Driving Innovative, Trusted Water Solutions: Meet Stephanie Harrison

Tell us about your new role at Jacobs. What excites you most? 

We’re seeing a clear shift in the water sector — more and more clients are looking for support in owner advisory and design services tailored for design-build delivery. I’m working with clients to navigate complex delivery models with confidence, clarity and the right expertise at the right time. We’re taking lessons learned from transportation and other parts of our business where we regularly deliver design for design-build services and bring that knowledge and experience to our water clients. With design for design-build, Jacobs provides design services for a project alongside a prime contractor. So, we're exploring the different ways we can support our clients as they explore various collaborative delivery methods - while continuing to offer the fully integrated design-build services we've provided for decades.

The owner's advisor space provides an opportunity to guide our clients on which collaborative delivery model best suits them and their projects early on. By serving as owner’s advisor, we can leverage our trusted relationships with clients to assist when they need help exploring collaborative delivery options. Then we can collaborate with them throughout the process of design, delivery, commissioning and operations, all while building that trusted advisor relationship. 

In my role now, I'm looking forward to learning more about contractor negotiation and how we continue to deliver our technical expertise to bring the best value to our clients. 

I was super lucky to work on my first design-build project — a pump station for Colorado Springs Utilities— back in 2000 when water design-build was really starting to grow. On that project, I was project engineer working on yard-piping design and supporting mechanical design, specifically pump selections and major equipment selections. It was very technical, but I also got to understand how the inner workings with contractors and our contractual position with them being sub to us. Fast forward ten years, I got to work on another design-build for San Diego Twin Oaks Phase II project. I find design-build projects to be exciting — from managing the fast-paced design schedule and project risks to working closely with the client and contractor to get everything done. 

What are the benefits of design-build and collaborative delivery models? 

The obvious one is managing the client’s risk. Collaborative delivery offers many different benefits which can include risk mitigation like performance requirements, cost and schedule control. Every model has its own approach to risk mitigation. Our clients appreciate the different alternatives that the models offer and how we enable them to manage risk. 

Back when I was in my sales role, we started seeing a noticeable shift — more water clients were moving toward design-build delivery, with Jacobs increasingly serving as a sub to contractors rather than holding the prime.

Clients today are continuing to explore different delivery models to see what works best for them and their projects, so as consultants we have to be adaptable. It’s important that we flex with our clients just as we would in traditional delivery — for example, when a client is trying a new technology that we’ve not used with them before. In a way, collaborative delivery is its own technology if you think about it. So, we need to be flexible with our clients — especially those long-term clients — and educate them on the benefits each model presents. 

What lessons have you learned from working on design-build projects? 

Design-build is truly a different pace of play and it can be a learning curve at first, so you have to get in the right mindset — but the potential for collaboration both internally with our many engineering disciplines and externally with the contractor is far more rewarding. I think working side by side results in a better design and makes us better engineers.

When you aren’t working, what do you enjoy doing? 

My husband and I have two boys who are super athletic and play on travel baseball teams and other sports. So, we laugh, because our weekends are spent shuttling our kids around, sitting at a baseball park or on the sidelines of a football game — and we wouldn't have it any other way! Time flies and I really enjoy taking advantage of being with them and seeing them flourish in something that they love. 

What do you enjoy most about being part of Jacobs? 

I enjoy the network of people, and how my network continues to grow every day, especially in my new role! It excites me when I'm meeting with clients or teammates in the company and I can connect people with resources and others in my network.

Additionally, we deliver cool projects at Jacobs. This is what our culture is all about — our people and the projects that make a difference in our communities — and I think most of my colleagues will agree. I've been lucky to work on a handful of challenging, high-profile projects and it's made my career journey very rewarding.