Senior Planning Engineer

JOB SUMMARY:

The Senior Planning Engineer provides strategic and operational leadership for the planning, prioritization, and advancement of RWA’s Capital Improvement Program (CIP) and long-range infrastructure initiatives. Reporting to the Director of Engineering, this position serves as a key link between system planning and capital project delivery, ensuring alignment between engineering decisions, capital investments, regulatory requirements, financial capacity, and organizational priorities.

This role leads the development and continuous improvement of capital planning processes and strategies, supporting data driven decision making and effective program governance. The Senior Planning Engineer collaborates closely with engineering, operations, finance, and regulatory stakeholders to ensure coordinated, efficient delivery of capital projects and alignment with system performance goals. The position also provides thought leadership and bring in new ideas to Engineering staff, fostering a collaborative, accountable, and forward-looking work environment.

As a senior member of the Engineering Department, the Senior Planning Engineer supports organizational change, continuous improvement, and innovation, while helping to ensure that infrastructure investments promote public health, environmental stewardship, and long-term system reliability and resiliency. This position is highly collaborative and primarily office-based; a hybrid work arrangement may be available for part of the week depending on weekly business needs.

• Oversee and report on the development, management, performance, prioritization, and execution of the Capital Improvement Program (CIP), incorporating budget adherence, business case evaluation principles, lifecycle analysis, financial forecasts, and project performance.
• Oversee and advance best practices in the management of Capital Improvement and O&M projects, including portfolio management, governance processes, and inter‑departmental coordination, ensuring alignment with asset management objectives, budget constraints, and approved strategic plans.
• Review and oversee master plans, technical studies, applied research, and planning activities, including hydraulic modeling, GIS analysis, and asset management, while approving early‑stage project deliverables to ensure quality, consistency, regulatory compliance and development of planning‑level designs that inform capital investment decisions.
• Coordinate closely with project managers to transition projects from planning into design & construction phases, ensuring scope, schedule, and budget alignment, while identifying process improvements to enhance efficiency, transparency, and integration between all project phases.
• Ensure effective cross‑functional collaboration among engineering and inter‑department level staff to align water quality, water supply, and treatment & distribution system planning with engineering delivery strategies.
• Guide the development & implementation of engineering related policies, procedures, and standards supporting short‑and long‑range planning, regulatory compliance, business continuity, and environmental & public health objectives.
• Oversee consultant and contractor support related to capital planning studies, design services, program delivery support, and construction management, ensuring contractual compliance and performance expectations are met.
• Support and coordinate initiatives to reduce non‑revenue water, ensuring engineering strategies, data accuracy, and planning efforts to inform systemwide loss control programs and reporting.
• Provide thought leadership to Engineering fostering professional development, while cultivating a collaborative, planning focused culture that supports adoption of modern planning and portfolio‑based practices.
• Support organizational change by strengthening coordination, communication, and accountability across the Engineering Department, while evaluating emerging technologies, advancing pilots & research partnerships, and fostering innovation aligned with organizational needs and workforce development goals.
• Perform special projects, when assigned,…