Fire Protection Sales Representative

GOEBEL FIXTURE COMPANY; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 81,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision benefits

401(k) with company match

Paid time off

Vehicle allowance

Job summary

Columbia Fire, LLC in Seattle seeks a seasoned fire protection estimator/sales professional to own accounts, price bids, and drive new work across the Puget Sound region.

This role is in person at our Seattle office with daily local travel; you will develop relationships with contractors, developers, and property managers to secure margin-rich opportunities.

Qualifications

• High school diploma or GED required.
• Three+ years in fire protection sales, estimating, or design with direct responsibility pricing water-based fire protection work.
• Demonstrated ability to complete a full takeoff from a construction plan set, unassisted.
• Working knowledge of NFPA 13 and relevant standards for bid and design.
• Ability to read and coordinate architectural, structural, mechanical, and electrical drawings.
• Proficiency with estimating software and spreadsheets; ability to defend a bid.

Responsibilities

• Own a named account base of general contractors, developers, building owners, and property managers; grow it.
• Actively prospect via calls, visits, plan room tracking, and industry events.
• Attend pre-bid site walks and represent Columbia Fire at events.
• Meet customers in person; build and defend proposals.
• Keep pipeline current in HubSpot for accurate forecasting.
• Provide market intelligence on pricing, competitors, and demand.

Skills

Pricing fire protection work

Reading drawings

Estimating software

HubSpot CRM

Education

High school diploma

Tools

AutoCAD

AutoSPRINK

HydraCAD

SprinkCAD

Job description

• Location 9520 10th Avenue South,Suite 150,Seattle, WA, 98108,United States
• Base Pay $81,000.00 - $110,000.00 / Year
• Employee Type Exempt - Full Time
• Required Degree High school
• Manage Others No

Description

Position

Company

Columbia Fire, LLC

Location

Seattle, Washington — in person, based at our Seattle office. This position is not remote or hybrid.

Reports To

Contract Division Manager

Bargaining Unit

Non-union position. Columbia Fire is a Local 699 union sprinkler contractor and our fire sprinkler field positions are in the bargaining unit. This position is not.

Eligible for the Columbia Fire Standard Sales Incentive Plan (commission). See Compensation.

Travel

Daily local travel throughout greater Seattle and the Puget Sound region. Occasional overnight travel as Columbia Fire bids work in markets outside Seattle.

ABOUT COLUMBIA FIRE

Columbia Fire, LLC is a Seattle-based fire protection contractor founded in 2005. We design, install, inspect, test, service, and repair fire sprinkler and fire alarm systems for general contractors, developers, building owners, and property managers across the Puget Sound region. We are a Local 699 union sprinkler contractor.

Columbia Fire is part of Columbia Safety Services, LLC, a multi-state regional fire and life safety company. Our operating companies and offices:

• Columbia Fire, LLC — Seattle, WA
• Valley Fire Control, LLC — Albany and Newport, OR, and Spokane, WA, with an office in St Maries, ID
• FFF Protection — Greater Boise, with an office in Nampa, ID

We are building something long-term and formidable: a fire and life safety platform that operates well, invests in its people, and keeps its word. Our core values guide how we operate: Customer First, Grit, Effective Communication, Own the Outcome, Take Pride in the Work, and Do the Right Thing.

WHY THIS ROLE EXISTS

Today, bid coverage in Seattle is set by capacity rather than by choice. Takeoff and estimating sit with a small group and with operations leaders who already carry full workloads, so the bids that get answered are the ones that fit in the gaps. Work we should win gets no-bid, gets priced late, or gets priced by someone who never walked the building. General contractors and owners we want a real relationship with get a number from us instead of a person.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

Sell and develop work

• Own a named account base of general contractors, developers, building owners, and property managers, and grow it. You are expected to add accounts, not just service the ones handed to you.
• Prospect actively: outbound calls and visits, plan room and invitation-to-bid tracking, jobsite relationships, industry associations, and referrals from our service and inspection technicians.
• Attend pre-bid site walks on your pursuits. All of them. If the walk is at 6:30 a.m. in Sodo, you are there.
• Meet customers in person, including business development meals and jobsite visits, and represent Columbia Fire at industry and association events.
• Keep your pipeline current in HubSpot so the forecast is real — what is out, what is closing, what we lost, and why.
• Bring back market intelligence: what pricing is doing, who is buying, where we are losing, and what our competitors are doing well.

Take off, price, and propose

• Perform complete quantity takeoffs on water-based fire protection drawings — new construction, tenant improvement, retrofit, and deficiency correction.
• Read architectural, structural, mechanical, and electrical drawings and specifications, and identify what is missing, conflicting, or mispriced before it becomes our problem.
• Build the estimate: material, fabrication, field labor hours at union rates, subcontract, equipment, freight, permits, and indirect cost.
• Price to a target gross margin and defend it. You own the margin on what you sell, not just the volume.
• Write proposals with an unambiguous scope, including inclusions, exclusions, clarifications, and assumptions.
• Review contract terms with leadership before anything is signed, and flag commercial risk — liquidated damages, retention, unusual insurance or indemnity language, schedule exposure, and scope gaps.

Hand off and follow through

• Turn sold work over to project management and design with a documented scope, estimate basis, and assumptions. A clean handoff is part of the sale.
• Stay engaged through submittal and buyout. You are not the project manager after award, but you own what you sold and you answer for it.
• Price, negotiate, and close change orders on your projects.
• Step in on collections when the customer relationship is the fastest path to getting paid.
• Stay in front of your customers after the job closes. Recurring inspection and service work is the point.

Represent the company

• Follow and enforce site safety expectations on every walk and every visit, including PPE and site-specific requirements. Zero injuries is a stated company target and it applies to you personally.
• Do what you said you would do, when you said you would do it. If a job goes wrong, you make the call yourself.

WHO YOU ARE

• You can take off a set of drawings and build a defensible number without help.
• You are comfortable in a union shop and you understand what union field labor rates do to a bid.
• You have margin discipline. You would rather no-bid than buy work at a number that hurts the field.
• You pick up the phone when a job goes sideways — early, with a plan, before the customer finds out from someone else.
• You are organized enough to run your own funnel, your own bid calendar, and your own follow-up without being chased.
• You are credible with a superintendent in the field and with an owner in a conference room, and you do not change who you are between the two.
• You are direct. You say what the real problem is, and you say it to the person who can fix it.

WHO STRUGGLES HERE

We would rather be honest now than three months in.

• If you have never taken off a set of drawings and priced fire protection work, please do not apply for this seat. This is not a relationship-only sales job. You will be pricing risk in your first weeks. We do hire inspection and service sales people from outside the industry — the code side is teachable in those roles — so if that is you, look at our other openings instead.
• If you need to inherit a finished process, this will not work. The corporate layer here is deliberately lean and is being built now. The systems exist — Acumatica, HubSpot, ServiceTrade, ACC Build — but formal task-level training and polished playbooks do not, in every case, exist yet. If you have spent your career inside a large company where onboarding is a program and every process is documented, you will find this uncomfortable. Some people find that freeing. Know which one you are.
• If your instinct when a job goes wrong is to go quiet rather than pick up the phone, you will fail in this role.
• If you sell on price because it is easier, this plan will not pay you.Commission here is driven by gross margin, not revenue. Cheap volume earns very little and it makes you unpopular with the people who have to build it.
• If you want to work from home most of the week, this is not that seat.It is in person: jobsites, pre-bid walks, customer offices, and our Seattle office.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• High school diploma or GED.
• Three or more years in fire protection sales, estimating, or design, including direct responsibility for pricing water-based fire protection work.
• Demonstrated ability to complete a full quantity takeoff of a water-based fire protection system from a construction plan set, unassisted.
• Working knowledge of NFPA 13 (including NFPA 13R and 13D as applicable) sufficient to determine occupancy hazard classification, design density and area, and system type from drawings and specifications.
• Ability to read and coordinate architectural, structural, mechanical, and electrical drawings.
• Familiarity with NFPA 25 as it applies to selling inspection, testing, deficiency repair, and service work.
• Proficiency with estimating software and spreadsheets, and the ability to build, explain, and defend a bid.
• Valid driver’s license and a driving record that is insurable for operation of a company vehicle.
• Legally authorized to work in the United States.
• Able to perform the physical requirements of site walks on active construction sites (see Schedule & Work Environment).

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• NICET Level II or higher in Water-Based Systems Layout, or a Washington State Patrol Certificate of Competency (Level III or higher if you also stamp design work).
• Hands-on layout and design experience in AutoCAD-based fire sprinkler software (AutoSPRINK, HydraCAD, SprinkCAD, or comparable), including hydraulic calculations.
• Established Seattle-market relationships with general contractors, developers, or property management groups.
• Experience estimating with union labor rates and working under project labor agreements.
• Experience with Acumatica, HubSpot, ServiceTrade, ACC Build, Bluebeam, or comparable construction and CRM systems.
• Standpipe, fire pump, or special hazards experience; familiarity with fire alarm scope on combined bids.
• Familiarity with Seattle and King County permitting and plan review.
• Post-secondary coursework or a degree in construction management, engineering, or a related field — or equivalent experience. No degree is required for this position.

COMPENSATION

• Base salary: $81,000 to $110,000 per year. Placement in the range depends on depth of takeoff and estimating capability, fire protection experience, design and layout credentials, and demonstrated sales results.
• Commission: this position participates in the Columbia Fire Standard Sales Incentive Plan. The plan is tiered on project gross margin and contract value, with incremental rates ranging from roughly 2% to 9% — higher margin earns a higher rate, and gross margin is capped at 70% for calculation purposes. Additional incentives apply to new inspection agreements and new monitoring accounts. Project incentives begin only after an annual earned-revenue threshold is exceeded, and negative-margin projects can result in deductions within the same calculation period. Incentives are paid three times per year, with a portion held back and trued up after year-end. Participation requires a signed plan agreement. Complete plan documents, thresholds, and calculation detail are provided during the hiring process.
• Commission and incentive earnings are performance-driven and are not guaranteed.
• Vehicle allowance of $400 per month plus a company fuel card.
• Laptop, phone, and reimbursement of approved customer development expenses under company policy.
• Paid training, certification, and continuing education, including NICET and state or city licensing where applicable.

WHY THIS ROLE WORKS

• First 90 days:you know the account base, you are on site walks, you are turning in complete takeoffs and estimates on live pursuits, and you have built a working pipeline in HubSpot.
• By 180 days:you are self-sufficient on takeoff, pricing, and proposal writing; you are sourcing your own opportunities rather than only responding to invitations to bid; and you have sold work at or above target margin.
• By 365 days:you own a defensible book of accounts, your sold work is hitting margin in the field, your handoffs to project management are clean, and you have converted new inspection or service agreements out of relationships you developed.

BENEFITS

• Medical, dental, and vision through Regence BlueShield, Delta Dental of Washington, and VSP — available to employees scheduled 30 or more hours per week, effective the first of the month following or coinciding with your hire date
• The company pays approximately 90% of the employee premium on the HSA-qualified plan and 75% of dependent premiums on that plan (85% of the employee premium and 60% of dependent premiums on the PPO)
• Health Savings Account with a $600 annual company contribution (HealthEquity)
• 401(k) through Vestwell, QACA Safe Harbor, with employer match up to 3.5%
• Paid time off starting at 10 days and increasing with length of service
• Company-paid basic life and AD&D coverage of $20,000
• Employee Assistance Program (SupportLinc), telehealth through Doctor on Demand, and optional pet insurance

SCHEDULE & WORK ENVIRONMENT

• Full-time, Monday through Friday, generally 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., with earlier starts for pre-bid walks and occasional evening customer or association events. Bid deadlines produce occasional longer days.
• In person, based out of our Seattle office, with daily travel in the field. This position is not eligible for remote or hybrid work.
• Split between office estimating work, customer offices, and active construction sites.

Physical requirements. The essential functions of this position require the ability to:

• Walk and stand on active construction sites, including uneven ground, excavations, partially completed structures, and areas without permanent