Operations Water Chief Engineer , DCEO Water Services

AWS Infrastructure Services (AIS) owns the design, planning, delivery, and operation of all AWS global infrastructure. In other words, we"re the people who keep the cloud running. We support all AWS data centers and all of the servers, storage, networking, power, and cooling equipment that ensure our customers have continual access to the innovation they rely on.

The Data Center Engineering Operations (DCEO) Water team owns the water infrastructure that supports AWS data centers. This includes water treatment systems, evaporative cooling ponds, lift stations, raw water tanks, and backflow prevention. We are looking for a Water Chief Engineer to act as a technical leader and escalation point for the team, drive compliance and reliability across our water systems, and develop our Water Technicians.

Key job responsibilities

Key job responsibilities

• Operate independently with limited direct management.
• Act as the escalation point for water infrastructure issues across the PDX region.
• Act as a Subject Matter Expert for water infrastructure equipment, including ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis, oxidant/chemical dosing systems, pumps, lift stations, and raw water storage.
• Make sure the region complies with regulations and permit requirements set by the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), local municipalities, and the Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ).
• Drive improvements to Water Utilization Efficiency (WUE) and the Legionella program.
• Oversee preventative maintenance programs, maintenance schedules, and spare parts management for in-house and vendor-led work.
• Perform root cause analysis of equipment failures and drive corrective actions.
• Drive projects of moderate complexity, including CAPEX/OpEx improvements.
• Take part in design reviews for new and existing facilities.
• Provide training, mentoring, and technical guidance to Water Technicians, and work with the Water Services Manager to set team culture.
• Create, deploy, and enforce standard practices and procedures for technicians and vendor support teams.
• Establish performance benchmarks, conduct analyses, and prepare reports on water system operations and maintenance.
• Coordinate with vendors on troubleshooting and repair of equipment.
• Partner with supporting teams such as Field Engineering, Design Engineering, Environmental, Legal, and the Regional Water team.
• Communicate complex technical information to a non-technical audience.
• Respond to out of hours emergency calls as a second level escalation point for water infrastructure issues.
• Work outside of normal business hours for routine maintenance as required.

A day in the life

As a Water Chief Engineer, you are the go-to technical resource for water infrastructure across multiple AWS data center sites. On a given day you might help a technician troubleshoot a water filtration system, review sampling data for permit compliance, walk an evaporative pond with a vendor to scope a repair, or redline a design package for a new site"s water system. You will track preventative maintenance and spare parts, lead root cause analysis when something fails, and make sure lessons learned turn into better procedures. You will also spend real time developing the technicians on the team so they can grow into SMEs themselves.