Fire Sprinkler Designer

Position: Fire Sprinkler Designer

Company: Columbia Fire, LLC

Location: 9520 10th Ave S, Ste 150, Seattle, WA 98108-5067. In-person, with limited hybrid flexibility after ramp-up. Not eligible for out-of-state remote work.

Reports To: Fire Sprinkler Design Manager

Employment Type: Full-time, hourly, non-exempt (overtime eligible)

Bargaining Unit Status: Non-union. This position is not part of the Local 699 bargaining unit.

Experience Level: Experienced. This is not a trainee or entry-level seat; prior fire sprinkler layout experience is required.

Incentive Eligibility: Not eligible for sales commission or the Standard Sales Incentive Plan. Eligible for discretionary performance bonuses when awarded, and for pay progression tied to certification and demonstrated capability.

Travel: Local travel for jobsite surveys, coordination meetings, and plan review — primarily King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties. Roughly 10% of working time. No overnight travel expected.

About Columbia Fire

Columbia Fire designs, installs, inspects, and services fire and life safety systems across the Pacific Northwest. Founded in 2005 and based in Seattle, we are a Local 699 signatory sprinkler contractor working on new construction, tenant improvement, retrofit, and service work throughout the Puget Sound region.

Columbia Fire is part of Columbia Safety Services, LLC, a multi-state regional company building a formidable fire and life safety platform, with sister operating companies serving other markets. Columbia Fire operates as its own company, with its own leadership, workforce, and customers.

Our core values guide how we operate: Customer First, Grit, Effective Communication, Own the Outcome, Take Pride in the Work, and Do the Right Thing.

Why This Role Exists

Design has been the constraint on our sprinkler business. Layout work has been spread across a small in-house group, project managers squeezing take-offs in between everything else they own, and outside contract designers who have no stake in how the job actually installs. The results are predictable: submittals go out later than we committed, revisions stack up during plan review, stock lists do not match what the field needs, and coordination conflicts get discovered after pipe is in the air.

This seat exists to make design a controlled step instead of a bottleneck. You own layout on your projects end to end, you are close enough to the field that constructability is designed in rather than fixed later, and what you learn on a job comes back into our standards instead of leaving with a contract designer.

About the Role

You will design complete fire sprinkler systems for new construction, tenant improvement, and retrofit projects — commercial, mixed-use residential, warehouse and distribution, education, healthcare, and light industrial. Wet, dry, pre-action, and antifreeze systems, plus standpipes and underground fire service.

This is not a drafting seat. You define scope from the plans and specs, make the design decisions, run the hydraulics, release the material, and stay with the project through plan review and installation. When a foreman calls with a conflict, you are the person who answers.

What You'll Do

Design and Calculation

• Review architectural, structural, mechanical, and electrical drawings, project specifications, and existing field conditions to define scope and surface conflicts before layout starts
• Lay out complete wet, dry, pre-action, and antifreeze sprinkler systems to NFPA 13 — and NFPA 13R or 13D where applicable — along with NFPA 14 standpipes and NFPA 24 underground fire service
• Perform hydraulic calculations, size mains and branch lines, select the governing remote area, and evaluate available supply against current flow test data
• Produce fabrication-ready shop drawings and accurate material stock lists in AutoSprink
• Create background drawings where none exist, which is most of our retrofit and occupied-building work
• Apply the International Fire Code as adopted in Washington, the Seattle Fire Code amendments, and project-specific insurer or owner requirements
• Assemble submittal packages for AHJ review and respond to plan review comments and correction letters until the permit is approved

Coordination and Field Support

• Conduct jobsite surveys and field verification, and confirm as-built conditions before releasing material
• Coordinate in 3D with structural, mechanical, and electrical trades using Revit and Navisworks on projects that require BIM coordination
• Walk the drawings with the superintendent or foreman before installation starts, and answer RFIs during install
• Issue clean, documented revisions when field conditions or owner scope change — and tell the project manager what the change costs rather than absorbing it quietly
• Feed constructability and cost issues back to estimating so the next bid is better

Ownership and Documentation

• Manage several projects at once against submittal, permit, and fabrication dates, and raise a slipping date early rather than explaining it late
• Maintain organized, current design files in ACC Build so any other designer or project manager can pick up your job
• Contribute to our detail library, design standards, and QC checklists as they are built out
• Work toward NICET Water-Based Systems Layout certification and the Washington State Patrol Certificate of Competency, on company-paid training and testing

Who You Are

• Technically strong and genuinely accurate — you check your own hydraulics before someone else finds the problem
• Able to run your own workload without being managed daily
• Comfortable in the field: you would rather drive to the building and look than guess from a PDF
• Direct with project managers, superintendents, general contractors, and plan reviewers, including when the news is bad
• Organized enough that someone else can open your files and understand them
• A problem solver who thinks about how the system gets installed, not just how it looks on the drawing

Who Struggles Here

We would rather tell you now than discover it in month three.

• Our design standards, detail library, and QC process are being built right now. If you need a mature standards manual, a defined template for every project type, and a training department to hand you a finished process, this is not that job. Candidates who have spent an entire career inside a very large organization where someone else set the templates and defined the workflow generally find this uncomfortable.
• If your instinct when a drawing turns out to be wrong is to defend it rather than get in the truck and go look, you will struggle here.
• If you want a job where you never leave the desk, this is not it. Jobsite surveys mean ladders, lifts, dusty attics, above-ceiling work in occupied buildings, and active construction sites.
• If you would rather produce volume than be right, we are a poor fit. A fast set of drawings that fails plan review or cannot be installed as drawn costs far more than a careful one.
• If your background is fire alarm design rather than sprinkler layout, apply to our fire alarm postings instead — they are a different credential path.
• If you have field fitting experience and want to move into design but have not done layout yet, apply to our fitter postings and tell us design is where you want to end up. We would rather develop a fitter who knows how pipe goes together than hire a designer who has never watched a system get installed.

Minimum Qualifications

• Two or more years of fire sprinkler layout experience on commercial projects, including independently producing hydraulic calculations and material stock lists
• Working knowledge of NFPA 13 and NFPA 24, and the ability to read and apply project specifications and AHJ requirements
• Proficiency in a sprinkler design platform — AutoSprink, HydraCAD, SprinkCAD, or AutoCAD MEP. AutoSprink is our primary platform; we will train you on it if your experience is on another package
• Ability to read architectural, structural, mechanical, and electrical drawings and identify conflicts between trades
• High school diploma or GED
• Valid driver’s license and an insurable driving record for jobsite travel
• Able to work in person at our Seattle office and perform jobsite surveys in the Puget Sound region
• Legally authorized to work in the United States

Preferred Qualifications

• NICET Water-Based Systems Layout, Level II or III
• Washington State Patrol Certificate of Competency, Level III or higher
• Five or more years of sprinkler design experience
• Revit and Navisworks 3D coordination experience
• Experience with Seattle Fire Department plan review and City of Seattle permitting
• Retrofit and tenant improvement design in occupied buildings
• Prior field experience as a sprinkler fitter or foreman
• Experience with ESFR and high-piled storage, in-rack systems, NFPA 20 fire pump layout, or special hazards
• Two-year drafting, design, or engineering technology credential, or equivalent experience
• Professional Engineer licensure — Fire Protection Engineering preferred; a mechanical P.E. with substantive fire protection design experience is also considered

A note on stamping and design review. In Washington, sprinkler design submittals must be stamped by the holder of a Washington State Patrol Certificate of Competency at Level III or higher. If you do not hold one, your drawings and calculations are reviewed by a certificate holder — the Design Manager, a Level III designer, or our Professional Engineer — before anything is submitted, and you should expect that review to have teeth. The person putting their stamp on the drawing is accountable for the design, so they will give you comments, may require changes to the layout or calculations, and will not release the package until they are satisfied it is right. That is not a formality and it is not rubber-stamping. It is also how you learn our standards and build toward holding the certificate yourself, and the people reviewing your work are expected to coach, not just correct. We pay for the preparation and the exam.

Compensation

Hourly range: $32.00 – $72.12 per hour, depending on experience, licensure, certification, and demonstrated capability. This position is non-exempt; overtime is paid at time and a half for hours worked over 40 in a workweek.

That is a wide range because it covers the full design ladder in this office, from a designer with two years of layout experience through a licensed Professional Engineer. Most candidates enter at the Designer or Senior Designer level. Each level below lists what unlocks it. Advancement is based on demonstrated capability, licensure, and certification — not tenure.

Designer — $32.00 to $40.00 per hour

• Two or more years of layout experience; produces complete, code-compliant designs on standard tenant improvement and light commercial projects with review
• Runs hydraulic calculations and stock lists independently
• NICET Water-Based Systems Layout Level I or II held or actively in progress

Senior Designer — $40.00 to $47.00 per hour

• Five or more years of layout experience; owns ground-up and multi-phase projects with minimal review
• Handles 3D coordination and complex hazard classifications, including storage occupancies
• Carries projects through plan review and correction cycles without help
• NICET Level II or III, and progressing toward or holding the WSP Certificate of Competency, Level III

Lead Designer — $47.00 to $52.00 per hour

• Takes the most technically difficult work in the office
• Performs QC on other designers’ drawings and calculations before release
• Stamps submittals and carries the WSP Certificate of Competency, Level III or higher
• Builds and maintains design standards, details, and checklists, and mentors newer designers

Professional Engineer — $62.50 to $72.12 per hour

• Licensed Professional Engineer. Fire Protection Engineering is preferred; a mechanical engineer with substantive fire protection design experience is also considered
• This is a producing seat, not a review-only seat — you carry your own project load, including the work no one else in the office can do
• Performs final technical review and seals or stamps designs as appropriate to the project and the jurisdiction, with the same coaching obligation described above
• Serves as the technical authority on complex hazard classification, storage and special hazards, fire pump and standpipe design, performance-based approaches, and negotiation with plan reviewers
• Mentors designers toward their own licensure — including reviewing, documenting, and signing off on their qualifying work experience and engineering hours for the P.E. application

We pay for NICET testing and preparation, the WSP Certificate of Competency, continuing education, and software training. This position is not eligible for sales commission or the Standard Sales Incentive Plan. Discretionary performance bonuses may be awarded but are not guaranteed. Full plan documents for any incentive program are provided during the hiring process.