Hydraulics Practice Lead - Dams and Levees

Geosyntec Consultants; Los Angeles (CA); Hybrid; USD 156,115 - 271,495; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Paid holidays

401(k)

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

Job summary

A leading engineering consulting firm is seeking a Hydraulics Practice Lead for Dams and Levees in Los Angeles, CA. In this leadership role, you will be responsible for growing hydraulic engineering capabilities and managing complex projects spanning hydraulic modeling, flood risk management, and dam safety evaluations. Required qualifications include a Bachelor's degree in a relevant field, at least 10 years of consulting experience, and strong communication and leadership skills. Competitive compensation and diverse benefits are offered.

Qualifications

• Minimum of 10 years of direct engineering consulting experience focused on dams and levees.
• Experience with multidisciplinary project teams.
• Proficient in creating technical reports and proposals.

Responsibilities

• Lead hydraulic engineering practice for the Dams and Levees business line.
• Mentor and develop junior staff members.
• Manage multiple concurrent assignments ensuring client satisfaction.

Skills

Hydraulic analysis and modeling

Leadership skills

Project management

Business development

Communication skills

Education

Bachelor's degree in water resources or environmental engineering

Professional registration (e.g., P.E.)

Advanced degree (preferred)

Tools

HEC-RAS

CFD models

HEC-LifeSim

HEC-FIA

Job description

Hydraulics Practice Lead – Dams and Levees

Primary Location: Los Angeles, CA

Additional Locations: Davis, CA; Denver, CO

Geosyntec has an exciting opportunity for a Hydraulics Practice Lead – Dams and Levees for our growing practice in Los Angeles, CA, Davis, CA, or Denver, CO. This position may offer the flexibility to work a hybrid or fully remote schedule at the discretion of the company. You will serve in a key leadership role and build out our hydraulic engineering capabilities, leveraging existing staff resources and collaborating with other senior dam practitioners across the firm. You will have the opportunity to establish a national dams and levees‑focused hydraulic engineering group that works on complex projects involving hydraulic structures and other flood risk management infrastructure. Projects span hydraulic modeling of various complexities, spillway, and other hydraulic structure evaluation and design, supporting probabilistic risk analysis, hydraulic and hydrologic modeling for large riverine systems, flood modeling, and dam breach consequence assessment studies.

Geosyntec is an innovative, international engineering and consulting firm serving private and public‑sector clients to address new ventures and complex problems involving our environment, natural resources, and civil infrastructure. Our engineers, scientists, technical and project employees serve our clients from offices across the world. Ranked by ENR as one of the top environmental engineering design firms, Geosyntec is internationally known for its technical leadership, broad experience, and exceptional client service.

We invest in our people. Each employee is unique, and your career at Geosyntec will be too. We offer competitive pay and benefits, and well‑being programs to support you and your family.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Collaboration and mentoring are cornerstones of Geosyntec's culture. You should expect to work closely with experienced professionals who will help integrate you into Geosyntec's culture as you advance to this next stage of your career of leading and growing a practice. We operate under a sell‑manage‑do culture, and so we expect that you'd work on challenging technical projects while leveraging your existing knowledge and experience to help Geosyntec expand its current practices and capabilities through business development and client management.

• Provide technical leadership and guidance directed at growing a hydraulic engineering practice within Geosyntec's Dams and Levees high‑growth area business line.
• Pull together resources from our existing network of hydraulic and hydrologic engineers to support dam and levee projects across the country, foster their professional growth, and recruit additional technical team members.
• Apply hydraulic analysis and modeling (1‑D, 2‑D, and 3‑D) utilizing various hydraulic modeling software. Scope, lead, and serve as a technical advisor on modeling projects.
• Rehabilitate and design existing and new spillways, outlet works, and other appurtenant dam hydraulic structures.
• Perform flood hazard assessment and dam breach modeling for inundation mapping and support of direct and indirect economic consequence estimation. Familiarity with HEC‑FIA and HEC‑LifeSim is a plus.
• Serve as H&H subject matter expert on probabilistic risk assessment and risk evaluation teams.
• Provide senior review for Independent Technical Review Boards on dam safety modification studies and design projects.
• Inspect existing hydraulic structures and review dam safety analyses and studies against current practice and design criteria.
• Interact with client representatives.
• Take task and project‑level responsibility for scoping, performing, managing, and delivering multiple concurrent assignments.
• Play a role in lead generation, business development, staff development, and mentoring, consistent with our sell‑manage‑do business model.
• Broaden our reputation and visibility through publishing and presenting at prominent industry conferences such as USSD, ASDSO, CEATI, and NHA.
• Manage tasks and projects, including planning and directing staff, budgeting and budget management, adherence to schedule, quality, client satisfaction, and profitability.
• Recruit, supervise, and mentor junior staff.
• Prepare technical reports, letters, memoranda, plans, specifications, and proposals.
• Drive personal, company, or rental vehicles to client or company project or office sites, and other business locations as needed.

Education and Licensure

• Bachelor's degree in water resources or environmental engineering or a closely related field with emphasis on water resources or a closely related discipline (required).
• Advanced degrees of the same (preferred).
• Professional registration (e.g., P.E.) (required).

Skills, Experience and Qualifications

• At least 10 years (15+ preferred) of direct engineering consulting experience working on water resource projects with a focus on dams and levees; or an equivalent combination of education and experience (required).
• Experience with multidisciplinary project teams (required).
• Experience with project management and business development (required).
• Excellent leadership and detail orientation skills (required).
• Experience performing hydrologic studies for dams and specific experience performing probabilistic flood hazard analyses (preferred).
• Experience with modeling tools such as HEC‑RAS (1‑D and 2‑D), CFD (3‑D) models, or similar; HEC‑LifeSim, HEC‑FIA, DAMRAE or similar (preferred).
• Exceptional social skills and outstanding oral and written communication skills (required).
• Ability and willingness to perform fieldwork and travel for site visits, inspections, and other business‑related meetings or conferences (required).
• Field work and overnight travel may be required.
• Current OSHA 40‑hr HAZWOPER training and refreshers (preferred).
• Health & Safety training, medical monitoring, and client‑driven drug and background testing may be required.
• Valid U.S. driver's license and a satisfactory driving record for business travel (required).

This opportunity will be posted for at least five days. Below are the potential compensation ranges that we in good faith believe are applicable for this role at the time of this posting and are only applicable for jobs to be performed in the specified location(s) below. The typical base salary range for this position is just one component of Geosyntec's total compensation package for employees. Actual compensation will be determined based on education, experience, skill set and location.

• Minimum Salary: $156,115/year / Maximum Salary: $271,495/year (Los Angeles, CA)
• Minimum Salary: $149,330/year / Maximum Salary: $259,690/year (Davis, CA)
• Minimum Salary: $142,540/year / Maximum Salary: $247,885/year (Denver, CO)

We offer a comprehensive benefits package including paid holidays, vacation, sick, and personal paid time off, medical, dental, vision, life, and disability insurance, 401(k), and other benefits to eligible employees.