The City of Ann Arbor is hiring a Water Treatment Service Unit Manager. 

About the Community

The City of Ann Arbor, located in Southeast Michigan, within Washtenaw County and near to Detroit, is well-known for its vibrancy, high technology business community, social activism and is the home to the University of Michigan. The City is consistently featured by various media outlets on their “best places to live” lists. It is a community-oriented, progressive city that provides exceptional city services, and has a socially conscious Council that is innovative, creative, and responsive to new ideas that can benefit its residents. 

The population of Ann Arbor is approximately 120,000 individuals and covers around 28 square miles with a variety of residential developments, diverse retail and commercial businesses including multiple headquarter locations and the University of Michigan academic and athletic campuses.  

Ann Arbor provides its residents with excellent schools, a wide range of community amenities, a relatively stable employer base, and cultural and athletic attractions that are nationally recognized. The community is known for strong civic and community engagement, and is viewed as progressive/liberal. The community is welcoming and friendly. City staff are talented, hardworking and devoted.  

The City has recently prioritized climate action, cleaning water,  affordable housing, inclusion and other progressive values.

To learn more about the City, please visit the website: https://www.a2gov.org/

To learn more about the role, please view our brochure here.

About the Opportunity

The Water Treatment Service Unit Manager is responsible for all aspects of the operations and maintenance of the city's drinking water treatment plant, pumping stations, storage tanks, and recreational and hydroelectric dams. They will ensure all facilities operate in compliance with all water quality, environmental and safety regulations. Part of this responsibility involves oversight of the City’s Environment Laboratory which performs all regulatory compliance testing for both the drinking water and wastewater systems. 

The Unit Manager is also responsible for all operations, maintenance, and capital improvement programs at the facility, and for coordinating with other City services including Engineering, Wastewater Treatment, System Planning, Safety Services, Communications, Emergency Management and Information Technology. In addition, the Unit Manager oversees the Unit’s annual operating budget, including fiscal control.

Key Responsibilities:

• Maintains and exceeds regulatory compliance including proactively planning for treatment and distribution process optimization to provide water of higher quality; strategically plans for future regulations; responds to regulatory challenges in a leadership capacity
• Assesses water treatment processes, condition of critical equipment and ensures compliance with relevant standards and all state and federal regulations
• Investigates problems or irregularities in the water treatment process; identifies causes, determines remedies and directs corrective action
• Identifies and develops capital improvements and maintenance projects needed to meet reliability objectives, regulatory requirements and customer needs; plans, develops and/or approves schedules, priorities and standards for achieving goals
• Selects and assigns staff, ensuring compliance with all hiring and promotion policies and procedures and all collectively bargained agreements; responds to employee grievances and concerns; coaches and mentors employees; prepares, reviews and approves performance evaluations; identifies employee development and training requirements; develops staff recognition programs
• Provides on-call support and response to the treatment plant outside of normal business hours
• Serves as an advocate for the City’s water system and represents the City in its relationship with regulatory agencies and local stakeholders related to water system activities
• Oversees and participates in development and administration of the annual budget; participates in the forecast of funds for staffing, materials, equipment and supplies; monitors and approves expenditures; implements adjustments; authorizes purchase and ensures the proper inventory and accounting techniques of all materials, chemicals and equipment; evaluates and approve bids for equipment and service contracts

Key Upcoming Initiatives:

• Overseeing a $100M project to replace portions of water treatment plant that are original from 1938
• Building a pilot treatment plant to evaluate new technologies before implementation full-scale

To learn more about the Water Treatment Plant Facility Plan, please check out this link: http://www.a2wtpfacilityplan.com

About You

The ideal candidate for this position will have many of the following qualifications:

• Knowledge of water treatment plant operations.
• Graduation from an accredited four-year college or university with major course work in chemistry, microbiology, civil or environmental engineering or related discipline required. A Master’s degree is preferred.
• Experience in technical and supervisory management at a water treatment facility or allied industry.

To Apply

Please submit your interest in the role via our online job application link here. We look forward to receiving your materials. If you have any questions about the application process, please email us at: Rebecca@AmyCellTalent.com. Thank you.