ASKUSRWater Systems Engineer

Mechanical Engineer – Water Systems (ALS-U)

Location: Berkeley, CA | Onsite
Employment Type: Full-Time, Contract
Contract Duration: Approximately 12 months
Pay Rate: $85.83 per hour

At Essnova Solutions, Inc., meaningful work starts with people who care about doing it well. We provide technology, engineering, and professional services that help government and commercial clients solve complex challenges, strengthen operations, and accomplish their missions.

Our team brings together professionals with diverse technical backgrounds, united by integrity, collaboration, and a commitment to delivering exceptional results.

Essnova Solutions is seeking an experienced Mechanical Engineer – Water Systems to support the Advanced Light Source Upgrade (ALS-U) project at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in Berkeley, California.

This position plays a critical role in the engineering, operation, maintenance, and continuous improvement of process and facility water systems supporting both the ALS-U project and ongoing Advanced Light Source (ALS) operations.

The selected engineer will serve as a primary technical resource for cooling water infrastructure supporting accelerator systems, beamlines, experimental equipment, HVAC interfaces, and associated utility systems.

This opportunity is ideal for a mechanical engineering professional with extensive experience in industrial cooling water systems, low-conductivity water (LCW), deionized (DI) water systems, and high-reliability mechanical infrastructure.

Water Systems Design & Engineering

• Lead the design, engineering, and optimization of cooling water systems supporting ALS-U and existing ALS infrastructure.
• Develop piping and instrumentation diagrams (P&IDs), flow diagrams, hydraulic calculations, equipment specifications, and technical documentation.
• Perform engineering analyses involving heat transfer, fluid dynamics, pump sizing, pressure drops, thermal stability, and water quality.
• Specify and support procurement of pumps, heat exchangers, filtration systems, expansion tanks, piping, valves, instrumentation, and water treatment equipment.
• Coordinate integration of cooling water infrastructure with accelerator, beamline, cryogenic, HVAC, and facility utility systems.
• Ensure engineering designs comply with applicable ASME, ANSI, California mechanical and building codes, and laboratory safety standards.

Water Quality & System Reliability

• Oversee the operation and maintenance of closed-loop low-conductivity water (LCW) and deionized (DI) water systems.
• Monitor critical water quality parameters, including resistivity, dissolved oxygen, pH, and system performance.
• Manage and optimize chemical treatment processes, UV sterilization, mixed-bed deionization, and reverse osmosis (RO) systems.
• Identify and mitigate biological growth, scaling, corrosion, contamination, and water chemistry concerns.
• Troubleshoot equipment failures, leaks, pump malfunctions, resin degradation, flow instability, and thermal excursions.
• Evaluate piping materials, valves, and instrumentation to maintain system integrity and water purity.

Operations, Maintenance & Commissioning

• Develop and implement preventive and predictive maintenance programs for critical cooling water infrastructure.
• Evaluate equipment reliability, lifecycle conditions, and opportunities for operational improvement.
• Coordinate maintenance activities, repairs, shutdowns, and system upgrades to minimize facility downtime.
• Support installation, startup, testing, balancing, and commissioning of new and modified water systems.
• Provide technical support during operational incidents and system failures.

Project Coordination & Documentation

• Manage engineering projects…