Structural Engineer – Protective Design

Start your structural engineering career working on challenges that go beyond conventional building design.

As a Protective Design Engineer at KPFF, you’ll be part of a specialized team working across San Francisco and Portland to help make buildings and critical infrastructure safer and more resilient. Our work considers how structures respond to extreme events, including both intentional threats and accidental hazards, and develops practical engineering solutions to reduce risk and protect people.

You’ll apply structural engineering fundamentals while building expertise in areas such as blast effects and design, structural dynamics, progressive collapse, and hostile vehicle mitigation. Depending on the project, your work may include structural analysis, computational modeling, design development, technical calculations, coordination with multidisciplinary teams, and support during design and construction.

This is an opportunity for an early-career structural engineer who enjoys analytical problem-solving and wants to explore specialized applications of structural engineering while developing a strong technical foundation.

What You’ll Experience

• Specialized technical work: Develop experience with protective design methodologies, structural dynamics, advanced analysis, and the behavior of structures under extreme loading conditions.

• Challenging engineering problems: Work on projects where standard solutions may not apply and thoughtful analysis, creativity, and engineering judgment matter.

• Meaningful project impact: Contribute to designs intended to improve safety, resilience, and protection of people and critical infrastructure.

• Variety across markets: Support projects in sectors such as aviation, aerospace, manufacturing, industrial facilities, and other complex or mission-critical environments.

• Collaborative project teams: Work alongside structural engineers and multidisciplinary teams of architects, contractors, consultants, and clients.

• Early-career development: Learn directly from engineers experienced in protective design while gradually taking on greater technical responsibility.