Industrial Automation Technologist

Technologist – Operational Technology

American Water

12/3/25

$68,640 – $114,660 (base salary). Eligible for annual incentive pay. Salary based on market, geography, skills, education, and experience.

Comprehensive benefits package including 401(k), Defined Contribution Plan, Employee Stock Purchase Plan, medical, prescription, dental and vision coverage, disability, paid time off, life insurance, voluntary benefits, health and wellness programs, and more.

• Work as a corporate team member in designing and standardizing the various Operational Technologies utilized to support the delivery of water and wastewater services.
• Ensure automation and controls projects adhere to standards.
• Help establish the architecture and strategies that support the lifecycle management of industrial control systems, approach for replacing or upgrading systems, flow and management of data, enterprise standards, and disaster recovery of operational technology systems.
• Interface with automation engineers, external consulting firms, and business leadership.
• Support the development and execution of the strategic Operational Technology plan to achieve short- and long-term business objectives.
• Support the Enterprise Portal and HMI SCADA Template rollout projects. Provide oversight and guidance for supporting vendor community activities.

• Maintaining the AW standards for Operational Technology.
• Design, architecture, and engineering of systems and solutions.
• Development and governance of enterprise-wide standards and programs (HMI/SCADA, PLC, lifecycle management, engineering standards).
• Collaboration with other departments and core functional areas.
• Maintain strong, effective Team partnerships with integrators, manufacturers to help promote industry leadership.

• Good presentation and communication skills. Ability to influence your peers.
• Good project management skills, with the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously.
• Established knowledge of operational technologies and applicability for the water and wastewater industries.
• Established working knowledge of modern process control systems and technology.
• Strong and working knowledge of modern and High-Performance HMI design.
• ISA standards & IT/OT convergence fundamentals.
• Foster a collaborative team environment.
• Leading assigned projects throughout the project lifecycle.
• Strong analytic work methodology and problem-solving skills.

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience.
• Over 3+ years of experience / knowledge in Operational Technology with an emphasis on system architecture, infrastructure, industrial control systems, and/or cyber security.
• PLC Controllers;
  Allen-Bradley/Rockwell required.
• HMI/SCADA systems;
  Ignition - Perspective required.
• DB Integration; MSSQL preferred.
• Experience with programming languages, Python/Jython preferred.
• Good understanding of structured data, Unified Namespace and performance metrics.
• Familiarity with containerization, virtualization, Dev Ops.
• Understanding of cyber security for the utility industry.
• Public Utility experience a plus.
• Position is designated as a position-of-trust; therefore, candidate must submit to and successfully pass a background investigation.

Up to 10% as necessary.

Standard office environment.

• IT Team Leads
• OT Team Leads
• Engineering Leads
• Production/Operations Leads
• Business Process Consultants
• System Integration Partners
• Vendors/Manufacturers

Champions safety, Customer obsessed, Cultivates innovation, Nimble learning, Drives Results, Collaborates.

Not Applicable

Full-time

Information Technology

Utilities