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At Parsons, you can imagine a career where you thrive, work with exceptional people, and be yourself. Guided by our leadership vision of valuing people, embracing agility, and fostering growth, we cultivate an innovative culture that empowers you to achieve your full potential. Unleash your talent and redefine what’s possible.
Job Description:
Wastewater Engineering Leader
The Wastewater Engineering Leader provides strategic, technical, marketing, and operational co-leadership for wastewater treatment, water reuse, and related infrastructure projects across complex environmental and capital programs. This role is responsible for guiding market strategy development, engineering excellence, advancing innovative and sustainable treatment solutions, and successful project delivery from planning through commissioning.
As a senior technical and people leader, you will shape the direction of wastewater engineering services, develop and build multidisciplinary teams, and serve as a trusted advisor to clients, project teams, and executive leadership. The ideal candidate brings deep wastewater treatment expertise, a strong track record of leading complex projects, and a passion for developing practical, resilient, and sustainable water solutions.
Responsibilities
Technical and Strategic Leadership
- Lead wastewater market and engineering strategy, technical delivery, and multidisciplinary team building for complex treatment, reuse, and infrastructure projects.
- Serve as a senior technical authority for wastewater systems, providing guidance on planning, process selection, design development, performance optimization, and regulatory compliance.
- Drive innovation in wastewater treatment and water reuse by evaluating and implementing emerging technologies and sustainable engineering practices.
- Provide executive-level technical leadership on major capital programs, including projects exceeding $50M in capital value.
Project Delivery and Execution
- Lead or support projects through all phases, including planning, preliminary and final design, procurement, construction, commissioning, and startup.
- Define project technical scope, engineering approach, staffing needs, and delivery strategies for wastewater engineering efforts.
- Oversee the preparation and review of technical memoranda, reports, calculations, specifications, design packages, and other engineering documentation.
- Ensure projects are delivered in compliance with applicable environmental regulations, client requirements, industry standards, and safety expectations.
- Partner with project managers and discipline leads to manage risk, resolve technical challenges, and achieve project objectives related to scope, schedule, budget, and quality.
Client Leadership and Stakeholder Engagement
- Develop strategic marketing approaches to increase client and stakeholder engagement, market penetration, and access to large wastewater projects through conferences, industry presentations, and direct client engagement.
- Build and maintain strong relationships with municipal, industrial, and institutional clients as a trusted engineering advisor.
- Interface with regulators, owners, contractors, and external stakeholders to communicate technical solutions, regulatory considerations, and project progress.
- Support business development, capture planning, proposal preparation, and technical presentations to help grow the wastewater engineering practice.
- Contribute to strategic pursuits and technical win strategies for key opportunities in wastewater treatment, reuse, and related infrastructure markets.
Team Leadership and Mentorship
- Identify capability gaps and recruit, lead, and develop wastewater engineering staff, including process engineers and multidisciplinary technical team members.
- Drive a collaborative, high-performance culture focused on technical excellence, innovation, accountability, and continuous improvement.
- Provide technical oversight, coaching, and career development support to mid-level and senior engineers.
- Promote knowledge sharing and contribute to the development of internal engineering capabilities, tools, and best practices.
Performance Optimization and Field Support
- Conduct site visits, condition assessments, and performance evaluations to support troubleshooting, system optimization, and operational improvements.
- Provide field and startup support during construction, commissioning, and post-startup optimization of treatment systems.
- Support operational reviews and process evaluations to improve reliability, resiliency, efficiency, and sustainability outcomes.
Areas of Expertise
- Apply advanced knowledge of wastewater treatment and water reuse systems, including biological, chemical, and physical treatment processes.
- Provide expertise in advanced treatment technologies such as membrane bioreactors, reverse osmosis, desalination, brackish water treatment, UV disinfection, ozone, nutrient removal, and other tertiary and advanced treatment systems.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in Civil, Environmental, Chemical Engineering, or a related field.
- 15+ years of experience in water and wastewater engineering, with substantial experience leading wastewater treatment and process engineering efforts.
- Deep technical knowledge of wastewater treatment systems, including biological, chemical, and physical treatment processes.
- Demonstrated success leading complex, multidisciplinary projects and serving as a senior technical leader or subject matter expert.
- Strong understanding of environmental regulations, permitting requirements, and applicable industry standards.
- Proven ability to communicate complex technical concepts effectively to clients, regulators, project teams, and senior leadership.
- Strong leadership, problem-solving, analytical, and decision-making skills.
Preferred Qualifications
- Professional Engineer license.
- Experience with advanced treatment and reuse technologies, including membrane bioreactors, reverse osmosis, desalination, brackish water treatment, UV, ozone, and water reuse systems.
- Experience with process modeling and simulation tools such as BioWin, GPS-X, WEST, or SIMBA.
- Familiarity with alternative project delivery methods, including design-build, CMAR, and progressive design-build.
- Experience supporting business development, proposal efforts, and strategic client pursuits.
- Experience working with large municipal and industrial wastewater clients.
Security Clearance Requirement:
None
This position is part of our Critical Infrastructure team.
For more than 80 years, our experts have designed and delivered the critical infrastructure that connects and protects communities around the world. We work in collaborative teams, both within the company and with our partners and customers, to plan, design, build, and modernize infrastructure. We take special pride in projects and solutions that improve communities as well as people’s quality of life by promoting economic growth, enhancing mobility, and increasing sustainability and resiliency. Powered by our people, we provide the imagination necessary to support our customers’ visions—and to help them see what's next!
Salary Range: $125,100.00 - $225,200.00
We value our employees and want our employees to take care of their overall wellbeing, which is why we offer best-in-class benefits such as medical, dental, vision, paid time off, Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), 401(k), life insurance, flexible work schedules, and holidays to fit your busy lifestyle!
This position will be posted for a minimum of 3 days and will continue to be posted for an average of 30 days until a qualified applicant is selected or the position has been cancelled.
Parsons is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, veteran status or any other protected status.
We truly invest and care about our employee’s wellbeing and provide endless growth opportunities as the sky is the limit, so aim for the stars! Imagine next and join the Parsons quest—APPLY TODAY!
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