Engineering is often associated with numbers, plans, and structures, but behind the technical work are people, places, and the experiences that shape how they approach their craft. For Kais Hamidi, that story begins with his father, an immigrant who arrived in the United States in 1991 and soon opened an automotive repair shop in Concord, California.
“My father was my biggest inspiration,” Kais recalls. His father’s business, which remains at the same location more than three decades later, helped instill an entrepreneurial spirit that eventually influenced Kais’s own path.
After gaining experience through private consultancies and public agencies, Kais founded Oaktown Engineers in 2016, initially as a side project. The Oakland-based boutique firm has since grown into a full-fledged engineering practice, taking on projects ranging from removing load-bearing walls and modernizing elevators to work involving public infrastructure…