Ext
Facilities Engineering & Operations Manager – Water & Wastewater Treatment
Durham, North Carolina
Sponsorship not specifiedDetected 19 days ago
Data AnalysisProcess ImprovementCustomer SupportPLCMechanical DesignLeadershipCommunicationProblem SolvingMentoringSCADA
About the role
- We know that the achievements of our organization are due to the passion, hard work and creativity of our employees.
- We celebrate different perspectives to foster excellence across our organization, and our goal is to make diversity a foundation of what we do.
- We remove roadblocks instead of creating them. - Working parent?
Responsibilities
- Lead system hardening initiatives to enhance reliability, redundancy, and resilience of critical utility infrastructure.
- Identify and eliminate single points of failure (SPOFs) through robust redundancy and design improvements.
- Drive root cause failure analysis (RCFA) and ensure implementation of sustainable corrective and preventive actions across all sites.
- Establish and lead global improvement forums and steering committees to drive best known methods (BKMs) and cross-site knowledge sharing.
- Champion FMEA and Facilities Change Review Board (FCRB) processes to proactively manage system risks and changes.
- Lead cross-site initiatives to reduce operating costs (chemicals, energy, consumables, waste disposal) while maintaining or improving system performance.
- Optimize system performance through setpoint tuning, recovery improvement, and process efficiency enhancements.
- Deploy Lean, Six Sigma, and continuous improvement methodologies to drive sustainable performance gains.
- Develop and implement predictive and preventive maintenance programs for critical water and wastewater assets.
- Recognize high performance and proactively address skill gaps to build a motivated, high-capability team.
Nice to have
- Bachelor's degree in Chemical, Environmental, Mechanical Engineering, or related field (required) Master's degree (preferred)
- 8-12+ years of experience in industrial water/wastewater engineering and operations
- Demonstrated success in system hardening, brownfield optimization, and cost reduction initiatives
- Experience leading and mentoring engineering and operations teams preferred
- Experience supporting multi-site or centralized engineering organizations
- Semiconductor or advanced manufacturing experience strongly preferred
- Proven track record delivering quantifiable OPEX savings and reliability improvements
- Familiarity with emerging regulatory challenges such as PFAS, azoles, and POTW compliance is preferred
Skills
- Define, track, and enforce KPIs such as cost per unit treated, chemical intensity, energy consumption, and system uptime.
- Standardize spares strategies, redundancy philosophies, and maintenance procedures across all sites.
- Leverage condition monitoring, data analytics, and digital tools to reduce unplanned downtime.
- Mentor and coach early-career engineers and supervisors, strengthening technical depth and problem-solving capability.
- Foster a culture of continuous learning, innovation, and accountability across all sites.
- Establish structured career development pathways, training programs, and competency frameworks.
- Ensure compliance with EPA, NPDES, and state regulatory requirements (e.g., NCDEQ, NYDEC).
- Support audits, inspections, and regulatory reporting.
- Prioritize investments based on ROI, payback, and risk reduction, rather than capacity expansion.
- Communicate performance metrics, risks, and cost-saving opportunities to executive leadership in a clear, data-driven manner.
Benefits
- We provide childcare assistance and paid parental leave.
- Student? We offer continuing education assistance.
Company info
- Innovation is at the center of everything we do.
This listing is sourced directly from Ext's careers page and normalized into a canonical job model.