Category Archives: Training

Engineering Project Manager – GeoStructures and Ground Improvement

UPDATE 07/2022:
This position has been filled. Thank you to everyone who expressed interest in joining the Atlas team.

Salary Range $85,000 – $110,000/year

Looking for a different approach to geotechnical engineering? Maybe a smaller company, owned and managed by engineers, whose projects have adequate budget for rigorous analyses and old-school collaboration? We have a unique position available managing our extremely capable team and amplifying our success.

Atlas Geotechnical solves complex foundation and excavation problems on high value infrastructure projects in North American and out through the western Pacific. Current engagements include ground improvement behind a wharf at Naval Base Guam, tank foundation design near Fullerton TX, temporary cut walls for widening I-405 near Seattle, and shoring for 7 excavations at a WWTP expansion near St. Louis. This September we start work expanding the Tinian airfield. More about us here: https://atlasgeotechnical.com

Our best customers are heavy civil and marine contractors with strong in-house technical capabilities. We do about 90% repeat business; we’ve not had to write a competitive proposal in years. We build relationships and achieve success by delivering very high quality advanced engineering designs on time and within budget.

How Atlas is different:

We are a boutique consultancy with an obvious commitment to developing each team member’s professional skills. You’ll pack tools into your toolbox faster than you ever thought possible.
Atlas designs solutions for construction problems. All of our projects get built.
We perform old school “muddy boots” engineering. We go to our project sites, witness the challenges firsthand, and brainstorm with our customers. There are opportunities to travel to exotic job sites for focused efforts.
Atlas’s entire workforce is geographically dispersed. Our employees choose where they want to live and work. Right now we’re working from Santa Cruz, Portland, Denver, and St. Louis.
We buy the tools that engineers need to be successful. New computers and advanced software are tools that we use to succeed, not a budget problem.

How the Engineering Project Manager job works:

You will be involved in projects from the incoming work request through the final invoice.
You have direct access to the Chief Engineer. He and his team succeed when you have the support and resources that you need to provide effective management. We’re a close-knit team who work together to solve sticky problems.
Workflow management is the principal focus. You’ll develop project schedules, assign and oversee analyses, assemble deliverables, and ensure that we meet our customer’s needs.
Contract management is another important area of responsibility. Correct invoices delivered promptly are the backbone of Atlas’s strong financial performance. We’ll rely on you to oversee invoicing and manage interactions with our customer’s accounts payable departments.
We have decades-long relationships with our clients. Many of them are our good friends. The engineering project manager is a high-visibility role and will work to strengthen and further develop these relationships.

You:

Understand engineering principles: the way that engineers use mathematics to predict stability and deformation in the built environment.
Are able to break down complex engineering projects into actionable, trackable elements each defined by a scope, a schedule, and a budget.
Know how infrastructure projects are designed, contracted, and built so that our customer’s requests make sense and fit into context.
Relish finding solutions, equipment, and materials for unusual field engineering situations.
Feel comfortable working in a distributed team with people in multiple time zones.
Have a clear, clean communication style that helps keep everyone included in the process and moves projects forward.
Live and work in the United States.

The day-to-day responsibilities include:

Assess incoming work requests and work with the Atlas team to generate statements of work, timelines, and budgets.
Be the point of contact so that there is a consistent orchestration of the project from start to finish.
- Participate in the scoping and estimating process that secures the work.
- Establish clear expectations around timelines and ability to deliver high-quality designs.
- Prioritize tasks with an eye to the difference between active construction projects and jobs that have less schedule risk.
- Continue to set and amend expectations with the client and project partners as the team responds to real world elements of our projects.
Assign work to the engineers according to their availability and ensure that they have the information, tools, and time needed to complete their assignments.
Work with the Atlas team to evolve and improve our workflow processes.
- Assess the resources needed to complete each assignment on time and within budget.
- Work with the assigned project engineer to break each project into discrete tasks with timelines that allow for good work, quality assurance, and timely completion.
- Reallocate resources and manage client expectations as high-priority requests arrive to compete with existing commitments.
- Maintain awareness of our backlog and commitments and communicate that to the Atlas team and to our customers.
Oversee Atlas’s internal quality program
- Schedule and track internal computations checks and reviews
- Coordinate our responses to comments generated by our customers and review agencies.
- Identify areas that could be improved and assess the resources needed to make those improvements
Oversee profitability:
- Participate in the scoping and estimating process
- Track progress and request budget changes where appropriate.
- Analyze profitability by client and by project type to inform future cost estimating
- Track payment status and resolve problems that are causing delays.

Perks and Benefits

Geographic flexibility. Work from home or from an Atlas-paid coworking space
Competitive wages
Quarterly bonuses based on company performance
12 annual paid holidays. (We close the shop for the last week of the year.)
Two weeks paid vacation
401k program with significant annual profit sharing contribution
Medical insurance 50% company paid

To Apply

Atlas Geotechnical is a small (6-person) tight-knit group managed by the company founder. Our interview and hiring process is informal but also somewhat rigorous. Start by emailing a cover letter and your resume to jobs@atlasgeotechnical.com. We reply to every application that includes a tailored cover letter. If your background and interests seem like a good fit, we’ll arrange one or more video interviews. A 40-hour (paid) work sample is usually the last step in our hiring process.

Cal State Northridge Parking Structure

This past week marked the 20^th anniversary of the M6.7 Northridge earthquake. In addition to 57 fatalities, over 40,000 buildings sustained damage amounting to an estimated $25 billion in losses, making it the most costly earthquake in the United States.

Good friend and extraordinary structural engineer Gene Trahern shared with us an update on changes in earthquake engineering during the intervening years. Although I had not yet met Gene in 1994, I worked in a support role on the Northridge response effort, a big project for Gene and a pivotal time in my career. Since then Gene has further developed his expertise in evaluating seismic vulnerability of existing structures and founded Cascade Crest Consulting Engineers. More information about Gene’s practice is here: http://www.cccengr.com/

IBC replaces UBC, BOCA, and SBC

Three semi-regional codes were combined into one uniform document, the International Building Code, causing engineers nationwide finally to use the same design procedures. As part of that change, design ground motions changed from the 475-yr earthquake to two-thirds of the 2500-yr earthquake. The change elevated design forces in areas with large but infrequent earthquakes like some parts of the Midwest, Salt Lake City, and the Carolinas. Design forces increased in Seattle and slightly decreased in Sacramento and Portland.

ASTM Seismic Loss Estimation Standards

Two new standards, E2026 and E2557, now define a uniform method for assessing potential earthquake damage to existing buildings. The standards define several terms that used to have various meanings, eliminating conflicts in insurance and valuation procedures. They also establish four discrete levels of analysis, improving quality and reliability of seismic loss estimation studies.

Improved Seismic Evaluation and Upgrade Methods

At the time of the Northridge Earthquake, seismic evaluations of existing buildings used basic ground motions similar to the outdated UBC seismic zone system. ASCE-31 (2003) improved evaluation methods by changing to the current USGS seismic hazard maps. ASCE-41 followed 3 years later and carried the evaluation method improvements forward into seismic upgrade of existing buildings.

Gene Trahern can be reached at (541) 549-1331 and cccengr@msn.com

I had a really excellent time last week attending the Dispute Resolution Board Foundation conference and training in Seattle. The DRBF (http://www.drb.org/) is a small, sincere organization that promotes dispute avoidance and resolution on construction projects using the proven Dispute Resolution Board (DRB) method. Having participated in much larger, formal, and bureaucratic standards organizations, the DRBF conference was refreshing in their pragmatic approach to accomplishing the group’s mission. Training was provided by founding members, the attendee were a veritable “who’s who” of construction in the Pacific Northwest, and the excellent interactive format made the training quite effective.

At 47 years old, and with 24 years professional experience, I was the second-youngest person attending the meeting (one of the founding members brought his son,. an accomplished construction manager.) The group has recognized a need for younger members and is in the early stages, it seems, of taking action toa ssure that the organization manes a successful transition when the founding members are ready to reduce their involvement.

As an added bonus, a neighbor of ours back in Lake Oswego was there for part of the conference. Two goals for our move back to the Mainland were to reconnect with a broader professional community, so I could attend events like the DRBF conference, and to reconnect with old friends. It was particularly satisfying that both happened at the same event.