Sargent & Lundy is hiring a Senior Mechanical Engineer for a fully remote position open to candidates across the United States. The role sits within Sargent & Lundy Consulting (SLC), a division focused on electric power projects. Salaries range from $134,546 to $205,557, making this one of the more competitive engineering roles in the power sector right now.
The position covers technical evaluations, conceptual design, and owner's engineer services for electric power generation clients. It is not an entry-level opportunity. Sargent & Lundy expects candidates to bring deep mechanical engineering expertise and more than a decade of relevant industry experience to the table.
Technical Skills Required for This Role
The technical bar for this position is high. Sargent & Lundy wants engineers who understand the full mechanical design lifecycle of conventional power projects. Broad knowledge is not enough. You need hands-on depth in specific generation technologies.
The job posting specifically calls out experience in the following systems:
- Simple cycle gas turbines
- Combined cycle projects
- Coal-fired generation
- Steam systems
- Reciprocating engines (RICE)
Candidates should understand how these systems are designed from the ground up. Detailed design experience means you have worked through engineering drawings, specifications, and equipment sizing decisions. Conceptual design experience means you can define a project's mechanical scope before detailed engineering begins.
Technical due diligence is listed as a valued additional skill. This involves reviewing existing power facilities or proposed projects on behalf of a client or lender. Engineers in this space assess whether a plant is built, operated, and maintained to acceptable standards.
Power Station Operations and Performance
A general understanding of power station operations and performance reviews strengthens your application. This includes knowledge of how plants dispatch, how operators monitor key performance indicators, and how performance deviations are investigated. You do not need to be a plant operator, but familiarity with operational realities makes you a stronger consultant.
Engineering Design Reviews
Owner's engineer work requires you to review the designs produced by others. That means spotting technical gaps, code compliance issues, and constructability problems. Strong knowledge of ASME standards, NFPA codes, and industry best practices is essential for this type of work.
Education Requirements
Sargent & Lundy requires a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering (BSME) from an ABET Engineering Accreditation Commission-approved program. The posting also emphasizes a strong academic background, which suggests your coursework and performance matter.
A Professional Engineer (PE) license is not listed as a hard requirement in this posting. However, holding a PE license is widely valued in consulting and owner's engineering contexts. Many clients expect senior consultants to carry professional licensure.
Advanced degrees in mechanical engineering or energy systems can support your candidacy. They are not mandatory, but they demonstrate deeper technical commitment in a competitive applicant pool.
Experience Required
The role requires 12 or more years of experience in the electric power industry. That timeline needs to include detailed mechanical design work on conventional power projects. General mechanical engineering experience in unrelated industries does not satisfy this requirement.
Sargent & Lundy is specifically looking for candidates whose careers have been built around power generation. Experience should span multiple project types from the list above. An engineer who has only worked on one type of plant will be at a disadvantage compared to someone with exposure to gas turbines, steam systems, and combined cycle projects.
Development support experience is also called out. This covers the early phases of a project, such as feasibility assessments, technology selection, and preliminary cost estimating. Engineers who have worked in project development roles alongside detailed design engineers carry a distinct advantage here.
Soft Skills That Matter at Sargent & Lundy
Technical ability alone does not make a strong consultant. Sargent & Lundy explicitly lists technical communication and writing skills as essential requirements. This is not a checkbox item. The role involves producing reports, memos, and technical documents that clients, lenders, and legal teams will rely on.
Strong writing means presenting complex engineering findings in clear, structured language. Clients are not always engineers. Your reports need to be technically accurate and accessible to non-technical stakeholders at the same time.
Verbal communication is equally important. You will present findings to clients and participate in project meetings. The ability to explain a technical position confidently and concisely sets senior consultants apart from their peers.
Other soft skills that matter in this type of role include:
- Attention to detail: Mistakes in due diligence reports can have major financial consequences for clients
- Project management awareness: Understanding timelines, deliverables, and client expectations keeps projects on track
- Adaptability: Consulting assignments vary widely in scope and technology, so flexibility is critical
- Client relationship skills: Senior engineers often serve as the main technical contact for clients throughout a project
Travel Expectations
This is a remote position, but travel is part of the job. Sargent & Lundy notes that you will have the opportunity to travel both within the United States and internationally. Site visits are common in owner's engineering and due diligence work.
Being comfortable with periodic travel, including international assignments, is something candidates should factor into their decision. The frequency of travel will vary depending on project workload and client needs.
How to Build These Skills
If you are earlier in your career and targeting a role like this in the future, a clear development path exists. Building the right experience takes time, but the steps are straightforward.
Start in Detailed Design
The fastest way to build the technical foundation Sargent & Lundy wants is to spend your early career in detailed mechanical design at a power plant engineering firm or an EPC contractor. Working through full project cycles on gas turbine or combined cycle projects gives you the depth the posting requires.
Pursue Diverse Project Experience
Engineers who work on only one technology type limit their consulting potential. Seek out opportunities to work on coal, steam, RICE, and gas turbine projects across your career. Each technology teaches you different design considerations and operational constraints.
Develop Your Writing Skills Intentionally
Technical writing is a skill you can build deliberately. Volunteering to write project reports, contributing to proposals, and seeking feedback on your documentation all sharpen this ability. Consider taking a technical writing course if your current role does not give you enough practice.
Pursue PE Licensure
Passing the Professional Engineer exam in mechanical engineering demonstrates your technical credibility. It also opens doors in consulting firms where client-facing work requires stamped documentation. Start with the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam if you have not already.
Seek Owner's Engineer or Due Diligence Exposure
If your current employer does any owner's engineer or technical due diligence work, raise your hand for those assignments. Exposure to how projects are evaluated from the outside rather than designed from the inside builds a different and highly valuable perspective.
Candidates who meet Sargent & Lundy's qualifications and want to apply for the Senior Mechanical Engineer position can find the full job listing and application details at https://himalayas.app/companies/sargent-lundy/jobs/senior-mechanical-engineer.
