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Finding a home with Burns & McDonnell

Sarah Darmitzel has found a home with Burns & McDonnell as a project manager. She specializes in steel and concrete design for coal, natural gas, and nuclear power plants.

Finding a home with Burns & McDonnell
Sarah Darmitzel (Courtesy: Burns & McDonnell).

Sarah Darmitzel didn’t think she’d become an engineer while attending the University of Missouri.

At that time, she considered a career in architecture or urban planning. She says she had a lot of encouragement on her path toward the energy division within Burns & McDonnell.

“It was really the people that led me to where I am,” said Darmitzel in an interview in connection with International Day of Women and Girls in Science Day (#WomenInScience).

More than 15 years later, Darmitzel has found a home with the EPC firm as a project manager. She specializes in steel and concrete design for coal, natural gas, and nuclear power plants. She has worked on energy projects large and small, from formation through construction to operations.

Darmitzel explained that working in the power sector fulfills an internal purpose: solving problems in an ever-changing field, knowing we need efficient, sustainable energy sources to electrify our lives.

“I like knowing that what we're doing affects everyday life in some way, even when people may not realize it,” she said. “Engineering is solving problems. And regardless of what the [industry] changes are, in front of us, there will always be problems, and the nature of those problems will change.”

When she reflects on the most rewarding moments of her career, Darmitzel recalls her experiences in the field. She says for an engineer, she’s spent a significant amount of time on-site at different projects. This includes early in her career, spending two years assisting with the construction of Iatan Generating Station, a coal-fired plant in Missouri.

“[It] was really fascinating to be a part of a project of that scale so early in my career,” she said, “to see how many different people have to come together with different ideas and understanding and languages and perspectives to make such complex systems produce electricity in the end.”

Darmitzel stressed the importance of learning people skills as a project manager, understanding the strengths of each individual on a team.

“We don't build the projects, we have to build the people that build the projects,” she said.

She noted 3D modelling and other advancements have changed how the industry communicates in the field.

“I'm not out there picking up a hammer, loading concrete into a foundation,” she added. “But everything that I do as the engineering and project manager leads into somebody else being able to do so, and really requires a complex team to execute well.”

Darmitzel’s success has rewarded her with a new challenge across the world. In July she heads to India to lead Burns & McDonnell’s Energy Division in the firm’s Mumbai office. There Darmitzel says she’ll communicate with U.S. project managers and make sure the company’s Indian teams are meeting current project needs.

She says she hopes to develop further prospects for projects outside of the U.S.

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