Senior Fire Protection Engineer | Life Safety Lead (Hybrid)

GHD; Bowie (MD); Hybrid; USD 107,000 - 215,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401K

Paid time off (PTO)

Holiday pay

Wellness reimbursement

Job summary

GHD's US East Region is seeking a Senior Fire Protection Engineer to lead full‑service fire protection and life safety consulting for private, institutional, and federal facilities. You will drive design, analysis, documentation, and QA across multi‑discipline teams, interfacing with architects, engineers and clients.

You will mentor junior engineers, support business development, and travel up to 10%. A PE license and ABET‑accredited degree are required, with 10–20 years of relevant experience.

Qualifications

• ABET accredited degree in Fire Protection Engineering (Bachelor's or Master's)
• Professional Engineer (PE) license
• 10–20 years of experience in fire protection design and life safety consulting
• Strong knowledge of NFPA and ICC codes and FM Global datasheets
• Experience developing contract documents for fire protection systems (alarms, suppression)
• Experience across full project life cycle including bids, feasibility, design, and client management
• Interest in coaching and mentoring graduate and EIT engineers
• Willingness to travel up to 10%
• Experience with DoD and civilian agencies is a plus
• Established client-facing experience and ability to manage key client relationships

Responsibilities

• Lead and collaborate on fire protection systems design and life safety/code consulting projects.
• Provide life safety analysis including reports and plans identifying applicable codes and standards, construction type, allowable height and area, occupancy classification, fire resistance rated assemblies, exits, exit capacity and travel distance.
• Develop technical documentation for all types of fire protection systems, including design narratives, technical memorandums, design drawings, and technical specifications.
• Manage fire protection engineering projects and work effectively within multi-discipline project teams across groups.
• Collaborate with architects, engineers and other clients on building/fire code & standards consulting.
• Identify hazards, mitigation techniques and recommended solutions, materials, and equipment on Fire Protection/Life Safety consulting.
• Identify and support business development, client expansion and proposal development activities for our Fire Protection Engineering & Life Safety business, including the preparation of proposals for IDIQ TOs and opportunities.
• Support client relationship development and strategic growth initiatives.
• Support mid-level and entry-level Fire Protection Engineers within the Design & Delivery Organization through mentorship and contributions to research and development activities.
• Perform peer reviews and QAQC reviews of fire protection design documents to verify technical and code compliant designs and consistent and clean drafting.
• Participate in construction administration services including reviewing and responding to RFIs and Submittals, performing final punch-list walks, and witness acceptance testing.
• Serve as Engineer of Record (EOR) where needed.

Skills

Project leadership

Client facing experience

Mentoring

Travel readiness

Code compliance knowledge

Education

ABET accredited Fire Protection Engineering degree

Tools

Revit

FM Global datasheets

NFPA/ICC codes

Job description

GHD's US East Region is seeking a Senior Fire Protection Engineer to lead full‑service fire protection and life safety consulting for private, institutional, and federal facilities. You will drive design, analysis, documentation, and QA across multi‑discipline teams, interfacing with architects, engineers and clients.

You will mentor junior engineers, support business development, and travel up to 10%. A PE license and ABET‑accredited degree are required, with 10–20 years of relevant experience.