Industry Updates / Engineering
The stamp is not the same thing as leadership
September 9, 2026 · 6 min read
A PE is a professional requirement. It does not tell you whether someone can run a project, a client, or a team.
Civil, structural, and MEP firms live with licensure. In many seats the stamp is the point. A principal who cannot seal the work is a business problem. A project engineer who is an EIT with a date for the exam is often exactly the right hire.
What the stamp does not measure: whether the report can be read by an architect, whether the project manager returns calls, whether the discipline lead will actually review the set or just sign the transmittal. We have watched firms hire the most licensed person in the stack and then discover nobody wants them in a client meeting.
Geotechnical work makes this obvious. The recommendation in the report is the product. If the writer cannot explain why the foundation changed, the PE at the bottom of the letter is not enough.
Commissioning is easy to miscategorize as "an MEP engineer who likes checklists." It is a different relationship to the building. You are there to prove the system does what the design said, and to write the failure down so someone can fix it. Hire for that, not for a general mechanical resume with the word commissioning added in the objective.
When you send us an engineering search, tell us three things. Does this person stamp? Do they manage a client? Do they check other engineers? Any one of those can be the job. All three at once is a principal, and it should be priced and timed like one.