asset reliability reviews.
• Ability to support pilot testing, full-scale facility evaluations, equipment condition assessments, and recommendations for practical operating improvements.
• Ability to collaborate with operators, engineers, project managers, and client staff to translate technical findings into reports, calculations, tools, or decision-support deliverables.

Preferred Experience

• Experience supporting water, wastewater, recycled water, or advanced treatment projects, including membrane treatment systems such as microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, or reverse osmosis.
• Experience compiling, reviewing, or analyzing operational datasets to identify trends, evaluate facility performance, or support engineering recommendations.
• Experience developing or supporting dashboards, automated calculations, reports, or visualization tools that reduce manual data processing and improve access to decision-ready information.
• Experience supporting membrane system operational evaluations, including review of transmembrane pressure, flux, permeability, recovery, differential pressure, specific flux, cleaning frequency, and production trends.
• Experience assisting with troubleshooting of membrane system performance issues, including fouling, scaling, biological activity, chemical cleaning effectiveness, pretreatment impacts, or equipment limitations.
• Experience supporting pilot testing, demonstration-scale evaluations, or full-scale optimization studies for advanced treatment systems, including preparation of work plans, sampling plans, data summaries, and technical findings.
• Experience preparing technical memoranda, operations support reports, meeting materials, performance summaries, or client-facing recommendations related to treatment process performance and reliability.
• Experience coordinating with operations staff or project teams to understand facility workflows, confirm data needs, observe operating practices, and develop tools that support routine monitoring, management reporting, or planning.
• Experience supporting membrane replacement planning, asset condition assessments, bench-scale or field testing coordination, vendor coordination, or evaluation of alternative operating strategies.
• Experience providing on-site support, field work, or commissioning assistance for treatment facilities, including observations, startup support, performance testing, field data collection, and coordination with operations or construction teams.
• Experience supporting secure data transfer, cloud-based data staging, or similar approaches that preserve source-system integrity and align with utility cybersecurity expectations.

Salary Range:Theanticipatedstarting payrange for this position is based on the employee’s primary work location and maybemore or lessdependingupon skills, experience,and education. These ranges may be modified in the future.

Location B: $85,000 - $116,000

Benefits and Other Compensation: We provide a comprehensive benefits package that promotes employee health, performance, and success which includes medical, dental, vision, short and long-term disability, life insurance, an employee assistance program, paid time off and parental leave, paid holidays, 401(k) retirement savings plan with employer match, performance-based bonus eligibility, employee referral bonuses, tuition reimbursement, pet insurance and long-term care insurance.

About Brown and Caldwell

Headquartered in Walnut Creek, California, Brown and Caldwell is a full-service environmental engineering and construction services firm with 50 offices and over 2,100 professionals across North America and the Pacific. For more than 75 years, we have created leading-edge environmental solutions formunicipalities, private industry, and government agencies. We strive to be the company of choice—to our clients, who benefit from our passion for delivering exceptional quality, and to our employees, present and future, who share our commitment to client service, collaboration, and innovation. Join us, and you will find a home where you can do your best work, reach new levels of expertise, and enjoy exceptional development opportunities. For more information, visitwww.brownandcaldwell.com

This position is subject to a pre-employment background check and a pre-employment drug test.

Brown and Caldwell is proud to be an EEO/AAP Employer. Brown and Caldwell encourages protected veterans, individuals with disabilities, and applicants from all backgrounds to apply. Brown and Caldwell ensures nondiscrimination in all programs and activities in accordance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities
This employer is required to notify all applicants of their rights pursuant to federal employment laws.For further information, please review the Know Your Rights notice from the Department of Labor.