Sr. Civil CAD Designer
At Salas O’Brien we tell our clients that we’re engineered for impact. This passion for making a difference applies just as much to our team as it does to our projects. That’s why we’re committed to living our values every day: inspiring, achieving, and connecting as shared owners of our success with a focus on a sustainable future.
Building for the long-term means that all our team members can expect to work on amazing projects with a people-first approach to problem solving. It also means that each member of our team has truly limitless potential to build a unique, meaningful, and high-impact career—and they’ll receive great total rewards along the way.
Job Summary:
Job duties will include performing civil design responsibilities and technical drafting activities in support of project engineers throughout the engineering design process. In a civil design capacity, the candidate will execute limited engineering designs by applying established standards, specifications, codes, and project requirements to develop technically sound and compliant design deliverables for engineer review and finalization. Work will primarily focus on AutoCAD and Civil3D model and drawing development of construction drawing packages based on various datasets and engineer input, completing engineer markups during the design process, preparing design concepts, completing as-built drawings and the creation or modification of details. Responsibilities may also include performing in-field walk-downs of project sites, verifying existing conditions of sites and facilities prior to new design efforts, and compiling data.
Work will primarily be conducted virtually, but local candidates are encouraged to work from the office occasionally (20%). Travel to the Space Coast Area of Florida (Brevard County) and other travel locations will be limited.
General Duties:
- Work tasks will be extremely varied and require flexibility and versatility in the civil drafting/design field. Examples of the type of work to be performed include:
- Civil drafting / design support for new construction, renovation, and modification projects including development of civil construction drawing elements including but not limited to:
- Site plans – existing condition, demolition, and modification site plans showing scope of work in planimetric view. Importing of survey drawings in applicable coordinate system.
- Utility plan and profile drawings – alignment-based plan and profile drawings showing the primary utility and crossing / conflicting utilities and ground surface data in plan and profile view. Includes pressure and gravity systems for various liquid and gas systems.
- Paving, grading, and drainage plans – site plans indicating extents and types of pavement, existing and modified topography and grading, and drainage plans indicating flow paths and drainage system elements (structures, ponds, culverts, etc.)
- Geometry plans – site plans indicating measurement and survey point based geometric data connected to state plane coordinate systems.
- Various details, schedules, and diagrams to illustrate typical and project specific elements for construction.
- Produce record drawing documentation based on contractor redlines, as-built survey conditions, and engineer input.
- Civil drafting/design support for new construction, renovations and modification efforts.
Skills:
- Effective interpersonal skills and strong communication (written and verbal).
- Confident and ambitious problem solver.
- Creative and innovative – Self-directed initiative
- Dependable
- Understands the culture of business
- Detail-oriented
Qualifications:
- AS. in Drafting and Design (or equivalent experience)
- Minimum of 8 years of drafting/design experience working with Civil3D with specific experience in application for development of civil construction drawing packages. Refer to prior sections for detailed experience and application requirements.
- An in-depth knowledge of the civil engineering design process including documentation of existing conditions, integration of pre-and-post-construction survey data, and working directly with engineers to develop construction packages. Extensive experience working with civil design drawings and detailed civil plans is essential.
- Proficient in Autodesk Civil3D (2023-26 versions) including understanding and experience in application of the following:
- Creating multiple existing surfaces, proposed surfaces, final surfaces, GRID surface, GRID volume surface, and TIN volume surface
- Coordinate systems and AEC unit setup
- Point file formatting to export and import point files
- Referencing Digital Elevation Models (DEMS)
- Alignment creation and station labeling
- Surface profile sampling, sample line creation for sections
- Profile view creation
- Feature line creation and appropriate applications
- Grading tools and surface creation from grading groups
- Pipe, pipe networks parts lists and catalogs
- Surface profile sampling and sample line creation for sections
- Project Explorer
- Civil3D label style and 3D object style creation
- View frame creation, output plan and profile sheets to sheet set with automatic match lines
- Section sample line creation along alignment and output section views to sheets and automatically add to sheet set with station location title
- Experience and proficiency in Autodesk Map (2023-26 versions), Autodesk AutoCAD (2023-26 versions), Autodesk Vehicle Tracking (2023-26 versions), and Autodesk Recapture
- Experience with GIS mapping software (QGIS / ArcGIS Map). Basic understanding of applications including shape files and databases.
- Other general capabilities / experience should include:
- AutoCAD and Civil3D sheet set creation and field creation
- AutoCAD and Civil3D National CAD Standards, NCS layer management, NCS symbols, NCS line types, NCS text styles, NCS dimension styles
- AutoCAD and Civil3D sheet set custom fields and sheet fields
- Proficient in Microsoft Word, Excel, Teams, and e-mail applications.
- Provide constructive and efficient quality control reviews to ensure project design standards and client specific drafting standards are met.
- This position is intended to serve as a designer with the ability to apply standard design requirements to perform limited engineering designs for project engineer review and finalization. Typical examples include:
- Design of utility systems for minimum depth of cover, slopes, sizing, routing, spacing, and orientation.
- Layout of site elements including pavements, space allocations for equipment / structures, parking areas, and similar.
- Development of site grading
- Identification of applicable project elements including typical notes and details
- Incorporation / reference of coordinated design drawings from other elements including architectural, mechanical, and electrical site elements.
- Familiarity and adeptness with codes and federal/state/local regulations.
- Full understanding of the National CAD Standards (NCS) layer management, symbols, linetypes, text styles and dimension styles.
Preferred Experience:
- Demonstrated ability to evaluate project needs and strategically distribute drafting assignments, sub-tasks, and production deliverables across drafting personnel to optimize team capacity and leverage individual technical strengths.
- Proficient in coordinating civil design elements in AutoCAD/Civil 3D with MEP design teams in Revit; knowledgeable in standard BIM/CAD interoperability workflows (including shared coordinates, georeferencing, linked DWGs/RVT files, and elevation matching) to ensure accurate cross-disciplinary model alignment and clash detection.
- Previous experience in developing drafting project proposals, including preparing detailed scopes of work, defining project assumptions and exclusions, and developing accurate labor effort estimates based on client requirements, project specifications, project schedules, and resource requirements.
- Experience using Bluebeam Revu for PDF markup, document review, collaboration, and construction document workflows.
Additional Eligibility Qualifications:
- Valid / Unrestricted driver’s license
Work Authorization / Security Clearance:
- Must be a US Citizen for Security Clearance requirements.
- Ability to obtain a clearance from the Defense Security Service and other Federal Government Agencies.
Work Environment:
- Most work is performed in an office environment with potential for ability to perform site visits which may include active construction sites.
- If working remotely, provide a working environment that is conducive to meeting / phone call attendance and participation without interruptions.
Location:
This position will be filled through our Merritt Island, FL office. A hybrid work environment is anticipated with a balance of working from the office (in person) and from home (remote).
Travel:
Up to 10%. Willingness to travel to project locations.
Physical Demands:
The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
- Regularly spend long hours sitting and using office equipment and computers.
- Regularly move from sitting to standing positions effortlessly.
- Performing inspections and providing construction support may require climbing ladders and stairs and accessing spaces such as roofs, basements, crawl spaces, or utility tunnels.
- Industrial site investigations and field construction support may require extensive walking.
Compensation & Benefits:
The expected base salary range for this role is $85,000-$95,000 USD per year. Actual compensation will be determined based on a number of factors including skills, experience, qualifications, and location.
This role is also eligible for performance-based bonuses and a comprehensive U.S. based benefits package, including:
- Medical, dental, and vision insurance
- 401(k) with company match
- Paid time off and company holidays
- Wellness programs and employee assistance resources
- Professional development support
For more information, visit our full benefits overview here.
About Us:
Founded in 1975, Salas O’Brien is an employee-owned engineering and professional services firm focused on achieving impact for our clients, our team, and the world. We know that tomorrow’s requirements are today’s opportunities, and we are here to design lasting solutions for pressing challenges.
We work across a variety of industries providing integrated engineering and consulting services. Our specialized experience includes design for data centers, healthcare, science and technology, high-rise buildings, clean energy, education, and other building types as well as structural and building sciences, infrastructure asset management, advanced robotics, and more.
Our technical expertise is paired with an exceptional team of business development, human resources, finance and accounting, information technology, and marketing professionals, all of whom play a key role in bringing our commitments to life every day.
This position will be hired under the Federal-FL business unit of Salas O’Brien. The Federal-FL business unit serves a variety of markets and employs engineers in the civil, mechanical, electrical, aerospace, industrial, environmental, and fire protection disciplines. We have performed work in most states in the continental US and multiple international locations.
Our office is located in Merritt Island, Florida, immediately south of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Our office (formerly Nelson Engineering, a Salas O’Brien Company) has a significant aerospace heritage working with NASA, US Space Force, and numerous private space companies while providing an ever-expanding mix of engineering services to federal and local government agencies as well as commercial customers in a variety of industries.
Equal Opportunity Employment Statement
Salas O’Brien provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, colour, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state/provincial, or local laws. Salas O’Brien will accommodate the disability-related needs of applicants as required by law.