Water Supply Planning Engineer/Hydrologist

Job Description Summary:

Salary: $26.82 - $46.92 per hour

The Water Supply Planning Engineer/Hydrologist applies a broad knowledge of principles, practices, department standards, and skills related to water supply planning. They will analyze data, model water supply, and recommend strategies for water management, including supply reliability and conservation. While working on projects/assignments of various sizes and complexity, they will apply and/or extend water supply planning theories, practices and disciplines as needed to complete assignments.

Job Description

Essential Functions and Responsibilities:

The duties listed below are intended only as illustrations of the various types of work that may be performed. The omission of specific statements of duties does not exclude them from the position if the work is similar, related, or a logical assignment to this position.

• The work performed will be under the direct supervision of or reviewed by a Licensed Professional Engineer with the addition of the following:
• Serve as a technical resource for TRWD in the application of concepts, principles, and methods related to short-term and long-range water supply planning
• Assist with the State Regional Water Planning process and TRWD’s internal water supply planning process, including analysis and interpretation of data related to population projections, water demand projections, potential new water supplies, etc.
• Evaluate potential new water supplies, including analysis of cost, yield, integration into TRWD’s system, etc.
• Perform tasks related to management of water rights and water use reporting
• Assist with TRWD’s water supply management by running forecasts using RiverWare and Microsoft Excel, monitoring system storage and customer demands, identifying recommendations for improvement, and providing updates to appropriate parties
• Become familiar with TRWD raw water contracts and participate in contract discussions with existing and potential customers
• Assist with the evaluation of raw water requests related to TRWD raw water contracts
• Apply standard practices and techniques in specific situations, adjust and correlate data, recognize discrepancies in results, and follow operations through a series of related detailed steps or processes
• Collaborate with an engineering team within Water Resources Engineering and with other TRWD departments to successfully achieve project-specific and District-wide goals
• Use critical thinking skills to independently analyze data
• Review scopes, budgets, and schedules for assignments
• Review complete project documents for conformity and quality assurance
• Develop new techniques and/or improved processes, materials, or products
• Assist with proposal preparation to obtain professional services or to obtain funding for engineering projects or programs
• Maintain familiarity with strategic District levels of service
• Continuous improvement monitoring and innovation efforts
• Perform other duties as required

Required Experience:

• Zero (0) to three (3) years of experience in water resource planning, engineering, hydrology, master planning, and/or urban planning
• Familiar with data modeling
• Ability to interpret and explain data/models
• Ability to analyze data and identify issues and possible solutions

Desired Experience:

• Knowledge of long-range water resource planning, including evaluation of water demands and potential water supply strategies
• Knowledge of Texas water rights and/or policies
• Project management experience
• Experience with water system modeling using RiverWare or similar software
• Experience with the State of Texas Regional Water Planning process

Required Education/Certification/License:

• Bachelor of Science (B.S) degree in hydrology, engineering from an ABET/EAC accredited program, master planning, urban planning, or a related field of study
• Valid Texas driver’s license

Desired Education/Certification/License:

• Master of Engineering (M.Eng.) or Master of Science (M.S.) in a water related discipline or related field of specialty
• The ability to become licensed as a Professional Engineer or Professional Hydrologist by the State of Texas within the next zero to four years.
• American Institute of Hydrology Certification

Success Factors/Job Competencies:

• Organized with a high attention to detail
• Excellent written and oral communication skills
• Strong technology, analytical, and quality assurance skills
• Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to collaborate among various departments within TRWD
• Able to effectively receive supervision and guidance relating to overall objectives, critical issues, new concepts, and policy matters
• Able to effectively represent the organization in communications and conferences pertaining to broad aspects of engineering assignments

Physical Demands and Work Environment

The physical demands and work environment characteristics described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of the job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Physical demands: While performing duties of job, employee is occasionally required to stand; walk; sit; use hand to finger, handle, or feel objects, tools, or controls; reach with hands and arms; balance; stoop; talk or hear. Employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by the job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus.
• Work environment: While performing the duties of this job, the employee typically resides within an office or cubicle and may have occasional field work that will expose the employee to weather conditions prevalent at the time.