Senior Coastal Engineer

Environmental Science Associates (ESA) is a 100% employee-owned environmental consulting firm. We plan, design, permit, mitigate, and restore for projects across our communities, infrastructure systems, open spaces, and wildlands. We are 50 years strong in 21 offices across California, the Pacific Northwest, and the Southeastern United States.

Environmental Science Associates (ESA) seeks a Senior Coastal Engineer to provide leadership for ESA's coastal engineering and resilience practice across California and beyond. We are looking for a proven leader with 15+ years of work experience, a passion for coastal processes, coastal hazards, engineering with nature, sea-level-rise, and resilience planning, and the desire to help lead, grow, and mentor our top-notch coastal engineering group. This is a leadership role at the forefront of coastal resilience-spanning coastal hazards analysis, adaptation planning, and implementation-while delivering high-impact solutions.

Who You Are

• You are a professionally licensed engineer with 15+ years of experience leading coastal engineering projects, including expertise in nature-based solutions, coastal resilience planning, coastal hazards analysis (waves, runup, erosion, and flooding) as well as flood management along the U.S. Pacific Coast and beyond.
• You have led and managed complex coastal engineering projects from concept through construction, including coastal hazards and vulnerability assessments, engineering evaluations, and erosion/flooding studies, technical reports, design plan sets, specifications, cost estimates (PS&E packages), construction schedules, and/or construction support.
• You are adept in the engineering steps required to move projects from concept to construction bid package, including coordination with multidisciplinary teams such as geotechnical, structural, and hydraulic engineers as well as coastal planners and landscape architects.
• You have provided senior engineer review and oversight on large-scale coastal engineering projects, with an emphasis on Living Shorelines, nature-based solutions and multi-benefit flood and erosion protection, and have experience integrating coastal engineering with planning, economics, and resilience strategy development.
• You have led, managed, mentored, and/or supervised multi-disciplinary design and engineering teams including delegating and guiding engineers through simple to complex tasks. You are an effective communicator who fosters teamwork and inclusion, and shares knowledge and expertise with more junior staff through mentoring and direct supervision.
• You have a Bachelor's degree or higher in coastal engineering or a closely related discipline and a Professional Engineers license in California, Washington, and/or Oregon.

What You Will Do for ESA

• As a senior leader, contribute to annual and long-term strategic planning for our coastal engineering and coastal resilience practice. Cultivate best practices, facilitate knowledge sharing and technical training, mentor and manage more junior staff, develop and oversee implementation of engineering QA/QC protocols specific to coastal engineering and analysis, help manage workflow and workplans and make staffing and recruitment recommendations.
• Identify opportunities, track markets and clients and lead strategy to link and leverage resilience/sea level rise planning with ESA's coastal sciences and engineering expertise.
• Leverage ESA's multi-disciplinary practices across regions to help connect, integrate, drive and expand our teams' demonstrated capabilities in coastal hazards analysis, coastal resilience planning, and sea level rise adaptation firmwide.
• Collaborate with other engineers, coastal planners, hydrologists, geomorphologists, landscape architects, ecologists, biologists, economists, and other specialists in advancing coastal engineering, resilience planning and habitat restoration approaches and other project solutions from concept to implementation.
• Help plan, design and/or manage a wide array of important, challenging and exciting projects - leading efforts from coastal risk assessment through implementation - including coastal hazards assessments (such as wave runup, flooding, and erosion), sea level rise vulnerability analyses, adaptation planning, Living Shorelines design, ecosystem restoration, climate change resilience/sea level rise adaptation, fisheries habitat enhancement, and engineering with nature.
• Thrive in a fast-paced, challenging environment and be able to manage multiple responsibilities and deadlines, while working on a team or independently.
• Be located in one of ESA's CA Regions (Northern or Southern California.

What's Special About ESA

Joining ESA means becoming part of a close-knit team of environmental professionals who contribute to outstanding projects, improve environmental stewardship, and advance a more sustainable and resilient future for our communities and wild places.

At ESA, we provide benefits such as medical, dental, and vision insurance (paid at 70% for you AND your family), annual allocations of company shares through our ESOP, a 401(k) plan with company match, annual performance-based bonuses, and paid vacation, sick leave, and holidays, to name a few.

We also provide specific programs whether you want to further your technical expertise, sharpen your business acumen, or help lead the next generation of employee-owners. We want to support you in reaching your career goals through tuition reimbursement, professional development bonuses, and attendance at conferences.

What's Special About ESA's Coastal Engineering Group

Our Coastal Engineering team is leading efforts throughout the West and Gulf Coasts to understand the increasing vulnerability of our shores, infrastructure, and communities and working to develop adaptation strategies and sound land use planning and policy. ESA has particular expertise in coastal hazards analysis under existing and future conditions, including sea level rise, wave runup, coastal flooding, and erosion processes, as well as adaptation planning and risk management, and nature-based adaptation and design solutions.

We integrate traditional engineering expertise with an understanding of natural physical processes to develop state-of-the practice, sustainable green and gray solutions.

Our work spans the full continuum from coastal hazards and vulnerability assessment to adaptation planning, economic evaluation, and engineering design and implementation, working closely with planners, economists, and stakeholders to develop actionable, fundable solutions.

We are implementing these innovative and creative Living Shoreline and nature-based sea level rise adaptation projects for a diverse range of clients throughout the West and Gulf coasts, including gravel beaches, horizontal levees, oyster reefs, and marsh creation with reused dredged sediments. We have designed some of the most notable managed shoreline retreat projects that reduce coastal hazards while accommodating and enhancing recreational opportunities, including Birch Bay and Lowman Beach in the Northwest, and Surfer's Point and San Francisco's Ocean Beach in California. Along the Gulf of Mexico, we have worked with the Gulf States, counties, parishes, and federal agencies to plan and prioritize coastal resilience and restoration projects funded by the RESTORE Act. We also specialize in coastal lagoons and have developed management and enhancement plans for dozens of lagoons throughout the West Coast.

The coastal engineering group is part of our 90-person Environmental Hydrology & Design practice, which includes civil and coastal engineers, coastal scientists, hydrologists, hydrographers, geomorphologists and landscape architects. Much of our work is oriented toward the restoration and adaptive capacity of habitat and ecosystem function, often as part of multi-benefit flood management and/or recreation projects. As a highly-integrated team, we value creative thinking, teamwork, and a passion for protecting our fragile yet precious creeks, rivers, wetlands, and coasts.

To read about some of our representative projects, check out these links:

• • Ocean Beach Master Plan
  • Heron's Head Park Shoreline Resilience Project
  • Giant Marsh Living Shoreline
  • Surfers' Point Shoreline Management
  • Oceanside Local Coastal Program Update
  • Aliso Creek Estuary Restoration
  • Philippe Park Living Shorelines Project
  • Rock Creek Ponds Ecosystem Restoration

#LI-ZV

ESA has established multiple pay ranges tailored to the economic factors in the geographies in which ESA staff reside. For this position, the range is approximately as listed based on our anticipated hiring locations as noted in the above job details. Actual compensation is determined by several factors including but not limited to an individual's related experience, education, skills, and the city in which the applicant lives.

CA Pay Transparency Clause

$187,000-$210,000 USD

Who We Are

We are a 100% employee-owned environmental consulting firm who values diversity and inclusion and celebrate the differences that make each of us unique. Our culture is built on mutual respect, recognizing that our variety of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives leads to better solutions, which fosters our continued success for our employee-owners and clients.


In accordance with ESA's duty and responsibility to provide and maintain a safe workplace that is free of known hazards and to minimize the exposure to potential hazards, any employee who works from an ESA office or conducts any other in-person ESA work-related activity is required to submit their proof of vaccination status or have received an approved exemption and accommodation in states which this applies.


If you are an applicant with a disability that requires a reasonable accommodation to complete any part of the application process or are limited in the ability-or unable to use-the online application system and need an alternative method for applying, you may contact our Human Resources Department via email: View email address on click.appcast.io for assistance.

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ESA is an Equal Opportunity Employer, committed to a diverse and inclusive work environment. (EOE M/V/F/D)