Structural Engineer (CA PE) - Modular Residential, Bay Area - Contract, Possible Long-Term

ENGAGEMENT TYPE Hourly contract. Rate open - tell us your rate, we're evaluating proposals on fit and experience, not lowest bid. Near full-time to start (30-40 hrs/week), though the load is negotiable. Open to both independent PEs and firms - if you're a firm, tell us how you'd staff it. --- DESCRIPTION Aro Homes designs and builds high-end residential homes using an off-site, factory-built product model - a repeatable product that we permit and improve across releases, not one-off houses. We're based in Mountain View with a manufacturing facility in Sacramento, and our active projects are concentrated in the South Bay (Mountain View, Menlo Park, San Jose, and nearby). We're looking to bring on additional structural engineering coverage across our active project portfolio as we continue to scale. This isn't a one-off project - it's ongoing coverage across a live portfolio, and for the right fit, it can turn into a long-term or permanent engagement. What you'd be doing: - Resolving RFIs and field questions across our active project portfolio (currently around 25-30 homes in flight at various stages) - Foundation design, structural calculation packages, and permit drawings for projects still moving through the permitting pipeline, including AHJ coordination and plan check response - Maintaining and updating existing field installation / construction drawings and providing construction administration support through Certificate of Occupancy - Room to contribute to our next product release - base structural engineering and calculation work that carries across many homes - though that's secondary to keeping active projects moving What we need: - Active California Civil PE license (Structural license welcome but not required) - Willing to serve as engineer of record and stamp/seal your own work - permit and NTA submittals, calculations, and drawings. You need to be comfortable standing behind what you sign. - 8+ years designing light-frame wood systems, architectural steel elements (stairs, canopies, etc.), and foundations - Real experience with high-seismic residential work - our homes are designed to Seismic Design Category E under the 2025 CBC, which is demanding Bay Area seismic work, not routine suburban design - Capacity to manage a high volume of concurrent projects in a fast-moving portfolio (specific RFI turnaround and capacity expectations will be set in the contract terms once we're talking specifics) - Current professional liability (E&O) insurance - Comfortable with Revit or similar BIM tools What would put you at the top of the list: - Experience with California's factory-built (HCD) / NTA permitting pathway - most residential structural engineers have never worked this process, and it's a real differentiator for us - Design-for-manufacturing-and-assembly experience - modules and steel elements built off-site and assembled in the field, so you understand handling, transport, tolerances, and field connections - Experience building tools, templates, or processes for an engineering team, not just executing individual projects - Prior work with a production homebuilder or any company engineering a repeatable product across many sites This is a real opportunity to work directly with our design and manufacturing teams on a product that's actually shipping, not sitting in review. If it's a strong fit on both sides, this can grow into our permanent in-house Structural Engineer role.