Fire Protection Engineer

About the role

The City of Seattle Fire Department is seeking a regular, full-time Fire Protection Engineer to join the Fire Prevention Division. The Seattle Fire Department’s Fire Prevention Division is dedicated to preventing fires and assuring fire and life safety for people who live, work, and visit in Seattle. The division is recognized nationally for its successful prevention programs that have led to fire rates in Seattle that are significantly lower than US and regional averages. The Fire Prevention Division provides plan review and inspection services for all new construction and major remodels as part of the City’s permitting process. The Fire Prevention Division also regulates the use of hazardous materials and enforces life safety conditions at large events such as concerts, outdoor fairs and festivals, and nightclubs. The division is staffed by firefighters and professional staff and is a dynamic and fast-paced professional environment serving a meaningful mission. We are also known as the Fire Marshal’s Office. As a Fire Protection Engineer, you will be part of a team of four engineers, three senior engineers and permit technician who report to a Supervising Fire Protection Engineer. Your team is responsible for ensuring that commercial building construction in the city limits meets the minimum requirements of the Seattle Fire Code (SFC), as well as some provisions of the Seattle Building Code (SBC) and adopted National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standards. You will also contribute fire protection engineering and code expertise to other City departments and may play a role in the process of developing local amendments to NPFA standards, the International Fire Code (IFC), and the International Building Code (IBC). To succeed in this position, you will have strong technical skills including knowledge of fire codes, national standards, engineering principles, and fire protection systems. You must also have the ability to communicate effectively orally and in writing and use software tools to review electronic plan submittals. The Seattle Fire Department provides a professional, friendly work environment in a world-class urban city with year-round outdoor recreation opportunities at your doorstep. The successful candidate will have an opportunity to work with team members from many units in the Fire Prevention Division and the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections.

Responsibilities

• Review architectural plans for compliance with Seattle Fire Code and related Building Code requirements.
• Perform technical reviews of plans for fire protection systems.
• Perform calculations as required to verify the adequacy of designs.
• Use the City’s Accela permitting system and BlueBeam software to locate electronic plan submittals and annotate them with corrections and assign fees.
• Use the Fire Department’s proprietary plan review database to record project information.
• Identify required fire code operational permits in proposed projects being reviewed.
• Advise fire inspectors with complex or unusual field inspections.
• Provide technical and code assistance to members of the Seattle Fire Department, the public, and design and construction professionals.
• Evaluate requests for code alternates and make recommendations to the Supervising Fire Protection Engineer.
• Represent the Fire Marshal at meetings with architects, contractors, industry groups, and other City departments.
• Handle a high volume of work accurately, consistently, and timely.
• Provide high quality customer service that is professional, consistent, and timely.
• Understand and consistently follow SFD policies and procedures, particularly those related to plan review, construction inspections, permitting, and compliance enforcement in existing buildings, and records retention.
• Reliably identify and escalate significant issues to management, reliably meet deadlines, and keep management appraised of your deliverables, accomplishments, and challenges.
• Communicate effectively internally and externally, orally and in writing.
• Perform other related duties as assigned.

Qualifications

Requires a bachelor’s degree in fire protection, mechanical, chemical, civil engineering or a closely related field that includes significant