Jim has spent his 25 year recruiting career in the AEC industry. He loves doing research and using data to better understand the talent challenges of our industry and sharing what he has learned.

He leads a team of recruiters at Freese and Nichols, a civil engineering company of 1,300+ employees. Last year, Freese and Nichols celebrated their 130th anniversary, but it wasn’t until year 127 that Freese and Nichols decided to add a Talent Acquisition team.

This year, their goal is to hire 350 engineers, planners, architects, scientists from Virginia to Colorado. Included in that number is 100+ interns and around 75 new graduates, mostly civil and environmental engineering majors. The Freese and Nichols internship program was named a Top 100 Internship Program by Yello + WayUp in 2023, 2024, and 2025.