Jacobs Ranked #1 on ENR’s Top 500 Design Firms List for Seventh Consecutive Year

Engineering News-Record (ENR) has ranked Jacobs No. 1 in its list of 2024 Top 500 Design Firms. Widely considered the industry benchmark, the annual list ranks both publicly and privately held U.S. companies based on revenue for design-specific services performed in the previous year. Jacobs has held a top five position in the Top 500 list since ENR’s rankings began in 2003, and for a seventh consecutive year, we’ve retained the top spot.

“At Jacobs, we’re bringing clients new ways to gain insights that improve their infrastructure decision-making and performance,” says Jacobs Senior Vice President Tom Meinhart. “ENR’s recognition of Jacobs’ top design position reflects our work to help clients tap into technology, data and cross-market solutions to deliver more efficiently, cost-effectively and sustainably.”

“Universally, our clients are being asked to do more, faster and with less, whether it be managing skills shortages, tighter budgets or supply chain limitations, all while navigating global climate change and complex geopolitical conditions,” explains Jacobs CEO Bob Pragada. “We’re seeing larger, more multifaceted projects across key sectors aligned to critical infrastructure and sustainability.”

Delivering for our clients…

Anticipating the trends most important to our clients, our Jacobs teammates around the globe focus on solving complex challenges around climate response, social value, resource constraints, cybersecurity, data and technology.

“Project delivery mechanisms are constantly evolving. Each geography has nuances, but one consistent pattern is the elevated scale, complexity and interfaces of programs that we design and deliver,” says Jacobs Executive Vice President and President, Global Operations Patrick Hill. “Because of this complexity, asset owners need partners that provide global insight, expertise and capacity experienced on the world’s most critical infrastructure programs. This partnership unlocks innovation while assuring delivery, ultimately providing the best outcomes for the communities and customers that they serve.” 

For example, the City of Nampa Idaho’s Wastewater Treatment Facility is under construction to meet U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requirements and increase capacity by 50%. As part of the improvements, the city is building a major water re-use pipeline to divert 11 million gallons of Class A recycled water per day during the irrigation season, which can be used on city parks and properties. Jacobs is the progressive design builder for facility. Upon completion, the recycled water will reduce the amount of surface water drawn from the Boise River and conserve Nampa’s water resources efficiently and strategically. 

In Philadelphia, Jacobs is serving as engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) lead for Spark Therapeutics’ new Gene Therapy Innovation Center, uniquely positioned in a dense urban environment in the heart of University City. Anticipated to be complete in 2026, the 500,000 square foot six-story facility will also serve as a center of excellence for Roche gene therapy manufacturing globally, with the ability to flex and adapt to meet future manufacturing needs. 

In Sydney, we’re providing full engineering design services for the Warringah Freeway Upgrade project, which is transforming the northern approach to the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge. A major transport infrastructure project, the freeway works will integrate traffic flow from the new Western Harbour Tunnel crossing – addressing urban congestion along one of Australia’s busiest and most complex roads. The upgrade will make it easier, faster and safer to travel into the city center, and connect communities, business and freight flow on both sides of the harbor. The project is part of the New South Wales (NSW) government’s future transport strategy to integrate road and public transport networks across Sydney.

with technology for tomorrow…

Positioned at the forefront of digital growth, data solutions is one of our strategic accelerators, adding digital capabilities, products and tools to support our clients at every step of their digital journey.

For example, in the transportation market, StreetLight Insight ®—a wholly-owned Jacobs product—measures vehicle, transit, bike and foot traffic anywhere, allowing clients real-time data analytics to guide urban and transit infrastructure investment decisions. It also supports real-time operational decisions around managing traffic flows around construction activities and major event surges like Taylor Swift’s Eras tour.

In the water market, Intelligent O&M—a digital solution based on Palantir’s Foundry platform—gives real-time visibility into water treatment plant operations to shift plants from a reactive to a proactive management stance. Previously unused operational data is processed to deliver meaningful insights and savings to operating facilities. Sites have demonstrated savings of 10-30% on power, chemicals and maintenance. Offering these data-based solutions helps clients better plan infrastructure investments and monitor performance and outcomes. 

Additionally, our artificial intelligence (AI)-powered condition assessment tool, Dragonfly, is enhancing how clients manage sewer infrastructure and repair and respond to critical issues. Dragonfly is a web-based, cloud-hosted system jointly developed with Hitachi that integrates AI for enhanced condition assessment and guidance. The platform facilitates efficient analysis of inspection videos, enabling the identification and coding of pipeline defects. Following devastating Hawai’i wildfires in 2023, Dragonfly was used to assess the condition of sewer infrastructure assets damaged by the fires, an application that was recognized with a Distinction Award for Smart Water Project of the Year at the 2024 Global Water Awards.

In the environmental market, Alluvial – an analytics platform – provides a foundation for data-driven remediation engineering. Alluvial serves as the cornerstone for digital delivery and is a fundamental part of Jacobs’ innovative cloud-connected operations and maintenance approach. To tackle hard to abate “forever chemicals” like per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), Jacobs is also developing an award-winning proprietary (patent-pending) evaluation toolset to map hundreds of PFAS transformation pathways under environmentally relevant conditions, and to identify different PFAS sources and release histories. 

About ENR’s rankings

Jacobs also retained the top spot on ENR’s Top Program Management Firms list in 2023, marking the third consecutive year. Our full list of ENR rankings is available here.

ENR performs annual surveys of key construction industry segments, ranking companies across contracting, specialty contracting, engineering, architecture and environmental services, among other specialties. The rankings, based on annual global revenue, cover specific market categories.