When you bring in an engineering firm for the parts of a job you can't cover, you hand over a lot along the way. The RFP, the site, the scope, the budget, and often direct access to your customer. That is normal and the engineering can't happen without it. The question worth a minute of your time is what that firm is in a position to do with all of it.
What you hand over on a shared project
- The full RFP, scope and budget included.
- Direct contact with a client you spent years developing.
- Site access and working knowledge of the facility.
- How the client makes decisions and who signs off.
- What the account is worth and how often it produces work.
- Where your capability ends and theirs begins.
The exposure you're carrying
If the firm also does electrical contracting, what you shared is a map to an opportunity they are equipped to chase. They may never chase it. The arrangement means they could, and on the next job of that kind the firm that learned how your best client makes decisions is in a good position to go to that client directly.
Even if it never happens, it costs you something. You end up holding things back, and the engineering gets worse on every job because of it.
This is structural, not personal
The conflict sits in the arrangement itself, whatever anybody intends.
Most firms behave well and most people mean what they say. Firms also get acquired, priorities move, and a slow quarter can make a job that used to be off limits start looking worth pursuing. Good intentions are not a structure, and the arrangement outlasts the people who made the promises.
As long as the firm holds a contracting license, that possibility is inside every project you share and you are the one carrying it. Contractors who have been burned once tend to ask about this before they ask about anything else.
The question to ask first
The exposure that matters is who gets to see your best opportunities before you have bid them. One question settles it, and it belongs ahead of price, portfolio and schedule on your list.