Senior Water Resources Engineer

Dewberry; Merrifield (VA); On-site; USD 134,000 - 173,000; Full time

Job summary

Dewberry is seeking an experienced Senior Hydraulic and Water Resources Engineer to join the Resilience Solutions Group. The role focuses on advancing hydraulics, floodplain analysis, flood risk assessment, and scalable computational workflows for water resources planning and design.

The candidate will lead technical efforts, mentor staff, and collaborate with engineers, scientists, planners, and programmers to deliver data-driven resilience solutions for federal, state, and local clients.

Qualifications

• BS, MS, or PhD in Civil Engineering, Water Resources Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering, or related discipline.
• Experience in hydraulic engineering and river modeling with 10+ years of relevant industry experience.
• Proficiency with HEC-RAS and SWMM, flood risk assessments, and GIS workflows.

Responsibilities

• Lead or support hydraulic analyses for municipal, state, and federal projects.
• Develop innovative hydraulic and flood risk analysis approaches.
• Model riverine systems, floodplains, bridges, culverts, and hydraulic structures.
• Evaluate river hydraulics, sediment transport, channel stability, and floodplain dynamics.
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams for integrated project delivery.
• Mentor junior engineers and promote best practices in modeling.

Skills

Hydraulic engineering

River modeling

Analytical modeling

Technical leadership

Communication

Public engagement

PE license

Education

Civil Engineering degree

Water Resources Engineering

Hydraulic Engineering

Tools

HEC-RAS

SWMM

ArcGIS Pro

Job description

Job Description

Dewberry is seeking an experienced and innovative Senior Hydraulic and Water Resources Engineer to join our Resilience Solutions Group. This role focuses on advancing the state of the science in fluvial, pluvial, and lacustrine hydraulics, floodplain analysis, flood risk assessment, and fluvial processes to improve water resources engineering, planning, and design. The successful candidate will combine deep technical expertise in hydraulic modeling, riverine systems, and water resources engineering with a passion for innovation, applied research, and technical leadership. Working collaboratively with engineers, scientists, planners, and programmers, this individual will develop and implement advanced analytical workflows, cloud-enabled modeling solutions, and next-generation approaches for evaluating and managing flood risk under existing and future conditions. In addition to supporting complex projects for federal, state, and local clients, the candidate will help shape the future of hydraulic modeling practice through the advancement of probabilistic and risk-informed methodologies, integration of emerging technologies, development of scalable computational workflows, and mentorship of technical staff. The ideal candidate will serve as a recognized subject matter expert and change agent, delivering impactful, data-driven resilience solutions while advancing organizational capabilities in hydraulic modeling, flood risk analysis, and water resources planning and design.

Dewberry is a leading, market-facing professional services firm with more than 60 locations and 2,500 professionals nationwide. What sets us apart from our competitors is our people. At Dewberry, we seek out exceptional talent and strive to deliver the highest quality of services to our clients. Whether you’re an experienced professional or a new graduate, you’ll have the chance to collaborate with the best and brightest and work on innovative and complex projects at the forefront of the industry. Our commitment to excellence stems from our personal integrity and from other defining attributes, which we call “Dewberry at Work,” that have inspired our employees to be successful for more than a half-century.

Responsibilities

• Leverage expertise in hydraulic engineering and river modeling to lead or support technical needs of diverse projects across municipal, state, and federal markets.
• Lead or contribute to the development of innovative hydraulic and flood risk analysis approaches to meet project requirements.
• Conduct and oversee one-dimensional and two-dimensional hydraulic modeling of riverine systems, floodplains, bridges, culverts, and hydraulic structures.
• Evaluate river hydraulics, sediment transport, channel stability, and floodplain dynamics under existing and future conditions.
• Productively collaborate with multidisciplinary teams of engineers, hydrologists, planners, scientists, and software developers for integrated project delivery.
• Participate in client and public engagement meetings.
• Develop technical reports and provide formal and informal presentations to clients and stakeholders.
• Demonstrate subject matter leadership and professional development through external publications, conference presentations, and professional organizations.
• Serve as a technical mentor and subject matter expert, providing coaching, training, and quality assurance for junior engineers while promoting best practices in river hydraulics, flood risk assessment, and numerical modeling.
• Lead research, development, testing, and validation of next-generation hydraulic analysis methodologies to address evolving client and industry needs.
• Develop and implement a strategic roadmap for advancing hydraulic modeling capabilities, including the integration of probabilistic and risk-informed approaches, technical standards, quality management procedures, and operational best practices.
• Serve as a technical leader and change agent by mentoring staff and promoting adoption of emerging methods for uncertainty analysis, probabilistic flood hazard characterization, and risk-based decision support.
• Evaluate and integrate emerging technologies, computational methods, and analytical frameworks to enhance hydraulic modeling practice.
• Design computational workflows that leverage cloud computing, automation, parallel processing, and large-scale model execution.
• Partner with scientific programmers, data scientists, and engineers to operationalize advanced hydraulic modeling solutions.

Required Skills & Required Experience

Candidates must demonstrate knowledge and expertise in performing complex hydraulic analyses using advanced numerical modeling software. Preferred candidates will have experience evaluating riverine systems in the context of extreme events and changing environmental conditions, including an understanding of the interactions among hydrology, hydraulics, geomorphology, and infrastructure.

• BS, MS, or PhD in Civil Engineering, Water Resources Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering, or related discipline.
• Expertise in hydraulic engineering and river modeling with 10+ years of relevant industry experience.
• Demonstrated experience developing, calibrating, and applying large-scale watershed and riverine hydraulic models spanning multiple watersheds, river networks, and interconnected floodplain systems.
• Proficiency with industry-standard hydraulic modeling software and analytical tools, such as HEC-RAS and SWMM.
• Experience with floodplain mapping, FEMA studies, and regulatory flood risk assessments.
• Experience with GIS platforms, including ArcGIS Pro and spatial analysis workflows.
• Excellent technical writing, communication, and client engagement skills.
• Professional Engineer (PE) license.

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced degree (MS or PhD) in Hydraulic Engineering, Water Resources Engineering, or related field.
• Experience performing dam-break and levee breach analyses.
• Experience integrating hydraulic models with hydrologic and meteorological datasets.
• Experience implementing computationally intensive, cloud-based workflows for flood forecasting, inundation mapping, and risk analysis.
• Experience supporting federal agencies such as FEMA, USACE, NOAA, USGS, or state water resource agencies.

The projected range for this position is $134,000 - $173,000 annually. Depending upon other factors, i.e., skills, experience, location, market conditions, the range may vary slightly.

• At this time, Dewberry will not sponsor a new applicant for work authorization.
• Dewberry is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, gender identity or sexual orientation.
• Only recipients of an offer of employment from Dewberry, will be required to submit to a background screening which may include, but is not limited to, employment verification, educational and other credential verification, driving record check, criminal background check, and an investigative consumer report. These screenings will be conducted by Dewberry’s background vendor of choice and will be conducted in compliance with all applicable federal, state, and local law.

Salary Range

The projected range for this position is $134,000-$173,000 annually in our Fairfax, VA office. Depending upon other factors, i.e., skills, experience, location, market conditions, the range may vary slightly.