Assistant Engineer

Assistant Engineer

The mission of Public Works is to enhance the quality of life for the people of Alameda County by providing a safe, well-maintained, and lasting public works infrastructure through accessible, responsive and effective services. Public services provided by the Alameda County Public Works Agency include flood control planning and design, storm water pollution control, transportation planning and design, roadway and flood control maintenance and inspection, and construction and building inspections.

The goals of the Agency are to keep roads safe and well maintained, provide the highest level of flood protection, provide service levels that optimize infrastructure life cycles, minimize deferred maintenance, ensure that development and construction adhere to applicable State and County rules, optimize disaster preparedness, response and recover, ensure that the Agency's operations and services minimize negative impacts on the environment, and sustain and advance County and Agency programs through a vital business and administrative support system.

Under general supervision, to do a variety of professional civil engineering work in the field and office; to perform engineering design and inspection of roads and road appurtenances, drainage facilities, and related flood control structures; and to do related work as required. Assistant Engineers are usually assigned as design engineers in a design section headed by a Senior Civil Engineer. The classification is distinguished from the next higher level of Associate Civil Engineer in that the latter classification incumbents must possess a valid License as a Professional Engineer by the California Board for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, and Geologists. The type of supervision given to Assistant Engineers varies with the experience of the incumbent and the complexity of the project. Assistant Engineers receive their own project assignments and occasionally work with Associate Civil Engineers. Although most incumbents in this classification work in design units, it is not unusual for Assistant Engineers to be assigned special work of a responsible nature, such as that of a Project Engineer or a Resident Engineer (if the incumbent is a registered professional civil engineer in California) on construction projects, or may be assigned to subdivision review involving potential design impacts to road and flood control facilities, and/or engineering research.

In addition to meeting the minimum qualifications, the ideal candidate for the Assistant Engineer in the Development Engineering Section should be able to demonstrate proficiency in several key areas:

• Minimum of two (2) years proven work experience as Public Works Engineer or similar role with emphasis in land development and construction.
• Working knowledge of public agency standards and guidelines, and ability to research and interpret local, state and federal regulations.
• Interpersonal skills to initiate and maintain effective working relationships with staff, developers, and the public.
• Ability to collect, organize and interpret a variety of project-related information and to keep a project moving to completion and meet project deadlines.
• Oral communication skills to effectively communicate one to one and in groups, on the phone and in person.
• Proficient in the use of CAD software and other engineering software and technologies for design and analysis.
• Possession of a Certificate of Registration as a professional engineer issued by the California Board of Registration for Civil and Professional Engineers is preferred but not required.

Responsible for review of calculations, reports, engineering plans, subdivision improvement plans, cost estimates, designs and specifications for a variety of private development and Public Works projects including but not limited to roadways, grading, storm drainage, sanitary sewers, water lines, floodpla in and storm water quality.

To qualify for the competitive assessment process, you must meet the minimum requirements by fulfilling one of the patterns listed below (I-II):

Either I Education: The equivalent of one (1) year of experience in the classification of Junior Engineer in the Alameda County classified service.

OR II Education: Possession of a bachelor's degree in civil engineering awarded by an accredited college or university. AND Experience: The equivalent of two (2) years of professional civil engineering experience. License: Possession of a valid California Motor Vehicle Operator's license.

Note: The Civil Service Commission may modify the Minimum Qualifications in the announcement of an examination.

The most suitably qualified candidates will possess the following competencies:

• Knowledge of fundamental practices of civil engineering.
• Mathematics as applied to civil engineering.
• Strength, properties, and uses of engineering construction materials.
• Practices, methods, and equipment used in engineering construction.
• Methods and procedures for describing real property.
• Hydraulics and hydrology.

Ability to:

• Design relatively simple road and flood control structures or parts of similar but complex structures with skill and accuracy.
• Use current AutoCAD civil design software to prepare civil design and construction contract drawings.
• Perform common tests of construction materials.
• Prepare technical reports.
• Makes project presentations internally and to the public.

The examination will consist of the following steps:

1. A review of applicants' application to verify possession of minimum requirements. Those candidates who possess the minimum requirements for the class will move on to the next step in the examination process.
2. An oral examination which will be weighted as 100% of the candidates' final examination score. The oral examination may be administered virtually and may contain situational exercises.

Candidates must attain a qualifying rating on each portion of this recruitment.

We reserve the right to make changes to the announced examination steps.

Alameda County utilizes a Civil Service Selection System founded on merit. Such a system is competitive and based on broad recruitment efforts and equal opportunity for qualified applicants to test in an examination process designed to determine the qualifications, fitness and ability of competitors to perform duties of the vacant position. Many of our recruitments are targeted and specific to the needs of a current vacant position, in which case, the eligible list may be exclusively used for that current vacant position. Other recruitments may be more broadly used for both current and future vacancies, or for other alternate jobs with comparable scopes of work.

For more information on the Civil Service Selection process, please visit the "What You Need to Know" section of our website.

Tentative recruitment and selection plan:

Deadline for Filing: 5:00:00 p.m. Friday, June 12, 2026

Review of Applications for Minimum Qualifications: June 15, 2026

Notification to applicants: June 16, 2026

Civil Service Oral Examination: Week July 6, 2026

Notification of Exam Results: 2-3 week after exam

Department Selection Process: Early August 2026

Alameda County and the Human Resource Services Department will make reasonable efforts in the examination and/or selection process to accommodate qualified individuals with disabilities and/or medical conditions in accordance/compliance with the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and Alameda County's Reasonable Accommodation Policy and applicable statutes.

All notices related to County recruitments for which you have applied will be sent/delivered via email. Please add View email address on click.appcast.io, @jobaps.com, acgov.org and View email address on click.appcast.io as accepted addresses to any email blocking or spam filtering program you may use. If you do not do this, your email blocking or spam filtering program may block receipt of the notices regarding your application for recruitments. You are also strongly advised to regularly log into your County of Alameda online application account to check for notices that may have been sent to you. All email notices that will be sent to you will also be kept in your personal online application account. You will be able to view all of your notices in your online application account by clicking on the 'My applications' button on the Current Job Openings page.

Please take the steps recommended above to ensure you do not miss any notices about a recruitment for which you have applied. The County of Alameda is not responsible for notices that are not read, received or accessed by any applicant for a County recruitment.

All Alameda County employees are designated Disaster Service Workers through state and local law. Employment with the County requires the affirmation of a loyalty oath to this effect. Employees are required to report to work as ordered in the event of an emergency.

Alameda County has a diverse workforce, that is representative of the communities we serve and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All aspects of employment are based on merit, competence, performance and business need. Alameda County does not discriminate in employment on the basis of, race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy and gender identity), national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, membership in an employee organization, retaliation, parental status, military service, or