Design Manager

• Location 9520 10th Avenue South,Suite 150,Seattle, WA, 98108,United States
• Base Pay $ - $ / Year
• Job Category Fire Sprinkler, Design Manager
• Employee Type Exempt
  - Full Time
• Required Degree 4 Year Degree

Position: Design Manager
- Fire Sprinkler

Company: Columbia Fire, LLC

Location: Seattle, WA - in-office, with up to two days per week remote

Reports To: Contract Division Manager

Bargaining Unit Status: Non-union

Incentive Eligibility: Annual bonus tied to goals and MBOs - see Compensation

Travel: Occasional jobsite visits across Western Washington; occasional travel to affiliated offices

Columbia Fire has been protecting lives and property in the Seattle market since 2005. We design, install, inspect, and service fire sprinkler systems, fire alarm systems, suppression systems, and portable fire extinguishers across Western Washington.

Columbia Fire is a wholly owned subsidiary of Columbia Safety Services, LLC, which also operates Valley Fire Control, LLC in Oregon and Eastern Washington and FFF Protection in Idaho. We are building a formidable fire protection platform rooted in trust, execution, and long-term relationships.

Our core values guide how we operate:
Customer First, Grit, Effective Communication, Own the Outcome, Take Pride in the Work, and Do the Right Thing.

Design sets the ceiling on how much work we can build and how profitably we build it. A clean, constructable design saves labor in the field, gets through the AHJ the first time, and keeps a project on schedule. A weak one costs us in change orders, rework, and credibility.

We are also hiring designers at every level, including people with no design experience t only works if someone is genuinely responsible for developing them.

This role owns both: the standard our designs are held to, and the people who produce them.

You will lead Columbia Fire’s sprinkler design team - setting standards, reviewing and stamping work, managing workload and deadlines, and building the training path that turns entry-level hires into certified designers.

You will still design. This is a working manager role, not a pure oversight seat. You will take on complex projects yourself, and your team should be able to watch you do the work.

A P.E. on staff can supervise and sign off on engineering hours for designers pursuing licensure. That means you would not just be training designers — you would be opening a path to P.E. for people who currently have no way to get there. Very few fire protection contractors our size can say that, and we would build the program around you.

• Review and refine our existing design standards with field superintendents and internal stakeholders within your first 30 days, then keep them current
• Build and maintain a design review checklist that tells designers exactly what they are being reviewed against - no guessing
• Review sprinkler drawings against that checklist, company standards, and project specifications, evaluating code accuracy, hydraulic soundness, efficiency, and constructability
• Stamp and submit compliant design packages to authorities having jurisdiction
• Manage team workload, assignments, prioritization, and deadline performance
• Own the AHJ requirement database so the team is not relearning each jurisdiction every time
• Coordinate with project management, purchasing, and field leadership for clean design-to-install handoffs
• Take on complex design work yourself as workload requires

• Assess each designer’s current capability, identify gaps honestly, and build individual development plans
• Establish a structured training program for new…