Senior Building Operator; HVAC)

The Senior Building Operator serves as the senior on-site technical resource for the operation, maintenance, and reliability of assigned PPPL facilities. The position provides daily technical response, coordinates maintenance and/or repairs across multiple PPPL shops, performs and directs hands-on troubleshooting and maintenance., and supports safe, reliable conditions for laboratory and research operations. The role has primary operational oversight of complex HVAC, hydronic, steam/steam condensate geothermal, energy-recovery, energy-management, and supporting building systems and is a key participant in commissioning turnover, warranty coordination, preventive-maintenance development and emergency response.

A U.S. Department of Energy National Laboratory managed by Princeton University, the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) is tackling the world’s toughest science and technology challenges using plasma, the fourth state of matter. With more than 70 years of history, PPPL is a leader in the science and engineering behind the development of fusion energy, a potentially limitless energy source. PPPL is also using its expertise to advance research in the areas of microelectronics, quantum sensors and devices, and sustainability sciences.

Whether it be through science, engineering, technology or professional services, every team member has an opportunity to contribute to our mission and vision. Come join us!

Core Duties:

Building Operations and Critical-Facility Response

• Operate, monitor, inspect, maintain, and troubleshoot mission-critical mechanical, utility and controls to support facility uptime, occupant safety, environmental control, and research continuity.
• Serve as the first senior technical escalation point for abnormal conditions, alarms, loss of capacity, leaks, temperature or humidity excursions, utility interruptions, and equipment failures.
• Conduct and coordinate building systems inspections; review temperatures, pressures, flows, differential pressures, vibration, noise, equipment status, alarms, water conditions, housekeeping, and visible deficiencies.
• Verify field conditions, establish safe interim controls, perform or coordinate authorized repairs and adjustments, and initiate follow-up work orders for unresolved conditions.
• Respond to equipment failures, severe weather, and other emergencies in accordance with PPPL procedures and assigned incident-response responsibilities.

Mechanical, HVAC, Hydronic, Steam and Energy-Recovery Systems

• Operate and maintain central and distributed HVAC systems, including water-cooled and air-cooled chillers, packaged DX equipment, heat exchangers, air-handling units, energy-recovery systems, pumps, fan coils, fan-powered boxes, chilled beams, air terminal units, hydronic coils, VFDs, valves, dampers, and associated air-distribution system components.
• Monitor and adjust mechanical and control equipment valves, thermostats, diffusers, safeties, and operating setpoints to maintain approved environmental and equipment conditions. Review temperature, humidity, pressure, etc. points monitored through the BAS to determine Facility response.
• Diagnose refrigeration, airflow, hydronic, mechanical, electrical-control, and sequence-related problems. Determine appropriate equipment repair scope before corrective work is assigned.
• Support cooling and heating optimization, equipment staging, differential-pressure control, energy-recovery performance, water-side balance, seasonal changeover, electrical load-shed procedure and reliable fallback operation.
• Operate and maintain site high pressure (80 psig) and low pressure (15 psig) steam and associated steam condensate system including condensate receiver units, steam traps, steam valves, pressure reducing stations, safety relief valves, etc. Act as primary point person for system restarting from cold conditions.

Geothermal and Ground-Source Systems

• Operate, monitor, maintain and troubleshoot Princeton Plasma Innovation Center (PPIC) geothermal ground-loop, source-water, heat-transfer systems, associated pumps, distribution piping/components and modular chiller arrays.
• Evaluate entering and leaving water temperatures, flows, pressures, pump and VFD performance, heat-transfer effectiveness, energy trends, and seasonal ground-loop behavior against design and commissioning baselines.
• Identify and elevate system deficiencies and changes in long-term ground-loop performance.
• Participate in any mechanical system related PPIC…