Fire & Life Safety Principal Engineer

HDR, Inc.; Purchase (NY); On-site; USD 169,000 - 242,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Employee ownership

Comprehensive benefits

Job summary

HDR, Inc. is seeking a Fire & Life Safety Engineering Principal in Purchase, NY. The role leads multi-discipline teams, develops scope and budgets, and engages in business development to win projects.

It requires deep engineering expertise, leadership, and client relationship skills, with HDR’s employee-owned culture shaping collaboration and excellence. The position offers full-time work in the New York area with a compensation range reflecting seniority and location, and comprehensive benefits

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering required.
• Professional Engineer license required or recognized equivalent.
• Extensive experience in project execution and leading cross-disciplinary teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead BES and project teams, guiding scope, schedule, and fee.
• Develop client relationships and pursue opportunities to win work.
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship across disciplines.

Skills

Leadership

Communication

Engineering analysis

Mentoring

Client relations

Education

Bachelor's degree in Engineering

Professional Engineer license

Tools

Microsoft Office

CAD software

Job description

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.

Fire & Life Safety Engineering Principal

Principal Engineers are leaders in the practice who influence culture, morale, and recruiting as well as provide leadership in the pursuit and delivery of work. A Principal Engineer not only has deep engineering expertise in their discipline, but they understand how cross discipline teams' function. They couple that understanding with leadership and communication abilities to positively impact the success of the business. The behaviors represented by Engineering Principals are indicative to our staff, clients, and recruits of the behaviors and characteristics HDR rewards.

Principal Engineers have a significant impact on winning work for HDR - both for the BES BG and partner BGs. They have business development skills to identify opportunities and take the initiative to be responsive and establish relationships to win work. They promote and represent BES to our internal and external clients - they foster relationships that make people want to work with us.

Principal Engineers are expected to help develop scope, schedule, and fee for projects. They must communicate regarding the pursuits they are leading with operational leadership to address staffing, expertise requirements, and business needs. Principal Engineers help us identify how to engage the right people in the right work in alignment with our strategic goals: "differentiating ourselves in our markets by amplifying our collective talent and knowledge".

Project Success

Principal Engineers understand the building design process in the market sectors in which they practice. They facilitate clear communication and provide leadership for the entire design team. A Principal Engineer needs to be a conceptual thinker who can engage and challenge our architectural designers and engineering team during the early stages of projects to inform design. They should leverage our integrated practice to add value to our project delivery process and lead engineering teams to deliver well-coordinated, high-quality designs to our clients. Principal Engineers are expected to not only provide leadership for their discipline but act more broadly as leaders in our practice. The role requires a passion for maximizing high-performance design within the project constraints. They are the team members who proactively look out for all BES disciplines on project teams to elevate design while ensuring that scope, schedule, and budget are understood and respected by the team and concerns are communicated to project management in a clear and timely manner.

Culture, Morale & Recruiting

Principal Engineers are leaders in the company that exemplify the company culture. They demonstrate expectations of how project teams' function and emphasize collaboration and design excellence. These individuals are responsible for mentoring and building the next generation of leadership at HDR by developing technical, client and business acumen in others.

Principals recognize gaps in our expertise and project teams. They identify ways to fill those gaps by mentoring junior staff, identifying where we can shift or train staff, or identifying where we need to hire additional expertise. Principals network in the local community - leveraging their relationships to identify talent and recruit for HDR. Engineers in this role are contributing to BES's strategy to develop expertise and strategy required to build a successful engineering practice.

Principal Engineers represent HDR through their participation in the professional and local community. They are expected to represent HDR in the engineering community, participate in speaking engagements, author white papers and technical publications and participate on industry and community boards.

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelors or Masters Degree in Engineering.
• Advanced Levels of NFPA, ICC Certifications or other specialized credentials related to the field of Fire & Life Safety
• Design experience large complex buildings.
• Local and national industry relationships.
• Excellent leadership, communication, and organizational skills.
• Additional accreditations and certifications beyond professional licensure is highly desirable.
• Preference is given to local candidates
• Previous experience with an engineering consulting firm

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering
• A minimum of 20 years of experience
• Requires professional engineering license recognized by the licensing board for the location of the position offered. Example: Professional Engineer (PE or P.Eng) license.
• Extensive experience in project execution
• Proficient computer skills in Microsoft Office as well as standard design software.
• Must be comfortable being viewed as a technical expert in engineering analysis and design and have proven background of technical leadership on these types of projects
• An attitude and commitment to being an active participant of our employee-owned culture

What We Believe

HDR is our company. Together, we build on each other's life experiences and perspectives to make great things possible every day. This shapes our collaborative culture, encourages organizational trust and connects us closer to the clients and communities we serve.

Our Commitment

As employee owners, we all have a role in creating an inclusive environment where each of us is welcomed, valued, respected and empowered to bring our authentic selves to work every day.

Our eight Employee Network Groups (Asian Pacific, Black, Hispanic/Latino(a), LGBTQ+, People with Disabilities, Veterans, Women, Young Professionals) help create a sense of belonging and foster a supportive environment where everyone is empowered to engage and contribute. Each group has an executive sponsor and is open to all employees.

We provide a comprehensive benefits package that promotes employee ownership, employee health, performance, and success, which includes medical, dental, vision, short and long-term disability, life insurance, an employee assistance program, paid time away, parental leave, paid holidays, a retirement savings plan with employer match, employee referral bonus and tuition reimbursement. The expected compensation range for this position depends upon skills, experience, education and geographical location. (Stated benefits are for full-time regular positions. Temporary and part-time roles eligible for limited benefits.) {Purchase, NY & White Plains, New York}: $169,400 - $242,000

Primary Location: United States-New York-Purchase

Other Locations: United States-New York-White Plains

Industry: Building Engineering

Schedule: Full-time

Employee Status: Regular

BusinessClass: Fire and Life Safety

Job Posting: Aug 27, 2026