Regulated services
Regulated work stays regulated here.
Engineering services offered to the public that affect life, health or property are regulated — they need a licensed professional in responsible charge. FindPE is built around that boundary rather than around it.
The standard we hold engagements to.
Responsible charge means the direct control and personal supervision of engineering work: the professional makes — or reviews and approves — the engineering decisions, from conception to completion, and is competent in the field being practiced.
- The PE must make or approve the engineering decisions, and judge the applicability of criteria provided by others before incorporating them.
- The PE must be available to review and approve decisions before they are implemented.
- Merely reviewing drawings after someone else prepared them — without involvement in the design — does not satisfy responsible charge.
Because exemptions and the definition of “practice of engineering” vary by state, the controlling rule is always the state statute and the state board — which is why licence checks here are state-specific.
Two kinds of work, two sets of rules.
The dividing line in the United States is whether the work impacts public health, safety or welfare and is offered to the public.
A professional service — consultation, investigation, evaluation, planning, design or supervision of construction — on utilities, structures, buildings, machines or processes where life, health or property is at stake, offered to the public.
Engineering applied internally, not offered to the public, without public-safety consequence.
Civil, structural and geotechnical design; mechanical and electrical systems submitted for approval; public works; anything a PE must seal.
Software, product design, manufacturing and process optimisation, quality control, internal R&D.
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Industry exemption (private-employer work with no public offering), federal or state employees, certain agricultural work, and broad industrial exemptions in some states.
We will not facilitate seal-lending.
FindPE does not support seal-lending or plan-stamping. We will not match or facilitate any engagement where a professional is asked to seal work they did not prepare or directly supervise. Accounts that attempt it are removed and reported to the relevant state licensing board.
The positive version of the same rule: on a regulated engagement, the professional who signs is the professional who did the work — and the platform keeps the record that shows it.
- Licence gating. Only professionals verified in a project's state can bid on regulated work there. Public-sector projects follow public procurement rules.
- Statutory triggers. Where a scope legally requires a Structural Engineer, the requirement is set by state rule before the RFQ publishes — SE rather than PE.
- Lapse protection. If a credential expires, is revoked or is suspended, affected bids are withdrawn automatically, with the reason logged for both sides.
- An audit trail you can produce. Verification history, document revisions, check-out locks, download logs and milestone certifications are all recorded against the project.
Credentials are the source of truth for every bid and match decision.