Engineer, Principal; Process Engineer

Principal Engineer

The City of Richmond Department of Public Utilities is seeking two qualified candidates to serve as Principal Engineers—one for Water and one for Wastewater operations.

With limited supervision from the Sr. Deputy Director and deputy director (Water) for W & WW O&M, and in close collaboration with the Plant Superintendents, Maintenance Supervisor, and Engineering Services Lead, the Process Engineer is responsible for developing targets, monitoring process performance, and supporting improvement projects (maintenance and CIP) to ensure compliant and efficient operations of DPU's water and wastewater treatment plants, pump stations, tanks, and retention facilities.

This position is also responsible for following industry trends, research, and technology development.

Duties include but are not limited to:

• Meets and responds to changing regulatory drivers:
• Monitors regulatory trends and plans for future process impacts, recommends improvements to process and equipment to meet future challenges.
• Sets targets and makes process recommendations to maintain compliance with water and wastewater permit requirements.
• Communicates regularly on process performance to internal stakeholders.
• Sets early warning parameters, troubleshoots, and identifies corrective actions to avoid process upsets.
• In coordination with leadership, reviews and revises internal process sampling plans and monitoring programs to ensure efficient plant operations.
• Leads and manages internal operational database, ensures data quality, supports data requests from internal and external partners.
• Supervises the development of and reviews regulatory reports to ensure data quality and timely submission.
• Optimizes plant processes:
• Leads strategy and manages instrumentation used for process monitoring.
• Performs in-depth analysis to support optimization of liquids and solids processes.
• Sets process target goals and measures performance towards goals.
• Sets targets, monitors, and reports on chemical and energy use. Supports testing of alternative chemical products and development of specifications.
• Develops seasonal process plans to most efficiently use chemicals and energy while meeting process parameters most efficiently.
• Leads research and pilots in collaboration with internal and external partners.
• Develops, reviews, and provides technical comments on standard operating procedures to support plant performance.
• Supports process infrastructure projects:
• Provides technical input into the development of Capital Improvement Plan to ensure timely upgrades and renewal of equipment to meet process goals.
• Reviews and provides technical comments on engineering project specifications, designs, and timelines.
• Serves on project advisory committees to support design and construction of infrastructure projects.
• Develops scopes and manages contracts for external vendors to support plant process.
• Performs other duties as required.

Qualifications, special certifications and licenses:

• Minimum training and experience:
• Bachelor's Degree in engineering
• Five years of professional engineering experience in water or wastewater treatment operations
• Licensing, certifications, and other special requirements:
• Virginia Professional Engineering (PE) license or ability to obtain within one year of employment
• Knowledge, skills, and abilities:
• Accountability and dependability
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, both written and verbal.
• Decision making: ability to prioritize infrastructure and process improvements and workloads
• Initiative:
  Self-motivated with the ability to work collaboratively and independently.
• Safety awareness
• Teamwork: ability to work with and integrate the work of O&M and Engineering
• Technical water/wastewater knowledge:
• Advanced understanding of processes and instrumentation associated with municipal water and wastewater treatment.
• Ability to perform mass, energy balance, chemical, and hydraulic calculations.
• Understanding of state and federal regulatory requirements related water and wastewater facility permits.
• Experience reading and commenting on process control narratives for programming of process control systems.
• Ability to understand and explain piping…