Staff Spotlight – Erin Ritz

Erin Ritz is a project management and construction administration expert. With a background in business and management, her expertise is key to keep our water and wastewater design and construction projects on track. She does this through contract management, budget tracking, schedule generation and updating, and invoice processing, as well as document management and change order generation. By working alongside our project managers, Erin frees up time for our engineers to focus on the technical side of projects.

I first met Erin Ritz in 2004. At the time, Erin was working for a contractor for the construction of a large regional wastewater treatment plant in the City of Lincoln, CA. My role on the project was representing the City in construction monitoring and oversight. To the chagrin of her employer, Erin ‘saw the light’ and requested employment with our engineering firm, bringing to the table knowledge of the ‘movement of paper’ on complex construction projects.

Erin has also learned the ‘systems’ of different engineering firms, ranging in size from 60 persons to well over 15,000. She has defined the role of a project manager assistant (PMA), and assists in the preparation of proposals, coordinates with sub-consultants, and develops prevailing wage rates.”

– Todd Kotey, PE, Principal Engineer

We asked Erin a few questions so everyone can learn a bit more about her and her role in the firm.

I kind of fell into it. I earned my BS in Business Administration and never thought about working in the construction and engineering industries. But, right after graduating from college, I ended up working for a contractor where I learned all about the construction side of things, documentation, and cost/change orders. After a year and a half, I started working with engineers, construction managers, and economists. I earned the trust of one of the busiest project managers in the company, Todd Kotey, and he taught me about project management. I started assisting him on his projects, which led to understanding fee estimating, accounting/invoicing processes, resource planning, and project scheduling (a little bit of engineering too). To change things up a bit, I started working with the economists; I performed rate studies and learned the process of applying for federal and state loans and grants. You could say I was surrounded by numbers.

Right now, my role entails working with project managers, not only invoicing, but helping them plan and manage their projects. In the last eight months, I’ve been introduced to project managers that I had never met or even talked to before, and I have really liked working with them. Working with new people is what I really enjoy.

Also, I really enjoy working with the accounting team. This group of people are truly a team. Providing support to make sure no one fails.

My goal has always been to provide support to project managers, freeing up time so they are able to focus more on the technical aspects of their projects. I hope that this role grows, allowing our engineers who are project managers to focus on engineering and not get bogged down by the project management tasks that I or someone else in this role can handle for them.

I’m the youngest out of 30 grandchildren (not including great grandchildren!) on my dad’s side.