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.
Why This Role Works
Performance in this seat is measurable, and it will be measured on four things:
-
Dates held. Submittals go out on the date we committed. When a date is at risk, it gets raised early.
-
First-pass approval. Plan review approval without avoidable correction cycles is the standard, not a bonus.
-
Designs that install. Accurate stock lists, hydraulics that hold up, and a declining volume of field rework traceable to design.
-
Certification progress. Movement on NICET and the WSP Certificate of Competency, on our clock and our budget.
A reasonable first year looks like this: by 90 days you are running standard tenant improvement projects independently; by six months you are carrying ground-up projects through plan review; by twelve months you are progressing on certification and contributing to the standards and detail library the next designer will use.
This is a growing company with a shifting mix of work, a real service and inspection base, and a leadership team that promotes from inside. We would rather promote you out of this role in a few years than keep you in it.
Benefits
-
Medical, dental, and vision through Regence BlueShield, Delta Dental of Washington, and VSP — available to employees scheduled 30 or more hours per week, effective the first of the month following or coinciding with hire
-
Columbia Fire pays approximately 90% of the employee premium on the HSA-qualified plan, plus roughly 75% of dependent premiums on the HDHP and 60% on the PPO
-
Health Savings Account through HealthEquity with a $600 annual company contribution
-
401(k) through Vestwell — QACA Safe Harbor with an employer match up to 3.5%
-
Paid time off starting at 10 days per year and increasing with length of service
-
Eight paid holidays
-
Company-paid basic life and AD&D coverage ($20,000)
-
Employee assistance program (SupportLinc), telehealth (Doctor on Demand), and optional pet insurance
-
Company-provided laptop, monitors, and software; mileage reimbursement for jobsite travel in a personal vehicle
-
Paid training, certifications, and continuing education
Schedule and Work Environment
-
Monday through Friday, full time, 40 hours per week. Our office operates between 6:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.; your start time is set with the Design Manager
-
Occasional overtime around submittal and fabrication deadlines, paid at the overtime rate
-
In person at our Seattle office. Once you are producing independently — typically after the first 90 days — up to two days per week of remote work is available at the Design Manager’s discretion. This is not a fully remote position
-
Columbia Fire employs this position in Washington only. We are not able to employ this role in another state
-
Candidates should live within reasonable commuting distance of the Seattle office
Physical Requirements
The essential functions of this position are performed primarily at a desk and require extended periods of computer work, sitting, and detailed visual review of drawings. Jobsite surveys and field verification require:
-
Walking active construction sites and uneven ground
-
Climbing ladders and stairs, and working from scissor and boom lifts
-
Reaching, kneeling, and working above ceilings and in tight or confined spaces
-
Exposure to heat, cold, noise, dust, and other typical construction conditions
-
Wearing required personal protective equipment
-
Lifting and carrying up to 25 pounds, such as plan sets, survey equipment, and a laptop
Apply
Apply through the posting where you found this position, or through the careers section at www.columbiafire.net. Send a resume, and if you are able to share them, two or three examples of drawings you produced yourself — redacted is fine, and please do not send anything you are not permitted to share. Tell us what part of the design you were responsible for on each one.
Equal Employment Opportunity
Columbia Fire, LLC is an equal opportunity employer. We consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, creed, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, ancestry, citizenship or immigration status, age, marital status, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, honorably discharged veteran or military status, use of a trained service animal, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.
All employment decisions — including recruiting, hiring, compensation, training, promotion, and discipline — are based on qualifications, merit, and business need.
Reasonable Accommodation
We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities and for religious beliefs, observances, and practices. If you need an accommodation to participate in the application or interview process, or to perform the essential functions of this position, please contact us and we will work with you to identify an appropriate accommodation.
At-Will Employment
Employment with Columbia Fire, LLC is at-will. Either the employee or the company may end the employment relationship at any time, with or without cause and with or without notice. Nothing in this job description or posting creates a contract of employment or a guarantee of employment for any specific duration.
