Tech Lead, Water Engineering

Job Description

Tech Lead, Water Engineering

Location: Mesa, Arizona

Employment type: Full-time

Compensation: 150-200k total comp

About Our Client

Our client is a growing water and wastewater engineering firm built for clients that need senior judgment, practical execution, and direct accountability. The team works across municipal, commercial, and industrial environments on projects ranging from package treatment systems and lift stations to larger municipal infrastructure and complex water needs supporting data-center development.

Our client operates with a lean, experienced team and gives technical leaders meaningful ownership of projects, close access to company leadership, and the ability to shape standards as the business scales. This is an opportunity to help build the technical backbone of the next stage of the firm—not to become another layer in a large approval structure.

The Opportunity

Our client is hiring a Water Engineering Technical Lead who can own project outcomes day to day and become a long-term technical center of gravity for the firm.

This person will take responsibility for work that currently reaches senior leadership for technical and mechanical review. The role combines hands-on engineering judgment, multidisciplinary design leadership, QA/QC, client communication, permitting, construction-phase support, and plant startup. It is designed for a proven engineer who has carried entire projects—not only one technical piece of them—and who wants more ownership, variety, and influence.

The near-term mandate is to produce excellent work, learn our client's standards and customer base, and progressively take responsible charge of assigned projects. Over time, this person may grow into the firm's principal technical leader as the current Principal Engineer transitions toward mentoring and standards oversight.

What You Will Own

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• Lead water and wastewater projects from client definition and scoping through design, permitting, bidding, construction support, startup, and closeout.
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• Serve as the day-to-day technical owner for assigned projects and make sound decisions without requiring a separate project manager, CAD department, or QA layer to keep work moving.
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• Perform and oversee process and treatment engineering for both wastewater and water systems, with particular depth in wastewater.
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• Review mechanical and multidisciplinary design work, including redlines, markups, calculations, specifications, plan sets, and QA/QC.
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• Coordinate civil, mechanical, process, electrical, instrumentation, controls, and SCADA considerations into coherent project solutions.
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• Seal plan sets and assume responsible charge for projects within your areas of competence.
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• Manage permitting and regulatory coordination and represent technical work clearly to clients, regulators, contractors, and municipal stakeholders.
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• Support construction administration, field issue resolution, commissioning, and real-world plant startup.
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• Provide technical direction and practical mentorship to engineers and designers while raising the quality and consistency of the team's work.
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• Communicate responsively, meet deadlines, and identify risks early enough for the team to act.
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• Help our client establish repeatable technical standards and increase the number of concurrent projects the firm can deliver confidently.
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Minimum Qualifications

The following requirements are intentionally specific so qualified candidates can be evaluated consistently.

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• Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, or another engineering discipline directly relevant to water and wastewater infrastructure.
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• 12+ years of professional engineering experience, including substantial responsibility for municipal, commercial, or industrial water and wastewater projects.
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• Active Professional Engineer (PE/P.E.) license in Arizona.
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• Current NCEES Record supporting efficient comity licensure in additional states.
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• Documented experience serving as Engineer of Record or otherwise sealing your own water or wastewater plan sets.
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• Proven ownership of complete project lifecycles: client relationship, scope, design, permitting, bidding, construction-phase services, commissioning, and startup.
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• Hands-on water/wastewater process or treatment engineering experience, with demonstrated wastewater depth and the ability to support water projects.
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• Demonstrated mechanical-design review and QA/QC experience, including redlines, markups, calculations, specifications, and multidisciplinary plan review.
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• Experience coordinating across civil, process, mechanical, electrical, instrumentation, controls, and/or SCADA disciplines.
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• Direct client-facing experience, including communicating technical decisions, resolving project issues, and maintaining accountability for schedule and outcomes.
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• Field experience supporting construction, commissioning, or treatment-plant startup.
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• Ability to work independently, respond reliably through email and Microsoft Teams, and deliver against deadlines in a lean operating environment.
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Preferred Qualifications

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• 12–18 years of experience, with the judgment of a senior technical lead and the desire to remain close to delivery.
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• Experience with several of the following: membrane bioreactors (MBR), onsite wastewater treatment systems (OWTS), wastewater treatment plants, water treatment plants, lift stations, pump stations, booster stations, water reuse, industrial water, data-center water infrastructure, or small-municipality systems.
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• Arizona regulatory and permitting experience, including work involving ADEQ, Maricopa County Environmental Services Department (MCESD), municipalities, utilities, or similar authorities having jurisdiction.
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• Experience presenting technical recommendations to city councils, utility boards, public agencies, or other nontechnical decision-makers.
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• Existing PE licensure in one or more additional states, especially Washington, or demonstrated ability to obtain comity licensure quickly.
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• Experience working in a small or mid-sized consulting firm where senior engineers personally own client, technical, schedule, and delivery outcomes.
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• Experience on the utility-owner side reviewing consultant designs, combined with prior hands-on consulting or design responsibility.
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• Experience mentoring engineers and designers, improving QA/QC practices, or creating technical standards.
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• A record of increasing responsibility and reasonable career stability.
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The Profile Most Likely to Thrive

You may be the technical backbone of a smaller Arizona firm and have reached the ceiling of what that environment can offer. You may be a strong engineer inside a mid-sized organization who is ready to move faster and own outcomes without layers of approval. Or you may work for a utility and miss designing, building, and starting up the systems you currently review.

What matters most is that you enjoy carrying the whole project. You want meaningful responsibility—not simply a larger title—and you are energized by moving between smaller, highly practical assignments and larger, more complex infrastructure programs.

Equal Opportunity

Our client evaluates candidates based on their ability to perform the work and contribute to the team. Qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to legally protected characteristics.