Director - Planning & Engineering at Essential Utilities

Aqua, an Essential Utilities company, employs people in a variety of roles within our eight-state footprint, ranging from field workers and customer service representatives who are on the front lines working with customers, to scientists and engineers who help ensure we’re delivering reliable water and wastewater services to our communities.  If you’re looking for a rewarding career helping improve our environment and protect our natural resources, we encourage you to join our team!

About Essential Utilities

Essential Utilities, Inc. delivers safe, clean, reliable services that improve quality of life for individuals, families, and entire communities.

Operating as the Aqua (water and wastewater services) and the Peoples and Delta (natural gas) brands, Essential serves approximately 5.5 million people across 10 states. We are committed to sustainable growth, operational excellence, a superior customer experience, and premier employer status - including a competitive and comprehensive benefits package as well as a commitment to career growth opportunities.

We are advocates for the communities we serve and are dedicated stewards of natural lands, protecting more than 7,600 acres of forests and other habitats throughout our footprint.

Our company is one of the most significant publicly traded water, wastewater service and natural gas providers in the U.S. 

In line with Aqua’s desire to continually drive improve the quality and efficiency of our service to the communities across the eight states we serve, we now have a significant opportunity for a Director of Planning & Engineering to shape the long-term future of our water/wastewater systems, and drive capital planning and engineering across the Aqua footprint.   

We are looking for a collaborative leader to work across state engineering, operations, asset management, GIS, risk and finance and planning teams to advance the development and ongoing adoption of our best practice asset and project risk framework. The successful candidate will provide support and strategic guidance for the 5-10-year Capital Budget development and 10- 20+ year Master Planning, as well as the design and construction management of large capital projects and ensure Aqua’s capital program is executed efficiently. With direct leadership of a team of Project Engineers the Director will expand the use of enterprise asset, capital and project management tools (Procore, SAP, Power Plan, SharePoint, Qlik) across Aqua States for project management (design and construction), budget tracking and forecasting, scheduling, and communication with in-house and outside stakeholders. They will manage and execute the planning, design, and construction oversight of large capital projects, including facility and water and wastewater process infrastructure utilizing both in-house and contract resources, as required in support of the States.

In addition the Director will support the Business Development Team to provide engineering due diligence for potential acquisitions as well as planning evaluation for Developer growth projects. As Director, they will represent Aqua at various federal, state and local levels, and will establish and maintain positive public relations with key customers and industry groups.

Experience, Educations, Skills:

• We require demonstrable experience of managing the design and execution of significant linear water projects and / or facility, water and wastewater process infrastructure projects.

• You will bring experience in capital planning as well as the design, development and implementation of design standards, standard design specifications, project punch list templates, and process design and control standards.

• We require experience in planning and budgeting, scope development, design review, contract documentation creation and review, cost estimation, construction inspection, and training and operational support.

• A degree in engineering / mechanical engineering or related subject is essential, while a PE license is preferable.

Aqua, an Essential Utilities company is an Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action employer. Equal employment opportunity is provided to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to the following legally protected characteristics: race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, pregnancy (including childbirth and related medical conditions, including medical conditions related to lactation), physical or mental disability, covered-veteran status, genetic information (including testing and characteristics), sexual orientation, gender identity or expression or any other characteristic protected by applicable local, state or federal law.
Aqua is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities.  If you have a condition that may prevent you from applying for a job online or need to request an accommodation during the interview process, please call (1-877-271-9012).  
To maintain the integrity of the recruitment process and to avoid real or perceived conflicts of interest due to employment and/or assignment of family members and personal referrals, specific guidelines apply to the hiring and assignment of these individuals including, but not limited to:

• Family members cannot result in a supervisor/subordinate reporting relationship
• Family members cannot work in the same department.