When Experienced Engineers Quit:
The Hidden Delivery Risk for AEC Firms
When mid-career engineers leave, the impact extends far beyond the open position.
Engineering firms often underestimate the true cost of attrition.
Losing a single experienced engineer can mean:
- 6–12 months of productivity loss while knowledge is replaced
- Delayed project delivery and client disruption
- Loss of technical leadership pipeline
- Higher recruiting costs and signing incentives
- Increased workload on remaining staff, leading to further attrition
For firms managing complex infrastructure and climate projects, retention challenges compound quickly.
What begins as one departure can quietly become a capacity risk across multiple projects.
This executive briefing explores how engineering firms can identify retention exposure early before it impacts project delivery.
Why Engineering Retention Is Becoming a Strategic Risk
Engineering firms across the U.S. are facing a structural workforce challenge.
Demand for infrastructure, climate resilience, and energy transition projects is accelerating, while the supply of experienced engineers is tightening.
Many firms are discovering that their biggest workforce risk is not hiring.
It’s mid-career attrition.
When experienced engineers leave, firms lose:
- Project continuity
- Client relationships
- Institutional knowledge
- Future technical leaders
For principals and firm leaders, retention is quickly becoming a business continuity issue, not just an HR issue.
This briefing examines the retention risks emerging inside engineering firms and what leaders can do about them.
What You’ll Walk Away With
During this private executive briefing, we’ll review:
- Where engineering firms are losing mid-career talent — and why it’s increasing
- How retention risk shows up inside firms before leaders notice it
- The financial cost of replacing experienced engineers
- A retention-first framework for workforce strategy
You’ll leave with practical insight you can apply immediately inside your firm.
MEET THE HOST
Michele Heyward, EIT
Founder & CEO, PositiveHire
Michele Heyward is a civil engineer and workforce strategist focused on engineering talent retention in the Architecture Engineering Construction (AEC) industry.
Before founding PositiveHire, Michele spent more than a decade working in infrastructure and energy projects as a civil engineer and construction project manager.
Through PositiveHire, she works with engineering firms to understand the organizational drivers behind talent attrition and workforce performance.
Her work focuses on helping firms retain experienced engineers and build leadership pipelines for the next generation of infrastructure and climate projects.