Senior Geotechnical Engineer
Senior Geotechnical Engineer
Location: San Diego, CA (hybrid)
Compensation: $120,000 to $160,000 base, commensurate with experience, plus bonus and profit sharing through 401(k)
About the Firm
A national, employee owned earth science and engineering consulting firm founded in 1980 with deep specialization at the intersection of infrastructure, the environment, and natural systems. Practice areas span geotechnical, environmental, water resources, habitat restoration, and pipeline services.
The San Diego office is in active growth mode, building out its bench to support a strong and diverse Southern California pipeline. Employee ownership means engineers have real skin in the game and a direct stake in the long term success of the firm.
About the Role
This is a senior level seat for a geotechnical engineer ready to lead projects end to end while continuing to grow technically. You will be the day to day engineering lead on a mix of transportation, public works, residential, and commercial projects across San Diego County and the broader SoCal market, with the autonomy to drive scope, schedule, budget, and quality on your portfolio.
You will work side by side with senior leadership and an experienced multidisciplinary team, with a clear runway toward Engineer of Record responsibility, project management progression, and eventually associate or office leadership for the right person.
What You Will Do
- Lead geotechnical investigations and design across transportation, infrastructure, public works, and private development projects.
- Plan and execute subsurface exploration programs including hollow stem auger drilling, CPT, and core logging.
- Perform and review geotechnical analyses including slope stability, settlement, bearing capacity, lateral earth pressures, liquefaction, and seismic evaluations.
- Develop foundation, retaining wall, and earthwork recommendations and prepare high quality technical reports and design submittals.
- Manage project scope, schedule, budget, and client communication across single and multidisciplinary teams.
- Provide construction phase observation and field oversight services.
- Mentor staff and project level engineers and contribute to proposal and business development efforts as your role grows.
What You Bring
- Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering or related discipline; Master's in Geotechnical Engineering preferred.
- California PE required; CA GE and/or PG/CEG are strong pluses given the local market.
- 8+ years of geotechnical engineering experience, with a meaningful portion in California or comparable seismic regions.
- Strong technical foundation across subsurface investigations, lab data interpretation, foundation design, slope stability, and seismic/liquefaction analysis.
- Proficiency in standard geotechnical tools such as Rocscience (Slide, Dips), CLiq, CPeT-IT, LPile, SHAFT, and GeoStudio.
- Proven ability to manage projects independently, communicate clearly with clients, and coordinate across multidisciplinary teams.
- Existing San Diego or SoCal client and contractor relationships are a strong plus.
Why This Role Stands Out
- Employee ownership: real long term upside through the ESOP, not just a job.
- National platform, local feel: access to the technical depth, resources, and project diversity of a 400+ person firm, with the autonomy and visibility of a growing regional office.
- Genuine career runway: clear progression toward EOR, PM, and associate level leadership.
- Strong project diversity across transportation, public works, infrastructure, and private development.
- Collaborative, technically rigorous culture that prioritizes high quality engineering work over pure revenue chasing.
Benefits
Competitive base salary, performance based year end bonus (historically in the 7 to 10 percent range depending on company and individual performance), 401(k) with profit sharing, comprehensive medical, dental, and vision, paid time off, annual spring salary reviews, and ongoing investment in professional development and licensure.
Want me to swap this to the SLC, Denver, or PNW office, or strip it into a shorter LinkedIn job post version next?
FAQs
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