structural engineer

civil engineer

structural designer

engineering project manager

civil designer

Kpff-Consulting-Engineers

May be a good place for young engineers, but most driven people will likely not stay more than 3 to 4 years, given the long hours expected to work with little or no compensation for it, and no raises/promotions. This was my experience. I was promised bonuses would make up for the low salary I originally agreed to, and that there was opportunity for advancement. After 4 years of working there, with workweeks typically averaging 50 to 60 hours per week, these rewards did not materialize.

I saw lack of or no management in the office I worked, with a manager who was rarely in the office, but had large expense account, and little to show for it in the way of projects/revenue brought into the office. There was lack of fairness and transparency in the way of job expectations, job requirements, and metrics used to judge one's performance. No performance evaluations or way to know where you stood or how you were performing, except if you received a bonus or not. Great performers penalized by poor performance of "slackers" in the office. Only expectations were to have profitable projects, but no authority to make decisions to effectively meet these goals (I.e., have budgets for training, adequate software, weed out underachievers or fire/hire people).

Manager had business on the side that took precedence over his job of managing the office. Some employees regularly did work for his side company during regular business hours and with company resources. Toxic job environment where the manager regularly verbally abused employees and I observed employees break down and cry.

I observed manager purchase a few mulitmillion dollars of properties with CASH during the time I was employed. After 4 years of observing all these things I decided I had enough and could do nothing more for the company. Nearly had a nervous breakdown at the end of my employ there.

A typical day at work involves catering to daily random needs of clients. After 5'oclock you can actually work on design and accomplish deliverables.

I learned a couple of very important things:
Communication is important - some will work harder than others, while others take the credit and ride along.
Design - There is plenty to learn and KPFF has all the available resources and opportunities to learn.

The management team is generally a nice group of people. The management team is broken into a handful of group leaders. Each group leader has their own personality and each individual leads groups accordingly. Like any personality some individuals will get along and like any personalities there are good and bad parts.

The people at KPFF are culturally diverse and come from all over the world. Each individual at KPFF is interesting and has a great story about their lives and how they arrived at KPFF. Like any basket of fruit, their are some rotten apples. Some people at the company say off-putting and insensitive remarks and disregard peoples feelings; however, some are very understanding and are a joy to work with.

The hardest part of the job is realizing that not all individuals at KPFF are putting in 110%. Some individuals work very hard to meet the needs of the project, while some come to work between 1pm & 5pm and charge overtime. The dishonesty of some individuals does affect the moral of the people of the actual workers.

The most enjoyable part of the job is completing the job and realizing that you accomplished it and the project you designed built.

A plus at KPFF is for the most part the company trusts its employees (a core value); unfortunately, some individuals exploit this dishonestly.

KPFF focuses their hiring on recent graduates and generally only promotes from within resulting in a workplace culture that’s well behind the times. In fact, nearly all of KPFF’s leaders have never worked for another company in their entire careers. Those leaders are mostly all engineers with low emotional intelligence who run the business the way they ran their projects – cutting overhead to the bone. For employees, this means average pay and a terrible benefits package. The lack of care for people has led to very high turnover among junior staff and perpetuates the toxic workplace culture by promoting the people who have survived in it and don’t know any better. 

Corporate values are espoused at a cultish "Bootcamp" training required for new staff, but I did not find those values not borne out in leadership's actions. The company recently spent a lot of time handwringing over whether or not it should pay people for time spent in company provided training, despite being informed that not paying people would be a violation of state law. 

Regarding benefits: Pay is average to low for the industry. They’ll pay you straight overtime if you go over 40 hours / week, but many junior staff feel pressured in to not reporting their overtime hours. Healthcare premiums are higher than average, no vision insurance is offered, company 401k contributions are below average, no reimbursement is offered for professional development, and you’ll need to work for them for five years before they give you more than two weeks of vacation. Oh yeah, and if you have any questions about any of your benefits, they are routed through the accountant before they go to HR. It's maddening


Pros

In my experience, the company respects people’s time and gives employees room to breathe. Work can be busy, but it rarely feels like a constant emergency.
Administrative overhead is relatively low, so engineers can spend more time on project work.
The structure feels flat, and communication with senior staff is generally accessible.
Compensation has felt relatively transparent to me and around the industry average.
I appreciated the human side of the workplace, including volunteer activities and coworkers who genuinely look out for each other.

Cons

Career advancement can feel unclear, especially if you are looking for a very structured promotion path.
Your experience may depend strongly on your direct team and manager.
I sometimes found performance expectations hard to interpret without actively asking for feedback.
The company may not be the best fit for someone seeking rapid title growth or fast compensation acceleration.

Advice to Management
Continue improving clarity around career paths, expectations, and feedback. The company has a strong people-oriented culture, and clearer growth guidance would make that even stronger.
Advice to Job Seekers
Treat the interview as a two-way selection process. The people you meet may be close to the team you would actually work with, so pay attention to communication style, expectations, and team fit.
Advice to Interns
Take the opportunity to build relationships with good mentors and peers. Pay attention to how experienced engineers set priorities, think through problems, earn trust, and approach risk. Those lessons can matter more in the long run than any single technical skill.

There was excellent exposure to a young engineer and there is opportunity to advance your career. Management was flat and the benefits of such are apparent. It made work flow exciting and the teams are generally excellent. 

A typical day at work did not involve interesting projects and often vague directions were given to engineers which cultivates a lack of trust. 

The workplace culture is an interesting one. Of all the different disciplines in KPFF, there are many micro- cultures nestled in one office and vary greatly in personalities, process and motivation tactics/techniques. 

Sometimes it is the luck of the draw to get assigned to a team where you are most compatible or properly motivated. After a short time with a new team, I was starting to see this was not my fortune. The transportation team is an exquisite group of individuals who are a positive public face to the company, not to say every other discipline is not. All employees are such good people. 

The most difficult part of the job was the monotony. If you are comfortable with such a lifestyle, then this place is excellent for you. Time after time, tasks became repetitive and unmotivating. There is a lot of responsibility in the employee to be self motivated. 
This is an excellent life skill in general but be prepared to keep this up for years if you wish to uphold your reliable work ethic. 

In my opinion, the happiest and most successful teams where the ones that valued grit, camaraderie and highlighted a sense of teamwork. They were the ones to attract the most talent. Such results benefit the company, team and most importantly--the individual.

This company is amazing. It gave my Team Leader the opportunity to start a satellite office which allowed him to develop a team the way he wanted. I started working for KPFF in 2021 and was immediately given all the tools and opportunities to use at my will, while at the same time being added into some really impressive projects. KPFF is great at giving someone the opportunity to shine by evaluating employee requests for construction type, and by adding both experienced and inexperienced engineers and drafters. This allows the wisdom to get to where it's needed most.
The Culture is what makes the company the best though. Not only do they constantly push toward creating a great working environment, they also council those considering possible changes to their role at KPFF and possibly not at KPFF.  KPFF's true intent seems to be to positively affect people first and then create a great product.

A typical day at work entitled working on the assigned project, answering RFIs and submittals. Re-organizing meeting minutes and performing some design work for a specific project. Also some days I performed field inspection on current construction projects at the Port of Long Beach. 

I learned many valuable lessons and had a great experience with the team at KPFF Consulting Engineers. I learned how to effectively communicate with contractors and other fellow engineers from other firms working with us on same projects. I learned how to professionally present drawings on AutoCAD. I learned many valuable design lessons from experienced and great co-workers.

Overall the experience was great, I learned many valuable lessons and got a good idea of how professional civil engineers manage projects and deal with problems as they occur.

I have never worked anywhere else that valued work-life balance the way that KPFF does. KPFF Louisville offers “bonus time” which is their unique model of a 4-day week every other week. Work times are flexible and I get paid for every hour I work, including overtime. It's a nation-wide company with a “small business” feel. They offer a generous amount of time-off and we get free lunches every other Wednesday! Pay is competitive and our office is in sweet location right downtown. I highly recommend KPFF for anyone who is looking for a place to make their dreams come true in an amazing city.  

I was contracted for one project. The drafting manager claimed I was "green", (I was). In the 6 months I worked for KPFF, I leaned Solid Works and Engineer drafting skills. When my project finished the drafting manager and senior engineer did their best to keep me employed. Unfortunately, KPFF was over staffed and had to let me go.

My position consisted of working direct with engineers, working on redlines, and contacting engineers or drafters in other offices to complete plans.

I have enjoyed my time at KPFF, especially since moving to our Salt Lake City office. We are currently a small team but growing quickly. We have lots of opportunities to work on cool projects including higher education, essential facilities, multifamily residential, and commercial buildings.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Structural engineer 131 salaries reported	$104,531 per year
Civil engineer 108 salaries reported	$100,710 per year
Structural designer 96 salaries reported	$92,541 per year
Engineering project manager 86 salaries reported	$125,267 per year
Civil designer 72 salaries reported	$91,870 per year

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