Stellen is hiring…
Civil Engineer
Stellen is hiring a Civil Engineer to work in our team of talented and passionate engineers solve some important problems. This includes projects such as stormwater design for single homes, flood modelling, road design, village water supply schemes in the remote Solomon Islands, and water management systems for mines.
The job is to work with our internal team and with our clients to create and execute solutions to a range of problems.
This is a role for someone who loves leading.
Leading themselves in personal development. Leading our clients to define a problem. Leading small team of technicians to pull together a novel solution.
The role is for someone who doesn’t need a roadmap to solve a problem, but rather someone who can create one for others.
Stellen is a remote-work company, but you’ll need to be in Sydney (or nearby). The role will require frequent (say weekly) visits to clients and other consultants, especially on our larger and more interesting projects. You can read about how we work here.
You won’t be able to answer every question immediately or know how all the systems work on day one — and we don’t expect you to.
We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and identities to apply for a job where they can do the best work of their career.
This position reports to our Operations Manager, Logan English-Smith.
About the job
We purposely set out to help clients with difficult technical problems. They often need solving them in some novel way. And often where others have unsuccessfully tried conventional approaches. This usually requires some high level of innovation in approach, less frequently in technique.
Innovation not invention.
We look for ways to assemble proven engineering techniques in a way the suits the goals of our clients. And importantly we bring stakeholders along with us. We take time to enrol council regulators, clients and other consultants.
Customer experience.
Our clients return to us over and over not because we are technically the best (we aren’t) but because we start with empathy, we listen and we reliably execute.
We have a dedicated team of talented young engineers, eager to learn and develop themselves. This role will have plenty of learning but also teaching and helping others develop themselves.
Here are some examples of projects you might work on:
Setting a strategy for a large development right in the middle of an overland flow path in Sydney. Know where the technical and approval risks lie. Understand which parts of a DCP can be pushed and which cannot. Concentrate the technical work of our engineers on the vital aspects.
Putting on your empathy hat and working on improving the customer experience system.
Designing a water management system for a mine in remote Papua New Guinea. Know how the project and documentation comes together. Know which discipline/consultant interfaces are the most important and tackle them early. Prompt our engineers to ask the right questions of the client and obtain important inputs early. Know what level of documentation is appropriate.
Helping a junior engineer understand why an on-site detention system is counterproductive to its very purpose in a certain situation. Guiding them to build a catchment model at just the right level of detail to show a case.
Guiding a peer on a road geometry and pavement design for an expanding school. Helping them offer the client and landscape architect realistic options for concepts.
Optioneering civil earthworks for an Aboriginal Housing Office project. Understanding what is available in remote locations. Helping our engineers think through product life cycle, especially operations and maintenance.
Pulling together a multi-discipline deign for a high-tech rail wheel conditioning monitoring station. Knowing how structural and electrical disciplines fit together with general civil. Understanding the political landscape of large client organisations.
That’s a diverse set of responsibilities. You may not be an expert in all of them, and that’s fine. A solid fundamental approach to analysis (and being able to tap other experienced colleagues) will pave the way.
The role is a permanent full time position and can be either part time or full time. The hours and location are flexible though we need a minimum 4 hours overlap with NSW time.
About you
Those who value a leader-leader culture thrive at Stellen.
Live the values—especially excellence (see below)
Do your job well
Help us improve
We are a fast-growing business which means light structure and process. You'll enjoy autonomy to create a process where required. And also the obligation to throw it away when it is past its use-by date.
You have experience in design and supporting designers in engineering consulting firms. You’ll probably have a university degree related to civil engineering design and be (or be eligible to be) a chartered civil engineer. But if you don’t, that’s not a showstopper — and it’s not what we’re looking for, anyway.
We don’t care if you worked for a famous company or went to a famous university and got perfect grades. We care about what you can do, how you do it, and how fast you can improve—not about how you got there.
You should be comfortable working remotely. This means that the bulk of our work is written, whether that be in the form of long reports or short chats. We value good writers.
What excellence is to us
You just can’t bring your A game to every situation. Knowing when to embrace Good Enough is what gives you the opportunity to be truly excellent when you need to be.
We’re not suggesting you put bad work out there. You need to be able to be proud of it, even if it’s only “okay.” But attempting to be indiscriminately great at everything is a foolish waste of energy.
Rather than put endless effort into every detail, we put lots of effort into separating what really matters from what sort of matters from what doesn’t matter at all.
The act of separation should be your highest-quality endeavour.
This is the time you spend on Mondays budgeting your calendar (not writing a to-do list). It’s the reason we don’t treat all clients equally. It’s why we think carefully about the 6-weeks and the year ahead, and reflect back on each.
How to apply
Please send an application tailored to this position that speaks to us. Introduce yourself as a colleague. Show us that future. As we said, we value great writers, so please do take your time with the application. Forget that generic resume. There’s no prize for being the first to submit!
We’d like to hear about how you’d approach some of the example projects outlined in the description about the job. Imagine you’re doing the work and walk us through your thinking.
All that being said, don’t send in a copy of War & Peace. Be kind to the people doing application triage and keep your cover letter to fewer than 800 words and the thoughts on project approaches below the same ceiling.
Please email your application to ian.warren@stellenconsulting.com.au