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Satya Sukumar handles contract admin for national AEC firm PBS&J
Multitasking is second nature to this
senior project manager, an eighteen-year veteran in
civil engineering. “My typical day is crazily busy!” she says
 With the economy fluctuating, Satya Sukumar needs to stay current on costing of transportation projects so she can give the best advice to clients of her company, PBS&J (Tampa, FL). PBS&J is an employee-owned architecture, engineering and construction firm with additional expertise in environmental science and planning. The company focuses on improving the quality of infrastructure for national clients.
Sukumar, a senior project manager, is an eighteen-year veteran in civil engineering. Multitasking is second nature to her. “My typical day is crazily busy!” she says.
Working for Florida DOT
Sukumar focuses her work on the needs of a large PBS&J client, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT, Deland, FL). As a general engineering consultant for the Florida’s Turnpike enter- prise (Ocoee, FL) which is part of FDOT, she handles all phases of design engineering contract admin for the agency’s many capital improvement projects.
This includes preparing the scope of services for projects, coordinating negotiations of design services contracts, managing project design schedules, processing contract invoices and supplemental agreements, and coordinating construction plan reviews, right-of-way acquisitions and agreements with local government, railroads and utilities. She also participates in public meetings and community workshops.
“I have to keep up with what’s going on throughout the industry and gather information,” Sukumar says. “My resources are not just engineering-oriented; I also track the latest on other issues like the economic stimulus package.” She also needs to be in a position to recommend how best to handle projects if construction costs get out of hand.
The rush to RFP
Recently Sukumar was putting in long hours working on an FDOT District V contract, part of a request for proposal (RFP) for a major design-build project. An RFP for this kind of project can take a year to pull together, but this one had to be ready in a couple of months.
“We were helping FDOT with projects that were slated for economic stimulus funding, preparing the RFP for the $1.7 billion projects along the I-4 corridor,” Sukumar explains. It’s up to Sukumar to manage information from a team of fifteen PBS&J staff, mostly CEs, and several FDOT staff.
“An RFP has to be a thorough compilation of the project scope. My job is to make sure we have all the information incorporated with no loopholes,” she says. If the project moves forward she’ll continue to manage it, but on a different level.
Juggling projects
Sometimes Sukumar has to juggle several projects at once. One she remembers involved three teams made up of seventy civil engineers and surveyors who collaborated for more than two years.
“People consider that I’m driven but also easily approachable, two traits that are important in a project manager,” she says. “It’s true that I’m very driven and like to do the best I can, but I’m not a stickler for things to be done my way. I delegate tasks, and when people show they can work by themselves, I don’t get in the middle of it. I don’t like to micromanage.”
Growing up in India
Sukumar grew up in Cochin, a city in southern India, the youngest of four girls. Her father was in the civil service and came to Cochin from New Delhi to manage a shipbuilding company.
When she was a child the family had a home built for them, and it sparked her early interest in CE. Home construction in India is very different from the U.S., Sukumar says. “Building houses takes a long time because they’re made of blocks with concrete ceilings,” she explains. “Dad would go to the jobsite and make sure the architect or construction manager didn’t need anything. I watched the house go from the foundation up. It was really neat when we were finally living there.”
Into CE
She received her BS in civil engineering from Calicut University in 1990. Her choice of the CE field brought plenty of challenges. At the time, most technically-minded Indian women were going into computer science, not civil engineering. “People thought I was making a mistake,” Sukumar says.
When she graduated she found a job with an architectural-engineering firm. Although the work was interesting, working with the owner was “a little difficult.
“He believed there were only certain aspects of the job that a female engineer should be involved with, which meant I was not allowed to make any project site visits!” she says.
After a couple of years she came to the U.S. to pursue an MSCE. She completed it in 1994 at the University of South Florida, while working as a research assistant for a U.S. DOT project. She later received an MBA from the University of Tampa.
Love of bridges
After finishing her MS Sukumar worked for American Consulting Engineers (Tampa, FL). In 1996 she moved to a similar job at Metric Engineering (Tampa, FL). She worked on designs for bridges and loved it.
“I love bridges. There are so many different aspects to bridge design,” she says. By the time she left in 1999 she had moved up to assistant department manager.
She moved to the TBE Group (Clearwater, FL) to help the company establish its own bridge department. In 2001 she joined HNTB’s Tampa, FL office as bridge department manager.
Into roadwork
She gave up bridges for broader transportation projects when she moved to PBS&J in 2004. “I don’t actually miss designing bridges, but I miss driving on new bridges I designed!” she says. “But I really enjoy what I’m doing now,” she adds.
Outside work Sukumar is president of the Florida section of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). The section has 7,000 members, twelve branches and eleven school affiliations in the state. “It’s an opportunity to help the branches and the students,” she says. “Some branches are very active and others are not. My goal is to help the smaller branches interact with the larger ones and build their volunteer base.”
She has been an active volunteer for ASCE since 1996. She recently received the Leadership Excellence award for Central Florida, presented in conjunction with Engineers Week, for her many contributions to the engineering profession.
A friendly environment
Sukumar likes the familiar and friendly environment at PBS&J, where senior managers are easily accessible and community involvement is a high priority. “Our company has a corporate diversity council that organizes events that anyone can volunteer for or participate in,” she notes.
“That makes it much easier for everyone to stay involved,” Sukumar concludes.
D/C
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