Solar Engineering Lead - Preliminary Design

COMPANY OVERVIEW  

Moss is a national, privately held construction firm providing innovative solutions resulting in award-winning projects. With regional offices across the United States, Moss focuses on construction management, solar EPC, design-build, and public-private partnerships. The company’s diverse portfolio encompasses a wide range of sectors, including luxury high-rise residential, landmark mixed-use developments, hospitality, K-12 and higher education, justice, solar energy and battery storage, and sports. Moss is ranked by Engineering News-Record as one of the nation’s top 65 general contractors, and the 3rd ranked solar EPC nationwide. Moss prides itself on a strong entrepreneurial culture that honors safety, quality, client engagement, and employee development.  

POSITION SCOPE AND ORGANIZATIONAL IMPACT  

As a Solar Engineering Lead - Preliminary Design on our Engineering Services team, you will play a critical leadership role in shaping the early technical direction of Moss’s utility-scale solar and BESS projects. In this position, you will develop preliminary design packages and own the integrity and quality of the team’s deliverables, influence key electrical and DC collection strategic decisions, and proactively reduce downstream risk and rework.

You will drive continuous process improvements across Engineering Services while mentoring and developing fellow engineers to elevate overall team performance. By making cost-conscious design decisions and anticipating constructability challenges before projects break ground, you will directly contribute to stronger project outcomes. This is a high-visibility role where your technical leadership and decision-making have a measurable impact on profitability, schedule certainty, and bid success. You will also provide support for preconstruction and cross-functional teams by leading new initiatives, focusing on continuous improvement and value engineering, and providing a critical layer to maintain the quality deliverables.

ESSENTIAL JOB DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Develop and review preliminary PV layouts prepared by Project Engineers, providing clear, actionable feedback to ensure technical accuracy and completeness.

• Ensure all preliminary designs align with the Scope of Work, owner requirements, and internal standards, proactively identifying deviations, risks, and missing inputs

• Align DC collection strategies and key design decisions with Engineering Services electrical guidance and applicable codes and standards.

• Integrate lessons learned into preliminary design practices to drive continuous improvement and elevate overall design quality.

• Own the timely delivery of complete preliminary design packages, ensuring clean, well-documented handoffs to downstream teams with clearly stated assumptions and decisions.

• Accurately estimate effort and timelines for preliminary design tasks, prioritizing review cycles to support Project Engineer productivity and meet RFP and pipeline deadlines.

• Coordinate cross-functionally to resolve interface conflicts, close open technical items, and maintain alignment across disciplines.

• Maintain an organized version control and change tracking, clearly identifying the current approved design set.

• Make cost-conscious design decisions that reduce commercial risk and support efficient field execution.

• Minimize rework and downstream change orders through early risk identification, scope clarity, and resolution of ambiguities before handoff.

• Escalate potential safety risks in designs or deliverables and adhere to all Moss and Engineering Services safety protocols.

• Mentor and coach team members on preliminary design standards, workflows, and quality expectations, providing timely and constructive feedback.

• Communicate design decisions, trade-offs, and technical rationale clearly to foster strong cross-disciplinary collaboration.

• Identify resourcing or capability gaps early and propose practical solutions, supporting onboarding and skill development in preliminary design processes.

• Contribute to the refinement of workflows, checklists, and templates to improve efficiency, consistency, and overall handoff quality.

EDUCATION AND WORK EXPERIENCE

• Bachelor's degree in engineering, technical field, or related discipline - required.

• 3+ years of project engineering and preliminary design engineering experience in the Utility-Scale Solar industry - required.

• Utility-scale Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) experience - preferred.

• Proficient knowledge of electrical systems, layouts, civil considerations, and AC and DC collection strategies; emphasizes scoping assumptions and early constraints.

• Understands sequencing and hand-offs from estimating preliminary design and downstream partners.

• Recognizes risks early and escalates scope/alignment issues for resolution.

• General budget awareness understands how Preliminary Design scope, materials, and assumptions affect cost and field execution.

• Clearly conveys recommendations, risks, and design changes; makes Preliminary Design decisions visible and traceable.

• Articulates rationale in reviews; ensures key details carry into downstream packages.

• Proficiency in Excel and design/drafting tools for site constraints and layout trade-offs.

• Strong analysis and problem-solving for option evaluation and early conflict resolution.

• Organizes technical data for efficient review of assumptions and decisions.

• Effective written/verbal communication across disciplines and partners.

• Manages time to balance tasks and review cycles against RFP/pipeline timelines.

• Reliable task/project owner; reviews/approves PE outputs with minimal oversight.

• Demonstrate an execution mindset; proactively identify opportunities to improve workflows and deliverables.

• Anticipates constructability issues; provides input to prevent downstream risks.

• Critical thinking skills are needed to escalate when the scope, schedule, or cost is impacted.

• Strong attention to detail with forward-looking solutions for clean handoffs.

• Ability to collaborate across disciplines to align electrical with civil/mechanical constraints.

• Willingness to travel as needed to support project execution, up to 20-25% travel - if remote.

• Work hard, be nice, and have fun!

JOB TITLE: ASSOCIATE, SME, ENGINEERING SERVICES (PRELIMINARY DESIGN) 

JOB LOCATION: FORT LAUDERDALE, FL, HYBRID, OR REMOTE

CLASSIFICATION: FULL TIME – EXEMPT – SALARIED 

REPORTS TO: MANAGER, ENGINEERING SERVICES