Sandis

What Sandis does

Sandis is a privately held civil engineering, surveying, and planning firm founded in 1965 by Tim Sandis and headquartered in Campbell, California. The firm provides land surveying, civil engineering design, and entitlement/permitting services to public- and private-sector clients across California, with select operations in Washington and Colorado. Service offerings span eight market verticals — Healthcare, Education, Workplace, Residential, Civic, Transportation, Infrastructure, and Recreation/Mixed-Use — with deep relationships across tech, healthcare, and higher-education anchor clients including Stanford, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Kaiser, UCSF, UC Davis, and Sutter Health.

The firm operates from seven offices — Campbell (HQ), Oakland, Santa Cruz, Modesto, Roseville (CA), Spokane Valley (WA), and Denver (CO) — and has invested in technical capabilities around 3D laser scanning, BIM, UAV/drone surveying, and ground-penetrating radar. Its wholly owned subsidiary, Bryant Survey Inc. (BSI), provides structural steel and miscellaneous metals surveying. Notable project experience includes multi-decade campus buildouts at Stanford and engagements across major institutional and tech-campus clients, with work typically structured as multi-phase, long-duration programs rather than transactional single-project assignments.

The company is founder-family owned and has not raised institutional capital; revenue is generated through professional-services billings on hourly, lump-sum, and phase-based engagements. With 101–250 employees and 60 years of operating history, Sandis competes principally on technical expertise, regulatory fluency (e.g., CalTrans prequalification, SWPPP certifications), and incumbency on large institutional campuses — not on technology differentiation or pricing aggression.

Name

Sandis

Legal name

Sandis

Website

https://sandis.net

Company type

Private

Founded year

1965

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Sandis is a privately held civil engineering, surveying, and planning firm founded in 1965, serving institutional, healthcare, education, and tech-campus clients across California with offices in Washington and Colorado.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Campbell

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices7 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Professional Engineering Services: Civil engineering, traffic engineering, stormwater management, and BIM services billed on a project basis. Services span from preliminary design through construction administration, covering site development and infrastructure improvements such as grading and drainage, utility systems, accessibility, roadway, and SWPPP.
2. Land Surveying Services: Surveying services including topographic surveys, boundary surveys, ALTA surveys, construction staking, laser scanning, utility locating, and structural steel surveying. Revenue is generated on a per-project basis through direct client engagements.
3. Planning Services: Planning services for infrastructure, traffic, transportation, and site-specific development needs. Includes master planning for campuses and communities, entitlements, permitting, and agency coordination, billed as professional service engagements.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Sandis is a professional services firm providing civil engineering, land surveying, and planning services to enterprise and government clients across California, Washington, and Colorado. Service offerings span civil engineering, traffic engineering, stormwater management (SWPPP), BIM, land surveying, construction staking, 3D laser scanning, utility locating, structural steel surveying, and master planning. Services are delivered on a project basis across the full lifecycle from preliminary design through construction administration, supporting healthcare, education, technology, commercial, residential, civic, and transportation sectors.

Product overview

Sandis is a civil engineering, surveying, and planning firm offering a comprehensive suite of professional services organized into three main categories: Engineer (Civil Engineering, Traffic Engineering, Stormwater Management, BIM), Survey (Land Surveying, Construction Staking, 3D Laser Scanning, Utility Locating, Structural Steel Surveying), and Plan (Civil Engineering Planning, Traffic Engineering & Transportation Planning). The company provides end-to-end services from planning and design through construction, serving sectors including healthcare, education, workplace, residential, civic, transportation, and infrastructure.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Civil Engineering Services Site development, infrastructure improvements including grading and drainage, utility systems, accessibility, roadway, SWPPP, and construction administration services for enterprise and government clients.
• Traffic Engineering Traffic control plans, signal plans, pedestrian studies, capacity analysis, roundabout analysis, traffic forecasting, safety evaluations, and transportation planning for communities and developers.
• Stormwater Management (SWPPP) Stormwater pollution prevention services for construction and industrial general permits, including QSD/QSP monitoring, CalTrans water pollution control, and C.3 certified third-party plan review.
• BIM Services Building Information Modeling including 3D modeling, clash detection and resolution, MEP coordination, and asset/product information for site development projects. Combines 3D laser scanning, UAV utility mapping, and site survey to coordinate projects before construction.
• Land Surveying Topographic surveys, boundary surveys, ALTA surveys, tentative maps, parcel maps, legal descriptions, subdivision mapping, FEMA certificates, as-built surveys, right-of-way surveying, and UAV surveying.
• Construction Staking Construction staking, calculations, horizontal and vertical control, and building control services for projects throughout the Western US.
• 3D Laser Scanning 3D laser scanning digitizes the physical world into as-built documents, high-definition point clouds, and online 3D pictures for construction documentation, architectural surveys, volume analysis, and floor flatness surveys.
• Utility Locating Underground utility locating services including private utilities, electromagnetic scanning, ground penetrating radar, GPS/CAD mapping, SUE services A-D quality, and concrete scanning.
• Structural Steel Surveying

Quantifiable outcome

• Stanford Medical Center Project Renewal: over $3 billion, 1.5 million square feet of new construction completed in 2019 over a decade-long engagement
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers17 records

Segments8 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Twelve partnerships are on record, tiered core, major and minor.

• Bryant Survey Inc. (BSI)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSandis partners with Bryant Survey Inc. (BSI), described as a subsidiary, to provide structural steel surveying services. BSI crews are based in the San Francisco Bay Area but travel throughout the Western United States. The partnership was celebrated in Sandis' 2025 Do Good newsletter marking BSI's 40th anniversary alongside Sandis' 60th anniversary, indicating a long-standing and deeply integrated relationship.
• CalTrans (California Department of Transportation)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSandis coordinated with CalTrans on the Apple Campus off-site transportation improvements, where half of the improvements fell under CalTrans direction while private funding financed the remaining half. Sandis received CalTrans approval within a year, successfully cutting a two-year process in half. Sandis has CalTrans Construction SWPPP Development and WPCM capabilities.
• City of CupertinomajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSandis worked with the City of Cupertino on Apple Campus off-site traffic engineering, coordinating ingress/egress and traffic impacts for 176 acres of the Apple Campus. Ongoing coordination with Cupertino on various development and infrastructure projects.
• Santa Clara Valley Water DistrictmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSandis coordinated with the Santa Clara Valley Water District on the Apple Campus project, and separately performed emergency fire damage assessment and recovery engineering for the district following the CZU Lightning Complex Fire in 2020.
• Rafael Vinoly ArchitectsmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSandis collaborated with Rafael Vinoly Architects on the Stanford Medical Center Project Renewal, including the Stanford Adult Main Hospital and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital expansion. Also worked with Rafael Vinoly on UCSF Institute of Regenerative Medicine.
• HDR architectsmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSandis collaborated with HDR architects on the UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital master plan redevelopment, providing civil engineering and surveying services.
• K2A (Kurt Kuehne & Associates)majorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSandis partnered with K2A on the Willie L. Brown Jr. Middle School project for San Francisco USD, a design-build academic facility that was the first D/B project for SFUSD.
• Cuschieri Horton ArchitectsmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSandis worked with Cuschieri Horton Architects on the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center Ancillary Building project to develop creative solutions for utility and egress separation from seismically non-compliant structures.
• SOM Architects (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill)majorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSandis worked with SOM Architects on the UC Merced Master Plan, providing civil engineering for site development and infrastructure design across a 2,000-acre master-planned campus.
• Google Design TeammajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSandis worked collaboratively with the Google Design Team on the Shorebird Campus Southeast redevelopment project, providing topographic and boundary surveys, utility locating, civil engineering, and construction administration for a project that included a 350-foot-long building linking three existing structures.
• WRNS StudiosmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSandis worked with WRNS Studios on various projects including the Salesforce Tower and Microsoft Silicon Valley Campus, where WRNS served as architects for the 32-acre campus project.
• BFS Landscape ArchitectsminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSandis collaborated with BFS Landscape Architects on the Martial Cottle County Park project, a 287-acre county park including trails, visitor center, and agricultural heritage elements.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Kier & Wright Civil Engineers: Long-standing Northern California civil engineering and land surveying firm with comparable service mix (land surveying, mapping, civil/site engineering) and similar institutional client base across the Bay Area.
• Dokken Engineering: California civil engineering firm specializing in transportation, infrastructure, utility coordination, and surveying—directly comparable to Sandis on transportation planning and infrastructure-focused public-sector work.
• MacKay & Somps Civil Engineers: California-based multi-discipline civil engineering and surveying firm serving public agencies, developers, and institutions—a comparable mid-size direct competitor in the California civil/survey market.
• Kimley-Horn: Large multi-discipline planning, engineering, and design firm providing civil engineering, transportation, and surveying services with a comparable integrator model and similar healthcare/education/institutional client types.
• Psomas: Direct California peer offering civil engineering, surveying, planning, and construction management with comparable multi-office Western US footprint before being acquired by Stantec. Same healthcare, education, and public-sector focus as Sandis.
• BKF Engineers: California-based civil engineering, surveying, and planning firm of similar size and structure, with multi-office presence across the Bay Area and a similar multi-disciplinary Engineer/Survey/Plan service mix targeting institutional and tech clients.

Broad incumbents

• Stantec: Global engineering, architecture, and environmental services firm with a substantial California/PNW presence (including Psomas acquisition); a broad incumbent offering overlapping civil, surveying, and planning capabilities as part of a much larger portfolio.
• NV5 Global: Infrastructure, environmental, and geospatial services firm with overlapping surveying (including 3D laser scanning, BIM, utility locating) and civil engineering offerings, competing across California and the Western US.
• AECOM: Global infrastructure consulting firm with civil engineering, surveying, and transportation planning practices competing for the same large institutional RFPs as Sandis, though as part of a much broader services portfolio.
• Jacobs Solutions: Global professional services firm with significant civil engineering, transportation, and water infrastructure practices pursuing the same municipal, university, and healthcare infrastructure work in California.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/sandiscivilengineers
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/sandis
• Instagraminstagram.com/sandiscompanies

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles11 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Sandis