Piping Engineer

In the classic Super Mario Bros. videogame, Mario and Luigi traverse the Mushroom Kingdom in search of Princess Toadstool. To get around, the brothers don’t use cars. They use pipes. Not just because they’re Plumbers, either; it’s because pipes are the guts of the built world, serving as a connective network between virtually every room in every building on every street of every city.

A Piping Engineer is the mastermind in charge of designing the piping superhighway. That might mean designing plumbing systems for residential buildings, or water lines and sewage systems for municipalities. Most often, though, being a Piping Engineer means creating infrastructure for industrial facilities, where large-scale piping systems transport liquids and gases used in heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), as well as other industrial processes.

Harder than it looks, your job as a Piping Engineer requires selecting appropriate piping materials, like fiberglass, aluminum, plastic, copper, or concrete. You also have to choose proper piping components, including fittings, valves, and devices that control temperature, flow, and pressure. Next, you design piping layouts that transport the contents efficiently and effectively. You have to take into account budget constraints, space limits, and building code requirements, as well as stress considerations like temperature, weight, and pressure.

Your job doesn’t stop there, either. After design comes execution, and you’re often in charge of supervising and troubleshooting piping installation and testing.

If it sounds complicated, that’s because it is. Because you love solving engineering puzzles, however, you’re up to the challenge — whether it requires working at home, abroad, or in a make-believe Mushroom Kingdom.