Location: Austin, TX
Type: Full-time
Compensation: $90,000 - $180,000 annually
Company: sanctuary.co
If you’ve spent your career in environments where everything is already figured out - established civil standards, tidy workflows, and predictable processes - you won’t find that here.
We’re early, messy, and building as we go.
And that’s why this role matters.
If chaos excites you more than it scares you,
if land speaks to you,
and if you want to shape both the work and the way the work gets done…
Then keep reading….
Who we are
Sanctuary builds nature - led, wellness - centered communities that feel alive. Our first 135 acre residential community in the Texas Hill Country is designed with:
🌱 Non-toxic materials
💧 Clean water and filtration systems
⚡ EMF-conscious design
🌿 135 acres of preserved land and eco - sensitive planning
We are a global team of designers, architects, engineers, and dreamers building spaces that restore and inspire. For us, it’s not just where people live - it’s how they live.
We’re a team spread across 8 countries, building our 1st community in Austin, Texas. This is only the beginning. Our vision is to bring Sanctuary to major cities around the world: healthy, sovereign communities that sit on the edges of every modern metropolis.
And now, we’re searching for the civil engineer who can make this vision buildable in a way that honors the land.
🗺️ What this role really means
For too long, we’ve relied on outside consultants for grading, drainage, and site layout - and frankly, it slowed us down and diluted the beauty of what we’re building.
We’re bringing this role in-house because we need someone who sees land as a canvas, not a constraint.
You will literally shape how the community feels underfoot:
Roads that follow the land instead of fighting it
Homes tucked gracefully into natural contours
Stormwater systems that follow the logic of nature
This is a rare chance to blend engineering, architecture, sustainability, and design into one high-impact role.
Your impact will show up everywhere ✨
Your work determines:
Pace: How fast we can build.
Aesthetics:How beautifully each home sits within the land.
Sustainability: How thoughtfully we work with nature (designing roads that follow terrain, and stormwater paths that work with natural systems).
You will be the bridge between vision and reality - the person who turns world-class architecture into something constructible, intelligent, and deeply respectful of the Hill Country terrain.
What you’ll own (end-to-end)
You will lead civil engineering for our entire community - full stop.
This includes:
Site & Land Development
Full-site grading, drainage, roadway layout, and retaining design
Creating grading that makes every home feel naturally placed
Topography-driven design that minimizes cuts, scars, and cost
Permitting & Approvals
Prepare and submit permit-ready civil drawing sets for:
TCEQ (Texas Commission on Environmental Quality)
Hays County
City of Dripping Springs
And own the entire permitting process end-to-end.
Cross-functional Design Leadership
Work closely with global architects, designers, and MEP teams
Collaborate daily with construction in Austin to ensure buildability
Guide design decisions using deep knowledge of Texas codes/standards
Technical Execution
Translate geotechnical & survey data into actionable plans
Develop drainage models, stormwater paths, and cut-fill strategies
Coordinate civil work packages: roads, driveways, water/sewer, utilities
Review consultant work and integrate it into Sanctuary standards
Systems & Standards
Build the foundation of Sanctuary’s civil engineering processes
Create templates, workflows, and documentation that scale to future communities
This is a role for someone who loves rolling up their sleeves, running models, walking the land, and making decisions that will shape a community for decades.
What You Bring
Education
Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering (Master’s preferred but not required)
Experience
6–10 years in site/civil design, grading, or land development
Residential, mixed-use, or master-planned community experience is a plus
Technical Strength
Grading design, stormwater management, drainage modeling
Road layouts, utility corridors, cut-fill optimization
Revit + AutoCAD Civil 3D (or equivalent tools)
Mindset
This matters more than anything else. You are someone who:
Thinks with both logic and imagination
Designs for beauty and practicality
Loves land, water, slope, and the challenge of making them work together
Thrives in ambiguity and early-stage building
Wants your engineering to actually mean something
Why This Role Is Special
Civil engineers rarely get to work this close to:
Architectural vision
Environmental conservation
Holistic community design
A founding team shaping an entirely new way of living
At Sanctuary, your work won’t disappear into a giant firm’s folder structure.
Your decisions will shape the roads people walk, the views they wake up to, the water that runs through the land, and the experience of a community designed to make life feel better.
This is engineering with meaning.
Engineering with heart.
Engineering that cares about people and the planet.
If you’re the kind of engineer who wants to build more than infrastructure…
If you want to build a new way of living, we’d love to meet you !
Compensation Range: $90K - $180K
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