Engineering Inspector -IV

The City of San Luis Obispo is looking for an Engineering Inspector who is ready to support the development and maintenance of projects that shape daily life in our community.

With a four-level career series offering room to grow, this role gives you the chance to apply your construction knowledge to complex and meaningful public and private projects. Whether it’s roads, drainage systems, pipelines, parks, or bike paths, you’ll help ensure that what we build today serves our residents well into the future.

We’re searching for a dependable, collaborative professional with strong construction experience and familiarity with City and Caltrans specifications. The right candidate is confident enforcing permits, skilled in digital tools like Excel and Word, and able to communicate effectively with contractors, engineers, and supervisors. Clear, accurate field reporting and the ability to calmly de‑escalate challenging situations are essential.

Provide a wide variety of professional field and office engineering work in the support of City construction and private development projects, starting with simple projects and working to the most complex. Employees in this career ladder inspect the construction of a variety of public works and private improvement projects including: roads, drainage, grading, water and wastewater pipelines and treatment facilities, tanks, parks and landscaping, bike paths, bridges, environmental mitigation, traffic signals and other civil engineering projects.

In addition to inspection of facilities in construction, these positions perform construction management duties, manage consultants, and monitor budgets. As employees show an increase in knowledge, skills, abilities and initiative, they are eligible for promotion.

The engineering inspector is a largely technical series starting with inspection of small private construction activities, with the ability to advance to complex public project inspection and oversight. The inspector is responsible for compliance to standards and codes, and on public projects, for proper expenditure of City funds and defense against construction claims.

Employees in this classification work under the general supervision of the Construction Manager or Supervising Civil Engineer. Entry level employees may also work under the guidance of senior staff within a broad framework of policies and procedures.

Any one position may not include all of the duties listed, nor do all the listed examples include all tasks that may be found in the class.

• Inspect routine construction projects and review construction material sampling for conformance to plans, specifications, contract requirements, Federal/State agency requirements and any special conditions.
• Maintain accurate records on project progress, work quality, labor and equipment used, work items not in conformance to plans, record drawings and other project information.
• Prioritize work, set appointments and meet with developers, engineers and citizens on project issues.
• Prepare written correspondence and spreadsheets required in performance of the work.
• Explain City standards to others such as contractors and citizens.
• Review routine construction project plans for specification conformance.

In addition to the above, the Engineering Inspector II classification may include the duties listed below:

• Inspect complex private and moderately complex public projects requiring increased interaction with engineers or architects and more in-depth or varied engineering and construction knowledge.
• Investigate and prepare written analysis of contractor's claims for additional payment, time extensions and changed conditions of the work.
• Make minor design changes in the field.
• Monitor project budgets and schedules to ensure project remains within financial constraints and approved schedule.
• Prepare cost request bulletins and track submittals.
• Conduct conferences and meetings with contractors, developers, engineers and others to coordinate joint efforts for construction projects and resolve disputes.
• Explain underlying project…