Associate Principal - Telecom

Job description

**About the Position** The Associate Principal is a mid-level engineering role responsible for leading small- to mid-scale, multi-discipline projects with growing independence. You’ll guide projects from programming through closeout—clarifying requirements, coordinating design, documenting decisions, and ensuring deliverables meet TEECOM’s standards for quality and constructability. You’ll apply strong engineering judgment, maintain alignment with scope, schedule, and budget, and surface risks early to keep projects on track. You’ll strengthen TEECOM’s system by contributing to GitHub, documenting client-specific nuances, and improving standards, tools, and workflows. Externally, you’ll cultivate strong client relationships—building trust through clear communication, reliable follow-through, and thoughtful problem-solving. You’ll also begin developing credibility through thought-leadership activities by supporting pursuits, contributing technical narratives, participating in interviews, and helping develop content such as blogs, white papers, or presentations. Internally, you’ll mentor Designers and engineers through hands-on guidance, reviews, and feedback that strengthen discipline capability and reinforce TEECOM’s standards. While not a people manager, you’ll play a key role in developing TEECOM’s talent and reinforcing disciplined engineering practices. This position reflects strong engineering capability, reliable project leadership, and growing influence in shaping TEECOM’s systems, documentation, and delivery. ### Leadership, Mentorship, and Technical Influence - As an Associate Principal, your impact comes not only from the quality of your own discipline work, but from how effectively you guide project teams, strengthen coordination, and support the growth of TEECOM’s engineers. You contribute in three key ways: **Mentor and Support Engineers** - You strengthen project teams by guiding Designers and Associates, reinforcing disciplined design practices, clear documentation, and sound technical judgment. - You contribute to TEECOM’s talent pipeline by serving as either a Mentor or a Mentee—helping grow others while also expanding your own capability. - As a Mentor: You accelerate others’ growth by setting expectations, providing clear direction, and reinforcing disciplined, high-quality work. - As a Mentee: You advance your own development by actively seeking feedback, applying guidance, and building readiness for larger scopes and leadership responsibilities. **Contribute to Training and Knowledge** - You elevate team capability by actively engaging in design reviews, debriefs, and cross-discipline discussions that improve shared understanding and decision-making. - You strengthen discipline consistency by offering insights and clarification that help teammates apply standards correctly and develop stronger engineering judgment. - You support TEECOM’s learning culture by modeling disciplined documentation, fostering collaborative problem-solving, and shaping training resources that accelerate the growth of Designers and engineers. **Improve the TEECOM System** - You reinforce firmwide consistency by applying standards reliably and maintaining clear, accurate discipline documentation that others can depend on. - You strengthen workflows by identifying gaps in templates, tools, or processes and offering improvements—through constructive feedback and Pull Requests—that reduce rework and improve scalability. - You enhance project predictability by sharing lessons learned, reinforcing best practices, and helping teams stay aligned and clear in their approach. ### What Success in this Position Looks Like - You deliver accurate, well-coordinated discipline designs on mid- to large-size projects with increasing independence and reliable follow-through. - You apply strong judgment—identifying risks early, resolving discipline conflicts, and supporting cross-discipline coordination. - You maintain disciplined documentation across drawings, specifications, calculations, and decision logs, enabling predictable project delivery. - You improve TEECOM’s system by providing actionable feedback, proposing workflow refinements, and submitting targeted Pull Requests. - You communicate clearly with clients and design partners—documenting decisions, clarifying requirements, and keeping teams aligned. - You mentor Designers, Associates, and production by providing guidance, markups, and timely feedback that strengthens their technical capability and documentation habits. - You collaborate closely with Project Leads and Group Leads to maintain alignment on scope, sequencing, and coordination strategy. - You support pursuits by contributing scope input, fee assumptions, and participating in interviews as needed. - You actively participate in client relationship development through networking events and conferences, direct outreach to clients and partners, and sharing intel gathered through documented interactions. - You deepen your discipline expertise through mentorship (as Mentor or Mentee), preparing for broader leadership responsibilities. - You model TEECOM’s Core Values—Care, Trust, and Value—through clear communication, disciplined execution, and proactive problem-solving. ### Responsibilities and Expectations - These responsibilities and expectations represent what is required to successfully perform the essential functions of this role. **Annual and Quarterly** - Partner with Project Leads, Group Leads, and senior engineers to strengthen coordination strategy, discipline consistency, and delivery reliability across projects. - Participate in performance assessments and demonstrate measurable growth in engineering judgment, project leadership, and system contribution. - Lead technical design reviews that reinforce TEECOM standards, improve documentation clarity, and identify coordination risks early. - Contribute to discipline standards, workflows, and tools through targeted Pull Requests and documented lessons learned. - Strengthen team capability by mentoring Designers and engineers through clear technical guidance, markups, and feedback. - Identify recurring coordination challenges or workflow gaps and recommend improvements that enhance delivery predictability and cross-discipline alignment. - When serving as a Mentor, provide structured quarterly feedback that supports technical growth and readiness for increased project leadership. **Monthly and Biweekly** - Deliver coordinated discipline designs including layouts, calculations, specifications, and supporting documentation that align with engineering intent and TEECOM standards. - Partner with Project Leads to confirm scope, sequencing, coordination strategy, and evolving client requirements. - Participate in project and discipline meetings, communicating decisions, constraints, risks, and next steps with clarity. - Review Designers’ and engineers’ work, providing guidance that strengthens technical accuracy, coordination alignment, and documentation quality. - When assigned as a Mentor, delegate meaningful scope, clarify expectations, provide structured feedback, and hold regular check ins that strengthen technical growth, documentation habits, and decision making. - Maintain clear documentation of decisions, assumptions, and client specific nuances across GitHub and project tools to support consistent delivery. - Review discipline progress against scope, schedule, and coordination milestones and surface risks early to support Project Leads in maintaining alignment. - Maintain accurate and timely time and expense entries that support delivery accountability. **Weekly and Daily** - Prepare and review layouts, markups, calculations, and related deliverables, resolving discipline-specific issues with sound engineering judgment. - Participate in coordination meetings, clearly communicating impacts, decisions, and required follow-up actions. - Provide guidance to Designers and engineers by clarifying expectations, reinforcing documentation standards, and supporting informed decision-making. - Maintain clear, up-to-date documentation across Asana, GitHub, and shared project platforms to support delivery alignment. - Execute design and documentation tasks with increasing independence while maintaining alignment with TEECOM standards and project priorities. - Communicate proactively with cross-discipline partners to confirm assumptions, surface risks early, and maintain coordination clarity. - Keep project notes, markups, and documentation current as work progresses to ensure transparency and continuity. **As Needed** - Support programming sessions, site walks, surveys, or construction-phase coordination, documenting findings clearly to maintain alignment with design intent. - Contribute to pursuits by developing discipline scope assumptions, OPCC inputs, and interview support as needed. - Research products, codes, and design approaches that strengthen technical solutions and coordination outcomes. - Support other teams during heavy workload periods or complex project phases to maintain firmwide delivery momentum. - When assigned as a Mentee, meet regularly with your Mentor to review feedback, discuss project decisions, and strengthen technical judgment and discipline expertise. ### Supervisory / Mentorship / Training Responsibilities - **Supervisory**: When serving as a Mentor, you provide structured coaching and quarterly performance feedback for assigned mentees. You support day-to-day discipline execution by aligning Designers, engineers, and production team members with project priorities, scope, and documentation standards, while identifying dependencies, risks, and resourcing needs that inform workload planning. - **Mentorship**: Provide hands-on coaching and design guidance to Designers and engineers assigned to your projects. When paired as a Mentor, you hold regular check-ins, clarify expectations, review progress, and contribute input to quarterly and annual performance assessments. You reinforce disciplined documentation, communication, and coordination practices through clear guidance and example. - **Training**: Support the development of training content, participate in design reviews, and help team members strengthen technical and documentation skills through practical, project-based coaching. ### Experience and Qualifications - **Education**: Bachelor’s degree in Engineering (Electrical preferred) or equivalent experience. - **Experience**: 6+ years of experience in AEC or related professional services with demonstrated discipline-specific capability. - **Preferred**: Experience leading discipline portions of mid- to large-size projects, supporting coordination, and providing guidance to Designers or engineers. - Proven ability to deliver accurate, well-coordinated designs and make sound decisions within your discipline. - Strong understanding of project delivery workflows, client expectations, documentation standards, and cross-discipline coordination requirements. - Demonstrated experience contributing to documentation updates, standards refinement, or QA/QC workflows through GitHub Pull Requests or similar platforms. - Strong proficiency in Autodesk (AutoCAD, Revit), Bluebeam Studio, Microsoft 365 Suite, Google Workspace, and GitHub. **Industry certifications preferred by discipline**: - RCDD (Telecom/ICT) — preferred - PEng — plus - PMP — plus ### Physical Demands - These physical demands represent what is required to perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations will be provided as needed. - Prolonged desk work using a computer, keyboard, mouse, and telephone. - Regular reading, writing, and communication in virtual and in-person settings. - Occasional travel to client sites for meetings, surveys, or inspections. - Site walks may require standing or walking for extended periods, climbing stairs, and navigating construction or utility areas. - Field activities may involve bending, kneeling, or maneuvering in confined spaces. - May occasionally lift or move equipment weighing up to 25 pounds. ### Work Environment - These work environment characteristics represent the conditions encountered while performing essential job functions. Reasonable accommodations will be provided as needed. - Approximately 75% of work is performed in a remote or office environment using standard office equipment. - Approximately 25% occurs at client sites, including construction environments and existing facilities. - Construction sites may include exposure to elevated noise levels, dust, uneven or unfinished walking surfaces, variable lighting conditions, and active construction operations. - Utility rooms and similar spaces may have restricted access or may not fully comply with ADA accessibility standards. When access limitations exist, TEECOM will support coordinating reasonable accommodations with site-controlling contractor or alternative means to perform essential job functions. - All accidents, near misses, and unsafe conditions must be reported immediately to the site superintendent and internally to People Operations.