Plans Examiner

The City of San Luis Obispo is seeking a skilled and collaborative professional to join our team!

We are looking for a motivated Plans Examiner who is committed to ensuring safe, compliant, and high-quality development throughout our community. The ideal candidate thrives in a fast-paced environment, demonstrates strong technical knowledge of building code principles, and enjoys working directly with architects, contractors, property owners, and City staff to support successful project outcomes.

Please note: Hiring incentives are not guaranteed but may be valued up to $3,000 for positions deemed hard to fill by the Director of Human Resources. For candidates who live 50 or more miles from San Luis Obispo County, relocation assistance up to $7,000 may be available. In addition, the City is also honoring service credit toward vacation accrual for completed public-sector years of service.

If you are selected for interviews, they will take place in person on Wednesday, November 18, 2026, so please hold that date.

Reviews plans and supporting calculations for a variety of commercial, industrial, and residential buildings and other structures to be constructed, altered or repaired to ensure conformance with building codes and ordinances; reviews grading plans and specifications for code conformance; and interprets building, electrical, mechanical, plumbing, disabled access, and energy codes.

This job class functions at a full journey level of classification and requires thorough knowledge of applicable Federal, State, County and City laws, codes, and ordinances related to building design and construction. Positions in this class work independently while performing established plan review duties.

Employees in this classification are under general supervision of the Fire Marshal/Chief Building Official and receive direct supervision from the Building and Safety Supervisor.

• Performs the plan review of commercial, industrial and residential building construction projects to determine compliance with State and local building codes, laws, and ordinances.
• Establishes and maintains effective working relationships with property owners, architects, engineers, contractors, the general public, co-workers, other departments, and supervisors.
• Coordinates and monitors plan review accomplished by the City's consultants and other City departments.
• Acts as information source to property owners, builders, contractors, and architects regarding code compliance; explains and interprets building codes and regulations.
• Staffs the customer service counter as required to provide information, receive applications, calculate fees and conduct over-the–counter permit processing.
• Conducts inspections permitted projects and site review of proposed projects.
• Reviews architectural, structural, electrical and mechanical plans to determine compliance with applicable construction codes.
• Reviews test reports from laboratories and soil analysis reports from consulting engineers.
• Reviews development plans to determine compliance with the grading ordinance, drainage criteria, disabled access regulations, soil reports, engineering standards, zoning regulations, and subdivision conditions.
• Reviews structural calculations and plans for completeness, accuracy, and application of sound engineering principles.
• Coordinates plan review by other departments to ensure transmittal of corrections in a complete and professional manner.
• Researches information on proposed new products and materials and transmits results to architects, engineers, builders, and property owners.
• Conducts training sessions as required for Division staff concerning code changes,…