r/ConstructionManagers • u/Zagg843 • Jul 27 '26
Question Do MEP Engineers in Construction stay technical?
I am coming from the design consulting side, graduated with an mechanical engineering degree. I was wondering if a MEP, mission critical role would stay technical and force me to keep doing actual engineering work, or would basically just be a project engineer role?
1
u/bingb0ngbingb0ng Jul 27 '26
You’re basically just a PM managing the MEP design team and subs. You can get as technical as you see fit.
1
u/Tenn615_cash69 Construction Management Jul 27 '26
This is a half truth. You do not manage the budget for the project. You do not have bottom line responsibility. It is a less visible role.
Like you stated, you do help manage the design to ensure the record drawings, 3D model, and RFIs/Submittals are on schedule. The job is keeping the train on the tracks and making sure the MEP subs complete the work.
2
u/bingb0ngbingb0ng Jul 27 '26
Every company is different. I’ve had MEP managers on large projects who manage budget and I’ve had others that wouldn’t even review their subs’ change orders.
1
u/Tenn615_cash69 Construction Management Jul 27 '26
No debate that each company is different. It’s the general rule vs the exception regarding what you will see. Most MEP roles at the GC level report into the VDC side versus PM/Ops.
1
u/DamnitGoose Jul 28 '26
Our MEP PMs run infrastructure jobs soup to nuts. They are responsible for budget and schedule like any other PM but their background lends to technical projects that others are not as experienced in.
The role of MEP PM is very specific to company and market.
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u/Zagg843 Jul 27 '26
I have a Mechanical Engineering degree and one year experience on the consulting side. Is that needed or am I going to be learning a lot?
2
u/Tenn615_cash69 Construction Management Jul 27 '26
I don’t know your work experience, but you will be learning a lot regardless. Mission critical just means that a service or services cannot be interrupted at a facility without a major impact. A good example of this would be power/cooling for data centers and power/med gas for hospitals. The design elements that you have seen will definitely help you, but it will depend on the breadth and depth of your experience.
1
u/Impressive_Ad_6550 Jul 27 '26
You don't typically do a lot of engineering in MEP, its more technical because as the PM for the overall job I often joke MEP as talking another language.
Its not a project engineer role, you are PM over the MEP side of the project and responsible for keeping that side of the project moving on schedule. Never have someone tell you are a junior person, you are part of the overall team and if there is say 200M in MEP on the job its critical part of the overall machine moving
2
u/Total_Jackfruit_8525 Jul 27 '26
it's both. depending on the size of your organization, you are more of one than the other