Senior Engineer - Planning, Building and Code Enforcement Department

Job Description:

Senior Engineer - Planning, Building and Code Enforcement Department

Description

Our diverse and inclusive workforce of more than 7,000 employees play a key role in the success of San José, the heart of the Silicon Valley. All City of San José employees work together as one team to make San José a vibrant, innovative, and desirable place to live and work. Visit here to learn more about our One Team Leadership Values and Expectations, including quality and excellent customer service and here to learn more about San José.

The City of San José is an equal opportunity employer. Applicants for all job openings will be considered without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, disability, veteran status or any other consideration made unlawful under any federal, state or local laws. The City of San José is committed to offering reasonable accommodations to job applicants with disabilities. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, please contact us at 408-535-1285, 711 (TTY) , or via email at CityCareers@sanjoseca.gov .

About the Department

This position is open until filled with the first review date of July 18, 2025.

The City of San Jose’s Department of Planning, Building, and Code Enforcement serves to ensure the orderly and safe development of private properties, compliance with all applicable building, zoning, and quality of life ordinances and regulations, and to promote healthy and safe community standards. This is accomplished by departmental staff in service to customers by:

• Assisting and guiding land use and development to promote long-term goals and objectives that render safe, beneficial, and more sustainable communities
• Providing orderly administration and compliance of building codes, as mandated by the various levels of government, to ensure the construction of buildings, homes, and structures meet intended life safety and structural requirements
• Investigating and resolving citizen complaints of municipal code violations on private property in order to promote, maintain, and improve quality of life issues that better allow for safe and harmonious conditions in all neighborhoods

The Department is seeking applicants who are committed to understanding, executing, and improving the customer experience to best achieve the above goals and objectives. This includes providing excellent service and guidance to residents, property and business owners, developers, and other stakeholders throughout the planning, building, and code enforcement processes. Strong communication and interpersonal skills are essential, as the department values building positive relationships and fostering collaboration with other departments, agencies, and the community. Additionally, applicants who possess a strong knowledge of planning principles, building codes, and/or regulatory requirements will be highly valued, as they will play a key role in ensuring compliance and promoting healthy, safe, and sustainable development practices.

The Building Division

This City’s Building Division provides oversight and assistance towards the City's growth and development in relation to construction activity on private property within the City. The goal is to ensure the safety of buildings and to support the health and wellbeing of all persons living and working in San Jose through the implementation of the State of California’s current building codes and laws.

The Division is seeking applicants for the Senior Engineer classification within the Building Plan Review section.

The Building Division is divided into the following four sections:

• Permit Center: Plan intake and routing to plan review and Development Services Partners, over the counter permit processing, permit issuance, addressing, assistance desk/public information, ADU Ally, and Small Business Ally.
• Plan Review: Review of private development project plans and calculations for compliance with the California Building Codes and state laws, coordination with Development Services partners, expedited review, and coordinated review.
• Inspection: Inspects active private construction projects for compliance with the approved plans and adopted building codes and state laws.
• Support Services: Development Services call center, document imaging, records requests, and general support for the building division.

What We Do

The Department’s Building Division ensures compliance with the all the above-mentioned obligations by annually reviewing, analyzing, conducting, researching, processing, issuing, inspecting, and providing:

• 40,000 building permits
• 8,000 plan reviews
• 100,000 inspections
• 35,000 customers assisted
• 65,000 calls answered

Position Duties

The salary range for this classification is:

• Senior Engineer: $156,876.72 - $198,394.56

This salary range(s) includes an approximate five percent (5%) ongoing non-pensionable compensation. Actual salary shall be determined by the final candidates’ qualifications and experience.

This is a full-time Senior Engineer position and is responsible for the supervision and mentorship of a team of Associate Engineers performing plan review as well as leading special projects and programs such as expedited plan review, coordinated plan review, affordable housing coordination, or high-rise project coordination. Senior Engineers also provide valuable feedback to the development community and project design teams by leading preliminary review meetings and by participating in the review of projects submitted to the Planning department for entitlement.

The Division is committed to developing, maintaining, and continually improving the quality of services and the customer experience with the goals mentioned above and the successful applicant will recognize and value these goals and qualities while striving to achieve the objectives and tasks of the classification as listed below.

Typical Duties and Responsibilities

• Lead and supervise engineers, architects, and building inspectors in reviewing complex professional structural and architectural plans and calculations to ensure compliance with the technical codes (e.g., Building, Electrical, Plumbing and Mechanical), structural engineering principles, disabled access regulations, and other state and local ordinances and regulations.
• Assign and monitor staff workload.
• Mentor staff to prepare them for future promotional opportunities.
• Evaluate job performance of engineers, architects, inspectors assigned to plan review, and/or non-technical personnel.
• Advise professional engineers, architects, and others concerning code requirements, engineering, and planning concerns arising in the preliminary design of buildings and structures to prevent significant problems with the future building permit application.
• Prepare written guidelines and policies to facilitate consistent application of the technical codes, ordinances, and regulations for both the internal workgroup and the public/design community.
• Coordinate with other City departments and agencies to facilitate permit issuance.
• Develop, direct, and/or implement technical training programs to ensure consistency among the plan review staff
• Participate in project specific AMMC (Alternate Materials and Methods of Construction) discussions to evaluate alternate methods of code compliance.
• Manage special programs/projects (examples include the mandatory soft story retrofit project, affordable housing coordination, Reach Code coordination, inter-department program coordination, ADA grant coordination, etc.)
• Performs other duties of a similar nature or level.

Minimum Qualifications

Education: A Bachelor’s Degree from an accredited college or university in the required professional engineering discipline.
Experience: Five (5) years of progressively responsible professional engineering experience.
Certifications:

• Certificate of Registration in a relevant professional engineering discipline. All plan reviewer positions in the Building Division require registration as a Civil Engineer or Architect with the State of California.
• Possession of a valid State of California’s driver’s license is required.
• Possession of a valid Building Plan Examiner certification from the International Code Council (ICC) within 6 months of employment.

Other Qualifications

The ideal candidate will possess the following competencies, as demonstrated in past and current employment history.

Job Expertise
Demonstrates knowledge of and experience with applicable professional/technical principles and practices, Citywide and departmental procedures/policies and federal and state rules and regulations.
Decision Making
Identifies and understands issues, problems, and opportunities. Uses effective approaches for choosing a course of action or developing appropriate solutions.
Initiative
Exhibits resourceful behaviors toward meeting job objectives; anticipates problems; is proactive and avoids difficulties by planning ahead; displays willingness to assume extra responsibility and challenges; pursues continuing education opportunities that promotes job performance.

Leadership
Leads by example; demonstrates high ethical standards; remains visible and approachable and interacts with others on a regular basis; promotes a cooperative work environment, allowing other to learn from mistakes; provides motivational supports and direction.

Problem Solving
Approaches a situation or problem by defining the problem or issue. Determines the significance of problem(s). Collects information. Uses logic and intuition to arrive at decisions or solutions to problems that achieve the desired outcome.

Project Management
Ensures support for projects and implements agency goals and strategic objectives.

Supervision
Sets effective long and short-term goals based on a good understanding of management

practices; establishes realistic priorities within available resources; provides motivational support; empowers others; assigns decision-making and work functions to others in an appropriate manner to maximize organizational and individual effectiveness.
Teamwork & Interpersonal Skills
Develops effective relationships with co-workers and supervisors by helping others accomplish tasks and using collaboration and conflict resolution skills.

Communication Skills
Effectively conveys information and expresses thoughts and facts clearly, orally and in writing; demonstrates effective use of listening skills; displays openness to other people's ideas and thoughts.
Communicates and listens effectively and responds in an timely, effective, positive and respectful manner; written reports and correspondence are accurate, complete, well- organized, legible, concise, and in proper grammatical form; responds to statements and comments of others in a way that reflects understanding of the content and the accompanying emotion; asks clarifying questions to assure understanding of what the speaker intended, ensures consistent communication takes place within area of responsibility.

Selection Process
The selection process will consist of an evaluation of the applicant's training and experience based on the application and responses to all the job specific questions. You must answer all questions to be considered or your application may be deemed incomplete and withheld from further consideration. Applicants are expected to write their own essays/responses. Please be advised that use of AI content in your responses may result in your removal from the hiring process. Only those candidates whose backgrounds best match the position will be invited to proceed in the selection process. Additional phases of the selection process will consist of one or more interviews.

If you have questions about the duties of these positions, the selection or hiring processes, please contact Edmund Wong at Edmund.wong@sanjoseca.gov.

Additional Information:

Employment Eligibility: Federal law requires all employees to provide verification of their eligibility to work in this country. Please be informed that the City of San Jose will NOT sponsor, represent or sign any documents related to visa applications/transfers for H1-B or any other type of visa which requires an employer application.

You must answer all job-specific questions to be considered for this vacancy or your application will be deemed incomplete and withheld from further consideration. Applicants are expected to write their own essays/responses. Please be advised that use of AI content in your responses may result in your removal from the hiring process.

Please note that applications are currently not accepted through CalOpps or any other third party job board application system.

This recruitment may be used to fill multiple positions in this, or other divisions or departments. If you are interested in employment in this classification, you should apply to ensure you are considered for additional opportunities that may utilize the applicants from this recruitment.

Please allow adequate time to complete the application and submit before the deadline or the system may not save your application. If your online application was successfully submitted, you will receive an automatic confirmation email to the email address you provided. IF YOU DO NOT RECEIVE THE CONFIRMATION, please email CityCareers@sanjoseca.gov and we will research the status of your application.

The City of San Jose offers a wide range of core health benefits including Medical, Dental, Vision, Employee Assistance Program, Life Insurance, Disability, and Savings Plans. Please visit the City's benefits pagefor detailed information on coverage, cost, and dependent coverage.

For information on the City’s Retirement Plan(pension for full-time employees), please visit the Office of Retirement Services website. You will be able to view information based on different Sworn/Federated job classification.

In additional to the benefits above, there is an additional perks siteto explore further benefits of working for the City of San Jose like paid leave, educational reimbursements, and holiday pay are specific to the job classification and union membership.

Salary:

$156,876.72 - $198,394.56 Annually