Civil professional engineer and engineering partner, data center site design - us, texas - remote

Are you passionate about making a significant impact on one of our generation's most pressing environmental challenges? Join us in creating and leading a new category in the Climate Tech industry.

About Waterplan

Waterplan builds AI tools for site selection and site design. Our data center product, Civarea, runs a desktop due diligence on a site in hours across 280+ factors: zoning, power, flood, wetlands, utilities and terrain. It then places the customer's reference design on the site and grades it. We work with data center developers and operators in the US, Europe and the Middle East.

About the Role

We are looking for a Texas-licensed civil PE who owns, or is a principal of, a small engineering firm registered with TBPELS. You will review the site design work our platform produces for data center campuses. When we bid on design work together, your firm will be the Engineer of Record. Over time, we would like you to lead engineering at Waterplan. Today a data center site takes about six months from the go decision to a design-ready basis of design. We want to cut that to about two months. AI does the fast part. A licensed engineer still has to direct the work, check it and sign it. That is you.

What you will do

Phase 1: review and benchmark (hourly, 10 to 20 hours a week)

• Review the site models our platform builds from survey, geotechnical and wetland reports: surveyed terrain, floodplain, setbacks, easements and power-line clearances.
• Check our test fits of the customer's reference design: building pads, substations, retention ponds, roads and utility corridors.
• Check mass grading and earthwork against the customer's rules, for example tie into existing grade and 3:1 maximum slopes.
• Benchmark our outputs against completed engineering packages, and explain where and why they differ.
• Join customer reviews and tell them, as an engineer, whether the output is a real starting point for design.
• Tell our product team what a signing engineer needs to see, so the software produces it.

Phase 2: your firm as our Engineer of Record

• Seal the site and civil deliverables through your TBPELS-registered firm, under a teaming agreement with Waterplan.
• Direct, review and seal site and civil deliverables: site plans, grading and drainage, utility layouts and the civil parts of the basis of design.
• Lead the engineering side of proposals and bids, and bring in the licensed surveyors, geotechnical engineers and wetland scientists you trust in Texas.
• Set our engineering QA process for AI-assisted design, and make sure the work is covered by professional liability insurance.
• Coordinate with a power and utility advisor, and review the civil scope of each project.
• Supervise a Civil 3D drafter and work with our product and engineering teams in Latin America.

What you need

• An active Professional Engineer license in Texas, Civil, in good standing with no disciplinary history. Owner, principal or partner of a firm registered with TBPELS, or able to act as Engineer of Record for one.
• 8+ years in site and civil engineering, with at least 3 years on large industrial, data center or mission-critical campuses.
• Experience sealing site plans, grading and drainage, and utility plans for projects of 50+ acres.
• Hands-on knowledge of master planning and test fits, earthwork balancing, stormwater detention, FEMA floodplain and wetland constraints.
• Fluent in Civil 3D or similar tools, and able to read survey data (LandXML, CAD) and geotechnical reports.
• Willing to review software-generated designs in detail, and to say clearly what you would and would not sign.
• No current engagement with a data center operator or with the engineering firms that bid on their projects, or the ability to end it.

Nice to have

• PE licenses in other data center states, such as Virginia, Arizona, Georgia, Ohio or Illinois, or an NCEES Record to get them fast.
• Experience with Phase 2 due diligence: survey, geotechnical, Phase I ESA and wetland delineation.
• Has worked on the basis of design for a hyperscale or colocation campus.
• Relationships with Texas utilities, surveyors or geotechnical firms.
• A working network of Texas surveyors, geotechnical engineers, wetland scientists and Phase I ESA consultants.
• Spanish.

Location: Texas (remote within Texas, with site visits) · Type: hourly contract to start, then your firm as our Engineer of Record

How we will work together

• Start: as soon as possible, on an hourly contract for Phase 1, about 10 hours a week.
• Next: from early 2027, your firm signs as Engineer of Record on the projects we bid together, under a teaming agreement and with your firm's professional liability cover.
• What we provide: the platform, the customer relationship, a drafter and a product team behind you.
• Process: intro call, a technical review of one of our site test fits, a conversation with our founders, references. We aim to close in four weeks.

Why Join Waterplan?

1. Impactful Mission: Contribute to a meaningful cause with a clear vision of fostering a water-secure future.
2. Dynamic Team: Work alongside a talented and passionate team dedicated to making a difference.
3. Growth Opportunity: Be at the forefront of our industry's growth, shaping the future of water security and sustainability.
4. Culture & Values: Enjoy a remote working environment with unlimited PTO, rooted in our core values of Long-Term Thinking, Iterative Excellence, Thoughtful Discussion, Making Others Successful, and Guided by Nature.
5. Diversity & Inclusion: Thrive in a workplace that champions diversity and inclusivity at every step of our journey.
6. If you're ready to join a transformative division at a groundbreaking company, then we'd love to get to know you. Apply today and help chart the course to a water-secure world.