LEADERSHIP PERSPECTIVE

David Fleeman, P.E., LEED AP

Vice President & Director of Engineering

“My responsibility is to set the team up to succeed—the right tools, the right training, the right assignments, and a clear path forward for those who want to grow.”

At Florida Design Consultants, strong engineering requires more than technical expertise. It takes thoughtful leadership, dependable processes, intentional team development, and a commitment to helping clients move complex projects forward.

As Vice President and Director of Engineering, David Fleeman helps bring those elements together. His responsibilities extend across FDC’s engineering operations, including staffing, training, proposals, quality control, project delivery, and client satisfaction.

Much of David’s work happens behind the scenes, but its impact can be seen in the quality of FDC’s projects and the continued development of the people responsible for delivering them.

Leading Through People, Process, and Purpose

A Tampa native, David brings more than 28 years of professional engineering experience to Florida Design Consultants. He earned his Master of Engineering degree from the University of Florida and specializes in the design and permitting of large, multiphased subdivisions, multifamily residential developments, industrial warehouses, and commercial outparcels for private developers.



David is also highly experienced in solving complex design challenges for both public- and private-sector clients. His expertise includes site development, parking studies, street repaving, and intersection improvement projects for school boards, institutional clients, Community Development Districts, cities, and counties.

Experience and Expertise

People often assume that a Director of Engineering spends most of the day reviewing calculations, checking drawings, and resolving technical problems. Although those responsibilities are part of David’s position, much of his role is centered on people.

He evaluates workloads, matches employees with appropriate projects, identifies training opportunities, and considers how each assignment can help someone develop new skills. Instead of viewing staffing as simply filling an immediate project need, David sees each assignment as an opportunity for long-term professional growth.

That might mean placing an engineer who has never designed a pump station on a project that provides the right experience. It also means creating opportunities for senior team members to share their knowledge so that expertise moves throughout the organization rather than remaining with one person.

“The technical side of engineering has rules and reference materials. The people side requires judgment, and you’re recalibrating constantly.”

When explaining his role in everyday terms, David puts it simply:

More Than Technical Leadership

Problem-solving remains one of the parts of engineering David enjoys most.

FDC’s clients frequently bring the firm complicated site, infrastructure, regulatory, and development challenges. The objective is not merely to find a technically acceptable answer. It is to develop a practical solution that works for the site, supports the client’s vision, and respects the project’s budget.



David recalls one project in which a regulatory comment required the team to redesign a proposed driveway. Instead of simply relocating the driveway to satisfy the comment, the team reconsidered the complete layout.

The revised alignment was approximately 60 feet shorter and created a more direct route to the building entrance. It also provided additional room for the stormwater pond, which reduced the project’s overall fill requirements.

What initially appeared to be a setback ultimately produced a more efficient and less expensive design for the client.

“That’s the kind of outcome that makes the work interesting. A comment that initially looked like a setback ultimately helped us create a better and less expensive project.”

The experience reflects an important part of FDC’s approach: design obstacles and regulatory comments are not merely boxes to check. They can become opportunities to reconsider a project, identify efficiencies, and create additional value for the client.

Turning Challenges Into Better Outcomes

Many of the factors that determine whether a project succeeds are established long before the final deliverable reaches the client.

The right people must be assigned to the right tasks. Proposals must accurately account for the time and resources the project will require. Quality control must be incorporated throughout the process rather than treated as a final step.

David’s role is to recognize and reduce potential failure points before they affect the project.

“My benchmark for any procedure is whether it makes it easier to do something correctly than incorrectly.”

When something does go wrong, David believes accountability should focus on understanding what happened and improving the process—not assigning blame.

“If a proposal is underpriced, that’s on me. If a deliverable goes out with an error, I need to understand how the process broke down and fix it.”

This approach helps create an environment where employees feel comfortable raising concerns early, allowing the team to address potential problems before they grow.

Building Accountability Into the Process

When David considers the qualities that help people build successful careers, three stand out.

Be Humble

Humility means understanding that there is always more to learn and being willing to learn from people at every level of an organization.

“The engineer who thinks they’ve figured it out usually stops growing right around the time they think that.”

Be Hungry

Being hungry means actively pursuing new challenges, developing new skills, and positioning yourself for opportunities instead of waiting for them to appear.

Develop Emotional Intelligence

Although engineering is a technical profession, projects are completed through relationships among teammates, clients, regulators, contractors, public agencies, and community stakeholders.

The ability to listen carefully, read a room, manage conflict, communicate clearly, and build trust can shape an engineer’s career just as significantly as technical knowledge.

David also encourages early-career professionals to seek varied experiences and avoid becoming too comfortable in a single area.

Developing the Next Generation

One of FDC’s central cultural principles is Teamship—the belief that successful projects depend on people working together and taking responsibility for the success of the entire team.

For David, Teamship means caring more about the success of the project and the people working on it than about receiving personal recognition.

In practice, that means stepping in when someone needs assistance, sharing knowledge freely, and measuring success by the quality of the final outcome rather than one individual’s contribution.



“The people I’ve seen thrive over long careers are almost always the ones who operated that way. They weren’t less ambitious; they just aimed at the right things.”

That mindset is particularly important in civil engineering, where projects involve multiple disciplines, changing conditions, long timelines, and close coordination among internal teams and external partners. No single person delivers a successful project alone.

What Teamship Means

One of the things David values most about FDC is the company’s ownership and its willingness to invest in people.

FDC’s leaders remain accessible and involved in the organization’s day-to-day work. They understand that building a strong company requires more than hiring people with the right credentials. It means recognizing employees who demonstrate the right values, providing meaningful opportunities, and creating an environment where people can succeed together.

David’s goal is for every member of his team to feel that FDC is somewhere worth being.

He wants employees to know that the people around them care about the quality of their work and about one another. He wants them to feel challenged in ways that support their growth—not simply overwhelmed with tasks. Most importantly, he wants them to see a clear path forward.



“The goal is an environment where talented people come together every day to do complicated work and genuinely enjoy doing it together. That doesn’t happen by accident.”

Creating a Workplace Worth Being Part Of

An Unexpected Story

Outside of engineering, David has a few unexpected stories of his own. One of the most memorable?

BEYOND THE OFFICE

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