Contract Bridge Design Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

BKF is a multi-service infrastructure consulting firm providing civil engineering and surveying services across California, the Pacific Northwest, and beyond. With offices throughout California and the Portland area, BKF has served transportation, water resources, land development, government, and federal clients for over 110 years.

At BKF, you'll find a unique opportunity to grow your career with intention. Our culture values professional autonomy, innovation, and meaningful collaboration across offices. We are proud to be recognized with the Great Place to Work certification for the second year in a row.

As part of our Bridge & Structures team, you will lead the development and delivery of bridge and structural engineering projects by building and maintaining strong client and partner relationships, pursuing and securing bridge- and structure-focused work, and overseeing project execution. These roles support opportunities throughout California and may be focused in Northern, Central, or Southern California, offering a flexible work environment with travel as needed for client engagement and coordination.

Regional Strategy & Execution

• Contribute to the development of the firm's Bride & Structures strategic plan and translate practice-level priorities into actionable regional initiatives.
• Identify and pursue growth opportunities within the region, including new clients, delivery methods, service offerings, and geographic expansion.
• Align regional efforts with statewide, regional, and federal priorities and funding programs.

Team Leadership & Development

• Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing regional bridges and structures design team.
• Support succession planning, recruiting, and staff development in alignment with practice and firmwide goals.
• Promote a culture of technical excellence, collaboration, accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Foster interdisciplinary coordination across teams.

Client Engagement & Market Growth

• Serve as the primary relationship manager for key regional clients.
• Represent the firm at transportation industry events, conferences, stakeholder meetings, and public agency forums.
• Collaborate with Business Development and Marketing to shape go-to-market strategies, pursuit positioning, and major proposal efforts.
• Play a leading role in identifying, developing, and securing new transportation projects and on-call contracts.
• Contribute to achieving overall sales, bookings, and backlog goals.

Project Oversight & Delivery

• Provide leadership and oversight on projects to ensure quality, schedule adherence, and client satisfaction.
• Support project teams in navigating complex technical, regulatory, and stakeholder challenges.
• Drive consistency in project delivery through best practices, standardized tools, and quality management processes.
• Serve as Project Manager on large, complex projects or oversee a portfolio of clients within the region.

Operational & Financial Management

• Support development of the regional business plan and budget in coordination with the Practice Lead and firm leadership.
• Monitor regional backlog, revenue, utilization, and project profitability.
• Track performance metrics and implement corrective actions to meet or exceed established KPIs.
• Optimize staffing and resource allocation to ensure operational efficiency and successful project delivery.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering is required, and Master's degree in Structural Engineering is preferred
• California Professional Engineer (P.E.) license
• Minimum of 8-10 years of progressive experience in structural/bridge design and project management
• Ability to effectively communicate and collaborate within large, multi-disciplinary capital project environments involving public and private organizations and multiple oversight agencies
• Experience developing construction/contract documents (PS&E), technical studies, reports, and supporting calculations
• Competency using bridge-specific finite element analysis, section analysis, design, post-processing, and related software
• Familiarity with bridge design safety code requirements, including AASHTO LRFD
• Familiarity with seismic design concepts
• Demonstrated success in business development, client relationship management, and major pursuits.
• Excellent communication, leadership, and organizational skills.
• Highly organized, analytical, and results oriented.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, deadline-driven consulting environment.
• Willingness to travel as needed to support regional offices, project sites, and client engagements.
• Ability to work collaboratively with firm leadership and key internal stakeholders.

Physical Demands: Must be able to regularly talk, hear and operate a computer, keyboard and mouse and occasionally lift, pull/push and carry up to 20 pounds with accommodations.

Work Conditions: Exposure to constant or intermittent sounds at a low or moderate level consistent with an office setting. Exposure to high-stress, fast-paced, deadline-oriented environment. Travel to other BKF locations and client sites may be required.

Benefits

• The typical base salary range for this position is $190,000.00 - $240,000.00, annualized depending upon skills, experience, education, and geographical location. This is a salary position paid biweekly.
• Competitive salaries, end of year bonuses, profit sharing, and 401k.
• Generous paid time off packages.
• 9 Paid Holidays.
• Flexible schedules.
• Education reimbursement, Paid annual dues for professional and societal organizations.
• BKF offers competitive and award-winning benefits and perks. To learn more click here.

BKF Engineers provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

BKF Engineers does not accept unsolicited resumes from recruiters or employment agencies. In the event a recruiter or agency submits a resume or candidate without a previously signed agreement and a specific solicitation for the position or other approved engagement request for the position with BKF Engineers, BKF Engineers reserves the right to pursue and hire those candidate(s) without any financial obligation to the recruiter or agency. Any unsolicited submittals are done at the risk of the recruiter.

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