Fire Protection Engineer

About Rippling

Rippling is the first way for businesses to manage all of their HR & IT—payroll, benefits, computers, apps, and more—in one unified workforce platform.

By connecting every business system to one source of truth for employee data, businesses can automate all of the manual work they normally need to do to make employee changes. Take onboarding, for example. With Rippling, you can just click a button and set up a new employees’ payroll, health insurance, work computer, and third-party apps—like Slack, Zoom, and Office 365—all within 90 seconds.

Based in San Francisco, CA, Rippling has raised $1.2B from the world's top investors—including Kleiner Perkins, Founders Fund, Sequoia, Bedrock, and Greenoaks—and was named one of America's best startup employers by Forbes (#12 out of 500)

Purpose and Scope of Position

You are a fire protection engineer with approximately 10-15 years of experience, yet you are desiring to take a different path and branch out into designing methods to protect structures from wildfire.  Most of your career has been spent in a consulting engineering capacity, designing fire protection systems for high-end residential, commercial, or industrial buildings.  You have a well-rounded consulting engineering background, having spent your early career performing site investigations, then going on to performing design calculations and preparing system layouts. You have advanced into project management and have gained some experience with business development including writing proposals, writing scopes of work, and preparing engineering cost estimates.  Your area of specialization has been focused on water-based fire–protection system design, structure protection, or wildland urban interface structure protection (fire suppression and property conservation in wildland areas). You have a good understanding of fire behavior on the interior of the building and have a desire to learn fire behavior on the exterior of buildings and on landscape extending out away from the building.  You have an advanced understanding of hydraulics, piping design, friction loss calculations, flow rate determination and pump selection and have a willingness to learn how to extend that knowledge to design exterior sprinkler systems.  And above all else, you have a personality that adapts well to changing business initiatives and your background, experience and education allows you to pivot rapidly to perform tasks that may not be related to your core skill set. Describe the experience and attributes of the ideal candidate

Basic Qualifications (i.e. education, certifications, etc.)

• Bachelor’s degree in mechanical or fire protection engineering plus ten or more years of relevant experience in a consulting engineering capacity.
• Professional Engineering license in any US State, having passed the fire protection engineering written examination or a mechanical engineering written examination. Ability to obtain a PE license in the state of Montana through reciprocity within six months of date of hire. 
• Clean driving record.

Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, & Experience

• 10 to 15 years of experience designing and supervising the installation of fire protection systems.  Exterior fire protection experience is preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to write engineering services proposals and prepare scopes of work for engineering projects for prospective clients. 
• Demonstrated ability to prepare engineering services cost estimates, including estimation of time required for project management, drawing preparation, design, engineering, report writing, and construction oversight/inspection.
• Superior engineering report and technical writing skills. 
• Preferred understanding and experience working in heavy/civil construction, mechanical construction, or fire protection system construction.
• Experience with construction contracts, equipment purchasing and procurement.
• Preferred ability to write construction or mechanical specifications.
• Demonstrated ability to prepare technical reports and/or presentations, both in Word and in PowerPoint.
• Competence in understanding of NFPA standards as it relates to fire protection.  Preferred familiarity of NFPA standards related to construction, battery energy storage systems, and wildland fire protection.
• Excellent communication skills, interpersonal skills and an ability to deal tactfully with a wide range of personalities and professional/technical disciplines.
• Preferred skills with in-person work collaboration, advocating teamwork and creating a positive atmosphere.
• Ability to think critically and make decisions requiring engineering judgment.
• Ability to interact effectively at all levels of the organization with both internal and external customers.
• Ability to independently manage engineering projects and organize, prioritize, and follow through to completion on multiple tasks simultaneously.
• Demonstrated ability to manage projects from concept through design and construction.
• Experience with preparation of design drawings using AutoCAD or similar drafting software.
• Knowledge/experience in facilities design, construction, and O&M industry best practices and standards as it relates to fire protection systems.
• Detailed knowledge of construction industry and ability to produce specifications for bid and construction purposes.
• Experience in fire sprinkler, suppression, and fire alarm system layout utilizing hydraulic calculation programs, and knowledge of NFPA Codes, and International Building and Fire Codes.
• Working knowledge of building construction materials and methods
• Strong working knowledge of MS Office 365 products, project management software, and drafting software.  Familiar with use of these software products in mobile applications.
• Ability to quickly learn and understand the varying resource types, their designs and specifications, and their intended uses.
• Knowledge or ability to learn applications and software programs designed for facilities and fleet management.
• Ability to understand statutes, codes and regulations from numerous states and interpret the intent to keep WDS adherent to regulations.
• Highly effective at communicating complex ideas both verbally and through written instruments.
• Demonstrated history of working in a behavioral-based safety culture in a corporate environment.
• Demonstrated ability to make decisions without supervision.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently with minimal guidance and supervision.
• Demonstrated ability to diligently work though problems and issues as they arise, doing so in a timely manner and pursing alternatives until a viable solution is found.