Lead Plumbing & Fire Protection Design Engineer

Lead Plumbing & Fire Protection Design Engineer

This is a senior technical leadership opportunity for an experienced plumbing and fire protection engineer ready to lead complex building systems projects from concept through construction. As Lead Plumbing & Fire Protection Design Engineer, you will provide design oversight, technical direction, quality control, and mentorship across sophisticated projects throughout New York City and surrounding markets.

This role is ideal for an engineer who brings deep knowledge of domestic water, sanitary, stormwater, natural gas, specialty plumbing, fire sprinkler, standpipe, fire pump, and water-service systems. You will work directly with architects, owners, contractors, utilities, public agencies, and multidisciplinary engineering teams while helping strengthen the firm's plumbing and fire protection practice.

Core Responsibilities:

• Lead the planning, design, analysis, and documentation of plumbing and fire protection systems for new construction, renovations, infrastructure upgrades, and repositioning projects
• Establish design criteria, system concepts, technical approaches, and project-specific engineering standards
• Direct the design of domestic water, domestic hot water, sanitary waste and vent, stormwater, natural gas, medical gas, laboratory plumbing, acid waste, grease waste, fuel oil, compressed air, backflow prevention, booster pump, and specialty plumbing systems
• Lead fire protection design for automatic sprinkler systems, standpipes, fire pumps, fire department connections, fire protection water services, water-storage tanks, and special-hazard coordination
• Perform and review fixture-unit calculations, pipe sizing, pressure-loss calculations, hot-water demand, gas-load calculations, drainage calculations, hydraulic sprinkler calculations, standpipe calculations, and fire pump sizing
• Evaluate system alternatives for performance, efficiency, resilience, maintainability, lifecycle cost, code compliance, and constructability
• Integrate water conservation, energy efficiency, sustainability, and resiliency strategies into plumbing design, including low-flow fixtures, water reuse, rainwater harvesting, heat recovery, and LEED/WELL or Local Law-related requirements
• Serve as the senior plumbing and fire protection technical authority on assigned projects
• Work closely with Project Managers to define scope, schedule, budget, staffing, deliverables, and technical milestones
• Lead projects from feasibility and due diligence through design, agency approvals, bidding, construction administration, commissioning, and closeout
• Direct engineers, designers, BIM/Revit professionals, and technical support staff
• Coordinate with mechanical, electrical, fire alarm, architectural, structural, civil, lighting, technology, security, and specialty-consultant teams
• Participate in BIM coordination, clash-detection reviews, design workshops, milestone reviews, and project meetings
• Ensure designs comply with NYC Plumbing Code, NYC Building Code, NYC Fire Code, NYC Fuel Gas Code, NYC Energy Conservation Code, NFPA 13, NFPA 14, NFPA 20, NFPA 24, NFPA 25, and applicable owner standards
• Support NYC Department of Buildings submissions, objections, responses, approvals, and agency coordination with FDNY, NYC DEP, utilities, and authorities having jurisdiction
• Prepare and review drawings, riser diagrams, schedules, details, specifications, calculations, technical narratives, filing drawings, and supporting documentation
• Lead existing-condition surveys, feasibility studies, condition assessments, due-diligence reports, and infrastructure-upgrade recommendations
• Develop phasing and temporary-service strategies for renovations in occupied buildings
• Lead QA/QC reviews to verify code compliance, system sizing, coordination, constructability, and technical completeness
• Review shop drawings, equipment submittals, sprinkler calculations, product data, substitutions, contractor proposals, RFIs, change-order requests, and closeout documents
• Conduct site visits, field observations, punch-list inspections, testing reviews, and construction-phase coordination
• Mentor plumbing and fire protection engineers, designers,…