Water Utility Plant Manager

About the role

The City of Cedar Rapids is seeking an experienced, collaborative, and forward-thinking Water Utility Plant Manager to lead one of our community's most essential services - providing safe, reliable, high-quality drinking water to the people and businesses who depend on it every day.

Responsibilities

• Manages and provides day-to-day guidance to plant operational maintenance and laboratory staff to streamline cost-effective water treatment processes and optimize the operational quality and procedural efficiency of the city’s water production facilities.
• Schedules and conducts training regularly on quality issues and regulations; manages workflow and works schedules and ensures adequate staffing levels, approves time and attendance; handles grievances; supervises the work of assigned personnel, including assigning and reviewing work, providing guidance, and conducting performance evaluations.
• Reviews water treatment operations and monitors standard operating procedures (SOPs) to ensure compliance with regulatory standards; gathers documentation for the direct source water protection program and special project activities to determine project objectives and requirements.
• Manages internal controls to evaluate the lime residual and other byproducts formed during and after water treatment processes and ensures compliance with established safety protocols, treatment techniques and procedures.
• Develops and evaluates operational and treatment data quality reporting in compliance with the state, federal, and local regulatory agencies criteria requirements.
• Captains operational and maintenance activities with other utilities divisions operation and maintenance managers.
• Analyzes methods for equipment used and performance measures to implement recommendations for water production quality improvement systems.
• Plans, prepares and monitors budgetary activities for water production facilities.
• Develops purchasing specifications, request for proposals (RFP) and professional service contracts for the purchase of goods and services.
• Maintains oversight of contractor, consultant, and vendor products to ensure they meet regulatory agency requirements and exceed city quality standards.
• Identifies and analyzes gaps on existing policies, standard operating procedures (SOPs), working instructions and safety when implementing new programs and/or projects and seeks out opportunities for continuous process improvement.
• Reviews capital improvement project (CIP) plans for storage tanks, remote sites, and other associated infrastructure; serves on the water utility management team, conducts project research and recommends capital improvement projects (CIP) in support of the city’s initiatives.
• Ensures seamless integration between continuous operation of plant operations during routine and more extensive capital maintenance projects.
• Participates in citywide initiatives, committees, planning groups, board proxy/member, trainer, and facilitator.
• Serves as a regulatory community liaison to residential, commercial, and industrial users and responds to production capability inquiries; keeps current with new methods, products, technology developments.

Qualifications

• Required Education and Experience:
  • Bachelor's Degree in Industrial Technology, Environmental Sciences, Business Administration, Public Administration, or Construction Management
  • Five (5) to seven (7) years of experience including supervising and project management in Facility Management, Industrial Manufacturing, Environmental Sciences, Water/Wastewater Management
• Experience and Skills:
  • Excellent written, verbal and interpersonal communication skills
  • Proficiency with Microsoft Office
• Desired Qualifications:
  • Supervisory experience in a union environment
  • Supplemental Information