About this role
Your success is a train ride away!
As we move America’s workforce toward the future, Amtrak connects businesses and communities across the country. We employ more than 20,000 diverse, energetic professionals in a variety of career fields throughout the United States. The safety of our passengers, our employees, the public and our operating environment is our priority, and the success of our railroad is due to our employees.
Are you ready to join our team?
Our values of ‘Do the Right Thing, Excel Together and Put Customers First’ are at the heart of what matters most to us, and our Core Capabilities, ‘Building Trust, Accountability, Effective Communication, Customer Focus, and Proactive Safety & Security’ are what every employee needs to know and do to be most impactful at Amtrak. By living the Amtrak values, focusing on our capabilities, and actively embracing and fostering diverse ideas, backgrounds, and perspectives, together we will honor our past and make Amtrak a company of the future.
Job Summary
The Sr Engineer – Design Ops is responsible for leading the operations of the technical engineering design review process for both external third-party and some capital in-house projects, to ensure that the technical engineering design review documents are in compliance with all Amtrak Engineering practices (Eps), standards, policies, and procedures. Also, ensuring when design review submittals are received, they are compliant with baseline budget, funding source, and executed design phase agreement requirements.
This Design Operations workstream manages operations and reports for the engineering technical design review process for all engineering design phase stages. This role is expected to be in collaboration with their manager and the rest of the Engineering Design Operations Team. The Sr Engineer – Design Ops is part of the overall Planning and Engineering Support Team under Capital Delivery (CapD).
Essential Functions
- Leads the engineering design review intake process by performing precursory design reviews, applying sound technical judgment to assess engineering submittals for completeness, technical adequacy, and readiness for final determination, improving review efficiency and turnaround times.
- Coordination with multi-disciplines (track, communications & signals, electric traction, and structures) for information pertaining to design review determination documents, design exception request documents and technical engineering design review documents. Position works closely with many internal groups within Capital Delivery and the overall Engineering Department.
- Develop, and effectively apply a working knowledge of Engineering Practices and Standards, Amtrak business systems, procedures and existing agreements with external (third-party) entities, and industry standards and best practices for the engineering design review process.
- Review, interpret, and convert complex technical Engineering Practices, Engineering Standards, Engineering Specifications, and Engineering Manuals into ADA-accessible formats, ensuring the engineering technical content, requirements, and design review governance are accurately maintained for publication and third-party use.
- Provide technical ownership of technical engineering document governance, including version control, revision management, and lifecycle oversight. Defining engineering document standards, update and approval processes, and criteria for addendums versus full document republication for Engineering Services.
- Collaborate with the collective Team for the building of design estimates at a granular level for an understanding of the technical design reviewer duration and budget necessary for the engineering design review.
- Develop and report operational metrics, status reports, compliance tracking, document maintenance activities, and process performance indicators.
- Assist in the mentoring of junior-level staff to help them grow within Amtrak and railroad industry.
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree required or equivalent combination of training, education and relevant experience may be considered in lieu of a degree. Plus,
- 6 years of prior relevant experience required
- Experience with operational and engineering architectural design
Preferred Qualifications
• 8 years of relevant experience preferred.
• Strong understanding of Amtrak-maintained territory and operation.
• Strong understanding of Engineering assets.
• Experience with PowerBI.
• Strong understanding of Bluebeam.
• Familiar with railroad practices, operations, and procedures.
• Basic understanding of Amtrak’s network, service, infrastructure, train fleet and maintenance facilities.
• Understanding of the design and submission review process as it pertains to the railroad environment.
• Familiar with multi-disciplined railroad infrastructure (track, electric traction, communications & signals, structures, stations, and facilities).
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities
- Strong understanding of the design and submission review process
- Hands on experience with evaluating budgeting during the engineering design phase of projects being reviewed.
- Proficient in Power BI.
- Knowledgeable in Bluebeam
- Proficient working knowledge of Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Outlook, and SharePoint.
- Understanding of capital and operating financial reporting, forecasting, and cost as they relate to engineering design scope of work and planning.
- Ability to research, analyze, evaluate performance gaps, and explain variances.
- Skill in communicating complex information clearly and concisely, both orally and in writing across all levels
- Strong focus on collaboration, team building, and customer service.
- Experience working with external/third-party projects.
- Familiar with design and construction standards, methods, and practices.
- Proficient in creating KPIs and metrics.
- Proficient in creating dashboards to present these metrics and the scheduling data.
- Proficient working knowledge of Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Outlook and SharePoint.
- Working knowledge of SAP and ERP based systems for pulling data for reporting.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills.
- Strong planning, organizational, and time-management skills.
Work Environment
• Primarily office environment; exposure to computer screens.
• May require maintaining physical condition necessary for sitting, walking or standing for prolonged periods of time.
• Railroad right-of-way and/or project site visits may be required occasionally for short durations, based on department and/or specific project need.
The salary/hourly range is $103,700.00 – $134,460.00. Pay is based on several factors including but not limited to education, work experience, certifications, etc. Depending on an employee’s assigned worksite or location, Amtrak may consider a geo-pay differential to be applied to the employee’s base salary. Amtrak may offer additional incentive and pay programs to recognize and reward our employees, including a short-term incentive bonus based upon factors such as individual and company performance that is commensurate with the level of the position.
Health and Wellbeing
Financial and Retirement
Work and Family Life Support
Health, Dental, and Vision Insurance
401K with Employer Match
Generous Paid Time Off
Wellness Programs
Railroad Retirement Benefits
Paid Caregiving Days and Backup Care
Health Savings Account
Public Service Student Loan Forgiveness
Fertility and Family Building Benefits
No-cost Personal Health Advocate
Student Loan Assistance
Adoption and Surrogacy Assistance
Medical Plan Opt-out Credit
Tuition and Education Reimbursement
Paid Family Leave
Life Insurance
Rail Pass Privileges
Short- and Long-term Disability Insurance
Employee Assistance Program
No-cost Financial Advisor Sessions
Commuter and Flexible Spending Accounts
Learn more about our benefits offerings here.
Requisition ID: 167334
Work Arrangement: 06-Onsite 4/5 Days Click here for more information about work arrangements at Amtrak.
Relocation Offered: No
Travel Requirements: Up to 25%
You power our progress through your performance.
We want your work at Amtrak to be more than a job. We want your career at Amtrak to be a fulfilling experience where you find challenging work, rewarding opportunities, respect among colleagues, and attractive compensation. Amtrak maintains a culture that values high performance and recognizes individual employee contributions.
Amtrak is committed to a safe workplace free of drugs and alcohol. All Amtrak positions requires a pre-employment background check that includes prior employment verification, a criminal history check and a pre-employment drug screen.
Candidates who test positive for marijuana will be disqualified, regardless of any state or local statute, ordinance, regulation, or other law that legalizes or decriminalizes the use or possession of marijuana, whether for medical, recreational, or other use. Amtrak's pre-employment drug testing program is administered in accordance with DOT regulations and applicable law.
In accordance with DOT regulations (49 CFR § 40.25), Amtrak is required to obtain prior drug and alcohol testing records for applicants/employees intending to perform safety-sensitive duties for covered Department of Transportation positions. If an applicant/employee refuses to provide written consent for Amtrak to obtain these records, the individual will not be permitted to perform safety-sensitive functions.
In accordance with federal law governing security checks of covered individuals for providers of public transportation (Title 6 U.S.C. §1143), Amtrak is required to screen applicants for any permanent or interim disqualifying criminal offenses.
Note that any education requirement listed above may be deemed satisfied if you have an equivalent combination of education, training and experience.
Amtrak is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race/color, to include traits historically associated with race, including but not limited to, hair texture and hairstyles such as braids, locks and twists, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth and related conditions, such as lactation), national origin/ethnicity, disability (intellectual, mental and physical), veteran status, marital status, ancestry, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, genetic information, citizenship or any other personal characteristics protected by law.