Refrigeration Discipline Lead

The Refrigeration Discipline Lead serves as the technical, project delivery, and people leader for the Refrigeration team. This role focuses on executing and delivering HFA's vision, purpose and code in addition to Project Delivery Excellence (PDE) through discipline-level leadership, team coordination, technical quality, and project execution.

As a leader in an ESOP-driven organization, the Discipline Lead promotes an Employee Owner (EO) mindset at the team level and helps team members connect daily decisions to client outcomes, project performance, collaboration, and long-term firm value. This role provides a practical upward feedback loop to VP and senior leadership while championing OneHFA collaboration across project teams and disciplines.

Ideal candidate will be a licensed Refrigeration Engineer with a minimum of 15 yrs of experience possessing extensive knowledge of commercial and industrial refrigeration systems, controls, energy analysis, and applicable codes. Commercial/Industrial systems include DX refrigeration systems utilizing traditional refrigerants, transcritical CO2 systems, 2-stage systems, and cascade systems. Knowledge of recirculated ammonia refrigeration systems is preferred. The candidate should be capable of mentoring designers and engineers, supporting client relationships, coordinating with interdisciplinary teams, and maintaining technical quality on projects of varying scale and complexity.

HFA is a 100% employee-owned multidisciplinary architectural, engineering, and interior architecture firm who thrives in a people-first environment. Employee ownership isn't just a structure - it's a mindset that fuels everything we do. This mindset empowers us to think beyond our roles, pushing us to find innovative solutions that strengthen our client relationships and deepen our connections with our people internally.

We believe that our people are our greatest asset which aligns with our culture code:
We aspire to be a people-first culture of empowerment where talent thrives.

The ownership mindset also means that every team member is personally invested in the success of our projects and clients. This approach ensures that every decision aligns with our purpose:
Leading our clients to fulfill their vision while building lasting partnerships.

With our focus on our people, we offer competitive salaries and a comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental, vision, disability, and life insurance, a 401(k) with company match, an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), and a flexible work schedule. We provide our team members with professional development opportunities and learning stipends to pursue professional growth, and we take any chance we can get to recognize and reward our people for their amazing work.

• Executes and adopts firm Vision, strategies, and objectives within the discipline.
• Translates discipline priorities into clear team expectations, technical standards, and project-level actions that support PDE.
• Monitors and reports discipline needs, delivery challenges, staffing considerations, and improvement opportunities to VP and senior leadership.
• Maintains clear vertical and horizontal communication with project teams, Team Leads, Senior Team Leads, peer discipline leaders, and VP leadership.
• Champions culture among the team and models shared values through daily leadership and project execution.
• Champions and leads multi-discipline collaboration at the team level to support a OneHFA approach.
• Works closely with architects, engineers, project managers, and other disciplines to coordinate fire protection scope, resolve conflicts, and improve delivery outcomes.
• Provides a practical feedback loop to senior leadership regarding team needs, coordination barriers, and opportunities to strengthen collaboration.
• Promotes development paths for Team Leads, designers, and engineers.
• Promotes an Employee Owner (EO) mindset at the discipline level.
• Models ownership behaviors through accountability, proactive communication, sound judgment, and thoughtful stewardship of project resources.
• Helps team members understand how technical decisions, quality, coordination, and client service contribute to shared success.

• Supports client satisfaction by ensuring technically sound delivery and monitoring the team's client interactions and relationships.
• Manages key project-level client relationships directly when appropriate…