Plant Engineer

Vicinity Energy is North America’s largest provider of district energy solutions, offering low carbon energy to most of the iconic buildings you see in the skylines of Boston, Cambridge, Philadelphia, Baltimore and many other cities in the US. As a member of the communities we serve, all of us at Vicinity understand the critical role we play in reducing the impacts of climate change and being a leader in decarbonization. We are committed to net zero and eliminating our reliance on fossil fuels, but we need the best and the brightest minds on our team to help us reach our goal, not only for us as a company, but for our customers, our communities, and our planet.

Summary

The Plant Engineer will be involved in all aspects of site engineering with respect to the day-to-day activities of the operations and maintenance departments. The Plant Engineer will also be involved in capital and O&M project management, parts research and procurement where applicable, RCM program implementation, preventative and corrective maintenance tracking as directed by the Regional Vice President of Operations.

Plant Engineer will support site engineering, operations, and maintenance staff for all disciplines. The position involves system and equipment troubleshooting, root cause analysis, thermal performance monitoring, and defining/managing outage work and maintenance priorities. Disciplines include: boilers, chillers, power plant aux systems, steam turbine/rotating equipment, I&C controls, and electrical. Other duties may include plant chemistry and water plant support.

The Plant Engineer will develop and refine preventative maintenance plans and task descriptions to streamline maintenance execution. The work at times may involve written and verbal contact with vendors and customers. This role is technical in nature with regards to parts procurement and outage planning and also requires customer service skills to deal with suppliers.

This is a full-time exempt position located in Baltimore, MD. The compensation range for this position is $80,000 to $120,000 annually plus a 15% bonus target.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical support to plant operations and maintenance.
• Provide engineering management of capital improvement projects including design, bid, and construction and ensure budgetary guidelines and contractual guarantees are met.
• Support boiler, chiller and facility / system outages.
• Interface with industry technical experts for all plant systems and equipment.
• Works with the maintenance, operations, and engineering departments to review planned maintenance and plant engineering projects with regards to procurement of materials and services.
• Track and monitor overall plant performance.
• Evaluate asset efficiencies, provide recommendations to site supervisors and regional staff for improvement
• Evaluate regional maintenance systems. Work with site supervisors and regional maintenance assets for improvement
• Identify, trend, and analyze plant heat rate and plant efficiencies.
• Assists in preparing long-term outage plans.
• Reviews critical asset needs and existing preventative maintenance tasks and updates procedures and plans.
• Utilizes appropriate software for CMMS.
• Responsible for tracking forced outages, loss of generation, and conducting root cause analysis on the cause of failure. This includes any necessary reporting requirements; internal and external.
• Assists in the investigation of plant problems, incidents, accidents, unusual events, and provide analyses, recommendations, reports, and appropriate follow-up plans.
• Develop and administer contracts and work scope for external contractors to ensure maximum efficiency in the use of plant and contractor personnel.
• Provide engineered solutions to site safety committee and management team.

Basic Qualifications

• B.S. in Engineering or equivalent 4-year technical degree.
• 3-5 years’ experience working with plant operations as an engineer.
• Working knowledge of thermal energy systems, engine operations and repair and piping distribution systems
• Knowledge of instrumentation and controls.
• Strong communication skills to help coordinate O&M team activities.
• Excellent time management skills and the ability to problem solve.
• Must be highly organized with excellent attention to detail.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with plant distributed control systems.
• Possess excellent analytical, computer and communication skills, including knowledge of AutoCAD.

Physical Requirements

• Standing, sitting, climbing stairs, bending, stooping, pushing, pulling, walking on uneven surfaces, and grating, working from elevated platforms, scaffolding or ladders.
• Exposed to temperature extremes, high noise level areas, high pressure steam lines, rotating equipment, and dusty/dirty environment.
• Must submit to company required pre-employment drug screening and physical exam.
• Must possess a driver’s license in good standing in order to operate a company vehicle. Must have and maintain a driving record meeting the standards of the company.
• Must be capable of wearing protective equipment in the performance of some duties (e.g. hard hats, safety glasses, air masks, ear protection, chemical suits, hot gloves and high voltage protective equipment, etc.).
• Ability to hear and understand audible alarms, detect changes in noise levels of rotating equipment.
• Ability to lift heavy equipment and carry materials up and down stairs with the capacity of lifting up to and including 70 pounds, ability to climb ladders and work in hot or cold environments as needed.

Benefits

• Personal Leave
• FMLA up to 12 weeks based on approval
• Nonpaid benefit
• Paid Time Off (PTO)
• 120 hours accrued annually which equals 4.62 hours per pay period
• Sick Leave
• 40 hours per calendar year prorated based on month of hire
• Paid Parental Leave
• 100% pay up to 160 hours upon birth or adoption of a child; must be used in weekly increments
• 7 paid holidays annually
• Floating holidays
• 40 hours per calendar year prorated based on month of hire
• Pension Plan
• Not available
• 401K plan
• Including Roth option with matching contributions: 100% of first 1% your contributions and 50% of the next 5% of your contributions.

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY POLICY STATEMENT Vicinity North America is an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) employer. It is the policy of the Company to provide equal employment opportunities to all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, protected veteran or disabled status, or genetic information.

Salary : $80,000 - $120,000