Company Profile
Barr Engineering Co.
Company Overview
About Barr Engineering Co.
Barr is a consulting company that integrates engineering and environmental expertise to help clients develop, manage, process, and restore natural resources across North America and around the world. We have been employee owned since 1966 and trace our origins to the early 1900s. Today, we have over 1,000 employees across the U.S and Canada who work with clients in the mining, power, fuels, public, and manufacturing sectors, as well as attorneys, developers, and others with complex problems.
Please visit www.barr.com/careers to view a full listing of our available positions and to apply online.
Company History
Our Company History
In the early 1950s, Doug Barr contacted Adolph Meyer, a renowned hydraulic engineer, about the prospect of work in Minnesota. Doug’s early projects involved hydraulic engineering and hydrology. One was the Nebraska Mid-State Irrigation Project, which entailed designing 23 reservoirs, four hydropower plants, flood-control channels and dams, and irrigation delivery systems for a 500,000-acre area. Other early projects were at sites where we still work and for clients with whom we have partnered for decades.
By 1960, Doug Barr was established as a one-person firm and took on his first employee, John Dickson, who stayed until his retirement in 1997. Barr’s business with mining clients on northern Minnesota’s Iron Range continued to grow, and we expanded our structural and geotechnical engineering services.
Employee-owned
In 1966, Barr Engineering Co. was incorporated as an employee-owned firm with 16 employees. One of them was Al Gebhard, who succeeded Doug Barr as the company’s president in 1985 and served until 1999. Doug Connell was named Barr’s president and CEO in 2000, followed by John Lee in 2013. Ward Swanson became our current president and CEO in 2021.
Today, we often work with clients on large, complex engineering and environmental projects, for which we provide everything from initial permitting and siting assistance through process and facility design to construction management, operations support, and closure planning.
Over more than half a century, Barr’s services and staff have grown to meet our clients’ needs. We have also expanded geographically, opening offices in seven states and Canada and merging with other firms to provide the exceptional service and expertise our clients have come to expect.
Notable Clients
Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, STAR Technology Corporation,Sebewaing Light & Water Department,SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment
Notable Accomplishments / Recognition
You can read more about our projects on our website at https://www.barr.com/Projects
Benefits
Benefits at a glance
People stay at Barr because they appreciate our firm’s flexibility, tight-knit community, and career opportunities. Another draw is our competitive package of employee benefits, which includes:
Comp time (salaried employees receive time off or receive pay for extra time worked)
Professional-development funds for each employee
A 401(k) retirement savings plan with regular company contributions
Company contributions to employee stock-ownership plan (ESOP) accounts
Annual bonus program
Medical, dental, and vision insurance
Life insurance
Disability and AD&D insurance
Flexible spending accounts for healthcare and dependent-care expenses
Paid time off for holidays, vacations, and personal days
Flexible schedules and hybrid work arrangements