Electrical roots. A detail-first approach to engineering. Family time after the drawings close.
Jered Brookshire is NTD Mechanical’s Director of Engineering, but his path into the industry started long before engineering became his job. His dad was an electrician, and Jered remembers riding around with him as he pointed out buildings he had worked on.
“I wired this building.” Then another one.
For a kid who was already strong in math, those drives helped make the construction world familiar. When it came time to decide what to study, electrical engineering made sense. Jered went on to earn his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from UT Dallas and build a career that has included project engineering, project management, estimating, and work on several large North Texas projects.
His experience has put him on both sides of a familiar construction challenge: figuring out what should happen on paper and then making sure that decision makes sense for the people who have to build it.
That is a useful place for an engineer to have been. Before joining NTD, Jered spent years working in project engineering and project management. On one major transit project, he worked alongside engineers and other project partners as plans developed, looking for opportunities to simplify the work and avoid unnecessary cost where the conditions allowed it. He also enjoyed leading the conversations that brought architects, engineers, and construction perspectives together.
At NTD, that collaborative part of the work continues, but the role gives him a little more variety.
Instead of living inside one large project for several years, Jered can move between design reviews, technical questions, larger projects, smaller projects, and the coordination issues that need an engineering perspective.
He describes that as feeling a little more like being “part of the solution.” That seems like a good place to start.
Clocked In
Clocked in, Jered pays attention to details. A lot of them. His goal is to put enough thought into the design on the front end that the field team has clearer information when it is time to build.
Jered describes himself simply: “very detail oriented.” For him, that means working toward a thorough, accurate design before the work reaches the field. The objective is practical. Better planning can reduce avoidable mistakes and give installers a cleaner path forward.
Engineering can become very complicated very quickly. The useful part is making that complexity easier for the next person to work with.
Jered’s electrical background also gives him another perspective inside a mechanical contractor.
Mechanical equipment does not operate in isolation. Electrical connections, disconnects, power requirements, and coordination points must align with the equipment being installed.
As Jered puts it, “the interface with mechanical equipment is huge.” He is not serving as the electrical designer on NTD’s projects, but understanding that side of the work helps him look at how the mechanical equipment interacts with electrical requirements and communicate more clearly when electrical subcontractors or designers are involved.
That crossover matters because the problem on a construction project is rarely interested in staying neatly inside one discipline.
Neither is Jered. He likes the critical-thinking side of the job: working through an issue, checking an assumption, reviewing a design, or helping answer the technical question that lands on someone’s desk.
After years in project management, he knows what it feels like to chase change orders, subcontracts, materials, submittals, and dozens of subcontractors at the same time. His role at NTD gives him the opportunity to use that experience differently—supporting multiple projects and stepping into the questions where engineering can help move the conversation forward.
A drawing may be where the engineering shows up. The goal is for the field to feel the benefit.
Clocked Out
Clocked out, Jered’s schedule is still being managed. The project manager is four years old.
Jered says his son keeps him busy, whether they are reading together or working through another important assignment: Picking up his room. One of those activities apparently requires more persuasion than the other.
When the family has a free weekend, Jered also enjoys taking the side-by-side out for a ride. Oklahoma and East Texas are among the places they like to go.
It is a different kind of problem-solving. Fewer drawings. More dirt.
Closer to home, the pool gives the family another excuse to slow down and spend time together when the schedule allows.
And while Jered grew up hearing his own dad point out the buildings he had helped wire, he is not putting together a career plan for the next generation just yet. When asked whether he would like to see his son enter the industry someday, Jered’s answer was appropriately measured for an engineer. Maybe.
His son is bright, Jered says, but he wants him to choose his own direction. Of course, there may already be signs that leadership is in his future.
When the interviewer suggested his son might someday be the one bossing Jered around, Jered did not need much time to consider the possibility. “Oh, he’s bossy for sure.”
Fair enough.
At NTD, Jared brings an electrical engineering foundation, years of project experience, and a habit of looking closely at the details before they become field problems.
Away from work, there is reading, riding, pool time, and a four-year-old with his own ideas about how things should be done.
Apparently, engineering is not the only place where strong opinions about execution can be found.
