Associate Electrical Engineer - Santa Clara Valley Water District

Overview:
The Associate Electrical Engineer will support the 24 x 7 continuous Water Utility raw, treated, and purified water operations, capital improvement projects, annual maintenance work plan, and asset management plans. They will be responsible for the planning, design, development, implementation, modification, installation, and maintenance of the Water Utility's critical electrical distribution systems in the area of water pumping, conveyance and treatment while ensuring work quality and adherence to professional codes, standards, and Valley Water specifications.
 
Raw water delivery operations depend on the reliable supply of electrical power for ensuring delivery of water-to-water treatment facilities, streams, and our customers. Water treatment and treated water delivery operations depend on the reliable supply of electrical power for ensuring delivery of safe, clean water to our customers in the Silicon Valley.

Key Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:
As a member of the Utility Electrical and Control Systems Engineering team:

• Plan, organize, schedule, assign, review, supervise and evaluate the work of assigned staff.
• Serve as a technical resource in electrical engineering including formulating projects, assessing program effectiveness, and analyzing a variety of unusual conditions, problems, or questions; oversee quality assurance and quality control activities within field/specialty of engineering.
• Conduct engineering studies, investigations, and analyses, such as conditional assessments, feasibility reports, event incident/root cause analysis reports, and engineering evaluations in support of a planned project/improvement, system deficiencies, non-code compliant conditions, and electrical system and process anomalies.
• Prepare electrical engineering schematics, specifications, drawings, wiring diagrams, power, lighting, and floor plans, conduit and wire schedules, electrical details, and other supporting documentation for commercial and industrial applications; perform economic and financial analysis of projects; provide cost estimates and cost benefit analysis for comparison; review and comment on drawings, plans, and other work submitted by external consultants, engineers, contractors, and developers for conformance with current standards.
• Identify and report electrical deficiencies and safety issues; investigate and create root cause analysis from electrical system reports; interview operations and maintenance staff and conduct field observations and inspections; develop recommendations to mitigate electrical disturbances, outages, and abnormalities; lead or assist in resolving deficiencies and safety issues.
• May grow into a supervisory role to plan, organize, schedule, assign, review, supervise and evaluate the work of assigned staff.

Ideal Candidate's Background Includes:
Applicants whose experience and background best match the ideal experience, knowledge, skills, abilities, and education are considered ideal candidates for the position. To determine the top candidates, each applicant will be assessed based on the ideal candidate criteria as listed below.

Ideal Experience:

• Strong academic background, with four (4) years of experience in planning, designing, developing, implementing, modifying, installing, and/or maintaining electrical power system projects. 
• Design, installation and troubleshooting experience in electrical power systems within an industrial plant/facilities environment.
• Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering (ABET accredited college/university). 
• Experience with a diverse set of projects, ranging from researching electrical and hardware components to troubleshooting and repairing existing electrical systems, is a plus.
• Experience in working with potential vendors with adequate information for bids working with potential vendors and evaluating bids preferred.

Ideal Skills and Abilities:

• Strong base of both technical and project skills, including ability to communicate in person and in writing and maintain positive and effective relationships in a team environment.
• Prepare and review electrical engineering designs, drawings, specifications, and other engineering project documentation.
• Set priorities and exercise sound independent judgment within established procedural guidelines.
• Conduct factory testing and field testing/startup of industrial electrical systems hardware and software.
• Perform research for electrical systems and hardware components and develop technical specification and plans.
• Mentor and develop entry level engineer. 
• Planning, designing, and inspecting all phases of electrical system engineering projects.
• Troubleshooting and repairing existing electrical systems (both hardware and software).
• Leading, coordinating, and implementing full cycle electrical systems projects ensuring no disruption of mission critical operations.
• Collaborating with project teams to ensure that projects in planning, design, and construction phases are abiding by electrical systems standards.
• Developing technical policies and procedures and making recommendations for changes and improvements to existing standards and procedures.

Ideal Knowledge:

• Operations, services, and activities of an industrial electrical system including electronic and electrical systems in water production, treatment, and distribution.
• Principles and practices of electrical engineering design and installation.
• Knowledge of electrical standards (NFPA, NEC, NETA), electrical software tools (SKM, SPM/PME, SKF tester)
• Principles and practices of project scheduling, management, and budgeting.

Ideal Training and Education:
Graduation from an accredited four-year college or university with major coursework in electrical engineering.
OR
Possession of a valid California Engineer-in-Training (EIT) Certificate with two (2) years of associated paraprofessional electrical engineering experience.