Lead Civil Engineer

Job Description

AirVani is seeking a Lead Civil Engineer to lead the civil and site engineering of the physical infrastructure underlying CAS. This is a hands-on role for someone who can take infrastructure from concept and site assessment through constructible design, installation, and field validation. You will translate CAS requirements into practical infrastructure designs, coordinate specialized structural, electrical, and catenary engineering support, and lead prototype and pilot-scale deployments.

The ideal candidate has experience delivering civil infrastructure for transportation, utilities, energy, industrial, or other linear projects and is comfortable adapting established engineering practices to a new application. Direct catenary or overhead contact system experience is valuable, but not required.

Travel: Up to 40% to field sites and customer locations.

What You'll Do

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• Lead the civil and site design of CAS infrastructure, including poles and masts, foundations, support structures, anchorages, equipment pads, access, and related physical infrastructure.
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• Develop site layouts, corridor alignments, specifications, drawings, calculations, bills of materials, and installation packages for prototype and operational deployments.
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• Perform or oversee engineering analyses including foundation design, structural and environmental loading, geotechnical considerations, clearances, utility conflicts, and constructability.
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• Translate aircraft-interface, pantograph, overhead-wire, and electrical requirements into civil design criteria in coordination with AirVani’s mechanical, electrical, and specialized catenary engineering partners.
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• Coordinate surveys, geotechnical investigations, utility interfaces, site access, permitting, and other site-development requirements.
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• Lead field site assessments, construction oversight, inspection, troubleshooting, testing support, and commissioning of CAS infrastructure.
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• Coordinate with engineering firms, contractors, utilities, suppliers, test sites, and permitting authorities to execute deployments safely and efficiently.
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• Ensure designs are constructible and consistent with applicable civil, structural, electrical, transportation, and worker-safety codes and standards.
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• Adapt commercially available components and proven construction methods into standardized, modular infrastructure designs that can be replicated across future deployments.
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• Support cost estimating, constructability reviews, installation sequencing, operations and maintenance planning, and design-for-scale efforts while serving as AirVani’s internal civil-infrastructure lead.
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What We’re Looking For

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• 5+ years of relevant civil engineering experience with transportation, utility, energy, rail/transit, industrial, linear, or similarly complex infrastructure.
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• Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering or a closely related field.
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• Direct experience taking civil infrastructure from design through field construction, installation, inspection, or commissioning.
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• Strong understanding of foundations, poles or support structures, structural loading, site constraints, utility coordination, and constructability.
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• Experience developing or reviewing engineering drawings, specifications, calculations, installation packages, and bills of materials.
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• Experience working with contractors and field crews during construction, installation, inspection, testing, or commissioning.
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• Familiarity with applicable civil, structural, utility, transportation, permitting, and worker-safety codes and standards.
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• Proficiency with relevant design tools such as AutoCAD, Civil 3D, MicroStation, or comparable platforms, with the ability to work across engineering disciplines in a fast-moving prototype environment.
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Particularly Relevant Experience

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• Linear infrastructure projects involving rail/transit, electric utilities, transmission/distribution, overhead utilities, transportation, or industrial facilities
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• Pole, mast, gantry, tower, foundation, anchorage, or support-structure design
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• Site development, utility coordination, surveying, geotechnical investigations, grading, drainage, or access planning
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• Design-build or EPC delivery of transportation, utility, energy, or industrial infrastructure projects
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• Field engineering, construction management, inspection, testing, or commissioning of infrastructure installations
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• Overhead Contact Systems (OCS), catenary infrastructure, traction-power systems, or rail-electrification support structures
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• Professional Engineer (PE) licensure, Engineer-in-Training (EIT) certification, or experience producing calculation packages suitable for PE review and stamping
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This role offers the opportunity to take proven catenary engineering and apply it to an entirely new transportation domain. You will have direct ownership of the infrastructure architecture, help build and deploy physical systems in the field, and establish the engineering standards that could underpin future CAS deployments at scale.