30 Year Engineering Career, $110k Salary (gov director level) to $450k on His Own, to Building Level Design Partners
In this special episode, four of us sit down in Austin Texas to discuss the State of Civil Engineering, Infrastructure, entrepreneurship and the future of the A&E career. We also take a deep dive into Scott’s career and the origins of Level Engineering & Architecture, as well as Level Design Partners.
Scott Zurn (Founder and CEO of Level Engineering & Level Design Partners) observed some serious issues in his profession. His peers were dissatisfied and things started heading in the wrong direction.
In 2015, Scott Zurn founded Level Engineering, a national firm of independent design professionals collaborating and ensuring that our built world is positively impacting the planet we live on. Level Engineering & Architecture aims to create a new level of entrepreneurial success for designers while simultaneously creating designs that contribute to a thriving planet.
The idea for Level Engineering didn’t come to fruition without the extensive experience he had in the engineering and public works sector. Scott has worked as the Public Works Director for the City of Estes Park, Civil Engineer for the City of Longmont, and a Project manager for the City of Thornton. In 2013, Scott was named the Transportation Professional of the Year by ITE.
He was also designated as a Public Works Leadership Fellow by the American Public Works Association (APWA). He has secured and managed 100s of millions of federal grants and grant-funded NEPA studies and transportation projects. He earned the ENR Best Project of 09, for a 300-acre Brownfield Redevelopment including $250 million dollars in infrastructure bridges and 650,000 sf of retail development.
We’re also joined by Peter Modica, P.E. (Structural Engineer in Austin, Texas) who joined Level in 2024 and Andrew Dominguez (Entrepreneur and Growth Strategist) to extract unique perspectives of Scott’s story and paint a picture of the future.
Some of what we discuss includes:
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Interstates, pollution and the state of infrastructure
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Political impact
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Leaning into technology
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Going out on your own as an Engineer
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How Scott got the idea for Level and how he proved it could work
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110k salary director level (after 30 year career) to making $450k on his own
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Starting and building a new business model in A&E
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The Human Convenience
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For Benefit business model
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Why Peter (PE) joined Level
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Stamping for the first time (and the stress that can come with it)
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Being connected to the work + mentorship
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Marketing
https://levelengineering.com/about-scott-zurn
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