How I Built a Civil Engineering Firm That Doesn’t Follow Industry Norms

Where did MES start?

I was standing in a dusty field in Guernsey, Wyoming, when my boss told me no.

Not no to something unreasonable. No to a career-advancing opportunity that another manager within the same firm had offered me. I asked for permission to take it. One word came back. No.

That night I barely slept. The next morning I walked into the office, sat down at my desk, typed a resignation letter and walked out for the last time. That was 2017. I did not have a plan. I did not have clients lined up.

What I had was a gut-level understanding that I could not build the career I wanted while someone else held a veto over every decision. In 2018 I opened MES.

Most engineers who have worked inside a large firm know a version of that feeling. Your license, your judgment and your reputation start to feel like assets on the firm's balance sheet, not tied to the outcomes you produce. Projects move slowly, not because the engineering is hard, but because the structure was built for something other than getting things done.

That is what MES was built to replace.

What is Grandfather Engineering?

It is the model most of our industry still runs, and it was designed for a different era. We call it Grandfather Engineering.

It is the comfortable, slow, hourly model that rewards time spent over value created. It is senior PEs doing CAD work a drafter should handle. It is firms billing hours against a multiplier with no structural reason to finish faster. It is developers carrying months of holding costs while permit applications cycle through deficiency notices a better submittal would have prevented. It is AI dismissed as a toy.

We are not competing with Grandfather Engineering. We are replacing it.

What model did we build instead?

MES runs on five principles. We treat them as operating rules, not slogans.

Value over hours. We price around outcomes: faster permits, lower construction costs, less risk. What matters is what the work changes for the client, not how long it took. A firm that bills by the hour has no structural reason to finish faster. We do.

Speed as a design constraint. Time to permit matters as much as hydraulics. We build the schedule into the engineering from day one, not as an afterthought. For a developer carrying land and loan costs, every month of permit delay is a financial event. That is the frame we bring to every project.

Less admin, more engineering. We train AI on our own templates and standards so it handles first drafts, structure and routine documentation. Engineers still make every judgment call and review everything, because AI makes mistakes. The point is to reduce admin overhead so we can focus on getting clients results. Plenty of firms still produce engineering the way they did 20 years ago. We changed how we do it.

Deep work over busy work. We protect focus time. No endless meetings. No performative availability. Engineers need uninterrupted time to think. Mornings at MES are for production: design, calculations, plan reviews, proposals. Reactive work goes into a scheduled window, so the morning is not spent clearing overnight messages before anything gets produced.

Conservative money, aggressive quality. I would rather grow slower on cash reserves than faster on debt. That gives us the freedom to protect quality, say no to the wrong projects and protect the people doing the work. A firm buried in debt has to chase any project on any terms. We do not.

What do we actually do?

MES is a licensed civil engineering design firm, with water and wastewater at the center of it. We design treatment plants, model distribution systems, size lift stations and work through TCEQ, CDPHE and other state regulatory processes. We also do site civil engineering for land development and construction administration.

Our clients are developers who need infrastructure feasibility answers before they close on land, and treatment plant designs that do not need a second redesign because the first version was engineered correctly. They are municipalities and utilities that want a partner who shows up with ideas, not just deliverables. They are engineering firms that need overflow and specialty support they do not have in-house.

We are not the right fit for every project. If you want the cheapest stamp, think AI has no place in engineering, or believe that the way things have always been done is reason enough to keep doing them, we are not your firm.

If you are ready to build infrastructure faster and smarter, without sacrificing quality or the sanity of the people designing it, we are exactly your firm.

What do clients actually experience?

The difference shows up in pro formas and schedules, not just in how calls feel. Developers who work with us get:

• A permitting pathway analysis before engineering begins, not a submittal that assumes the default path is right
• A 210E industrial reclaimed water authorization (30 TAC Chapter 210, Subchapter E) evaluated, where the project can qualify, before anyone commits to a TPDES discharge permit
• Infrastructure cost estimates that belong in a pro forma, not ones revised after closing when the surprises surface
• The engineer working on the project answering the questions, not a junior staff member relaying messages to a principal
• Work produced to be correct the first time, not built around billing revision cycles

Why am I still building it?

MES is not a finished product. We are still building the systems, the AI tools and the operating model that make the ideas above work at scale.

I wrote the book that describes the model, Engineer Your Freedom, because I could not find it anywhere when I needed it. The Engineer Your Freedom newsletter exists because the conversations the book starts are the most useful ones I have.

The firm that grew out of one word in a Wyoming field exists because I believed, and still believe, that infrastructure delivery does not have to burn out the engineers who design it or bleed the developers who fund it. We are proving there is a better way.

A note on limits. This is my story and my opinion of how engineering firms should run. It is not a claim about any particular firm, and nothing here promises a schedule, cost or permit outcome for a specific project.

Frequently asked questions

What states is MES licensed in?

Texas, Colorado, California, Oklahoma, Nevada, Arizona, Florida, Kansas and New Mexico. We are headquartered in McKinney, Texas, with offices in Golden, Colorado and San Jose, California.

Who does MES work with?

Developers and builders, utilities and municipalities, chains and franchises, contractors and design-builders, and landowners. We also support other engineering firms with overflow and specialty water and wastewater work.

How is MES different from a traditional civil engineering firm?

It comes down to how we are organized and how we price. Traditional firms bill hours against a multiplier. We price around outcomes. AI handles first drafts and routine production so engineers spend their time on judgment, and engineers review everything it produces. The engineers doing the work talk directly with clients.

I'm a PE at a large firm and my next career move depends on one manager's yes or no. How did you decide it was time to leave?

I decided the night after a single "no." I realized I could not build the career I wanted while someone else held a veto over every decision, and I resigned the next morning without a plan or clients lined up. The book I wrote later, Engineer Your Freedom, has a chapter on exactly this question: "Are You Ready? When to Branch Out."

I'm a Texas developer used to hourly engineering contracts. What does "value over hours" change about working with MES?

The conversation starts with what the work needs to change for your project: the permit path, the construction cost, the risk to your schedule. Scope follows from that, not from an hours estimate. You still get engineers who review every deliverable, and you talk to the engineer doing the work.

Related resources

• Why Speed Is a Design Constraint: How Modern Engineering Firms Deliver Infrastructure Faster
• The Four Layers Under MES, Top Down
• How Did I Get to a Point Where Someone Else Has Complete Control Over My Career Trajectory?
• What a Utility Feasibility Study Actually Tells You, and When to Get One

Tired of engineering that bills hours instead of moving your project?

We treat schedule as a design input and keep our engineers on judgment instead of admin. If that is the partner you want, let's talk.

We specialize in:

• Water and wastewater feasibility analysis during land due diligence
• TCEQ and CDPHE permitting, including 210E, TLAP and TPDES pathways
• Package and custom wastewater treatment plant design
• Distribution system modeling and hydraulic analysis
• Lift station design and collection system engineering
• Overflow and specialty water and wastewater support for engineering firms

Modern Engineering Solutions, McKinney, Texas. Contact: (214) 833-6748 or mod-eng.com