Lead Plumbing Engineer - Buildings

Overview

Join our Property & Buildings Team and be a part of a growing organization that meets our client's objectives and solves their challenges. WSP is initiating a search for a full-time Lead Plumbing Engineer for our Kansas City, MO office. You will lead the planning, design, and delivery of building plumbing systems across healthcare, higher education, laboratory, mission‑critical, and commercial projects in the public and private sector.

You’ll own technical direction, coordinate across disciplines, guide quality, and mentor designers, while engaging directly with clients, partners, and contractors. This position is best suited for an engineer who is seeking an opportunity to work within a team‑focused local office, for a large world‑wide engineering firm that is focused on career development, mentoring and employee satisfaction.

• Lead plumbing system design for buildings: steer the design for domestic water, sanitary waste, vent, storm, natural gas, fire suppression and protection, specialty lab & medical gases. Oversee and monitor junior engineers, technicians, and/or other professionals to execute project work on multiple concurrent projects, including tracking design budget hours and expenses, monitoring task completion, overseeing technical calculations, schematics, and project documentation, including regulatory and technical analyses.
• Conduct on-site observations of existing and proposed building site conditions, equipment, resources, infrastructure, and current usage. Provide junior engineers with guidance on collecting, compiling, and analyzing data from the physical work site, surveys, legacy blueprints, schematics, data, technical drawings, and reports.
• Develop design deliverables: apply high‑level plumbing engineering techniques to identify improvements for various building projects. Prepare calculations, equipment sizing, engineering reports, design narratives; develop design from conceptual phase through construction documents and implementation plans.
• Manage multi‑discipline coordination with mechanical, electrical, fire protection, architectural, and civil teams; integrate design with BIM workflows (Revit/AutoCAD).
• Own quality: ensure compliance with codes and standards (IPC/UPC, NFPA) and firm design standards. Coordinate, review and approve design plans, ensuring compliance with applicable codes and regulations. Stamp/seal deliverables as appropriate.
• Support construction administration: respond to RFIs, review submittals and shop drawings, attend site visits, and verify installation against plans and specifications.
• Adhere to Safety and Ethics: develop and follow site Health and Safety Plans (HASPs); adhere to WSP’s Code of Conduct and related policies.
• Grow and Learn: stay current in engineering techniques and practices; maintain credentials and advance in the field; share knowledge and collaborate with the team.
• Perform additional responsibilities as required by business needs.

• Bachelor’s Degree in Architectural/Building Systems, Plumbing, or Mechanical Engineering, or a closely related discipline.
• 7 to 10 years of relevant post‑graduate experience in engineering with prior plumbing or mechanical design experience related to buildings.
• A portfolio spanning at least two of the following sectors: healthcare, higher education, mission‑critical/data center, laboratory, process or advanced manufacturing, or commercial real estate.
• Experience with building planning, design, and construction management; involvement in renovation, expansion, rehabilitation, or new design projects.
• Ability to plan and conduct inspections and investigations on construction and design aspects of facilities, applying applicable regulations and policies.
• Demonstrated ability to lead project designs, coordinate with architects and engineers, guide junior designers, and communicate clearly with clients and field teams. Strong interpersonal and communication skills; works independently with minimal oversight and provides leadership with adherence to QA/QC.
• Proficiency in technical writing, office software, load calculations, design software (Revit,…