Water Resource Recovery Research Fellowship

Date Opened: Thursday, May 01, 2025 12:00 AM

Close Date: Tuesday, May 06, 2025 12:00 AM

Department: Charlotte Water Department

Salary: $30.00 - $31.00 Commensurate with Experience

SUMMARY

Charlotte’s local government, with more than 7,000 employees and a $2.39 billion budget, works hard to ensure that the community will be a winning city for everyone – a truly remarkable place to live, work, learn, and play.

Charlotte Water is an enterprise department of the City of Charlotte and one of the largest public water and sewer service providers in the southeast with 300,000 customer accounts and over 1000 employees. Our service area includes the City of Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, and the towns of Huntersville, Cornelius, Davidson, Mint Hill, Matthews, and Pineville. Charlotte Water’s FY 23 budget is $535M and a five-year capital program of $2.5 billion. We enjoy the highest credit ratings from all three major credit rating agencies as a result of sound financial planning and management and strong support from our City Council. We value competent, skilled candidates with a customer service focus to work in a team environment.

SALARY: $31.00 Hr.

JOB SUMMARY:

The City of Charlotte, Charlotte Water Department, is accepting applications for the Water Resource Recovery Research Program. The individual will work under the supervision of the Environmental Management Division’s (EMD) Research and Development group. The candidate must be a current student at an institution of post-secondary or graduate education majoring in a related field of study i.e. civil/environmental engineering, chemistry, biology, or environmental science.

Applicants will be required to submit a brief project proposal as part of the application process. The proposed project should contribute to the academic research required to complete a postgraduate degree. Areas of particular interest to EMD include:

• Densified or granular activated sludge
• Mainstream and/or side-stream nitrogen removal using anammox
• Biological phosphorus removal stability
• Attached growth activated sludge systems (e.g. IFAS, MBBR, MOB)
• Beneficial reuse of biosolids

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS:        

In addition to carrying out the proposed research project, the successful applicants for this position will learn the following tasks as it pertain to the daily work:

• Assist the Process Engineer in planning, coordination, and completion of water resource recovery research, development, and innovation projects and evaluations.
• Assist in the planning and coordination of wastewater treatment equipment and technology pilots, demonstrations, evaluations, and chemical trials.
• Coordinate closely with internal team members including treatment plant operations and maintenance professionals, biosolids, water quality, and continuous improvement professionals and procurement staff and external team members including engineering consultants, vendors, and contractors.
• Travel to and frequently perform duties at the seven water resource recovery facilities located throughout Mecklenburg County.
• Perform laboratory analyses on wastewater samples to recommend/implement operational changes.
• Use biological/chemical parameters to analyze overall wastewater treatment plant operations, reports anomalies.
   

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS TO PERFORM WORK:

• Valid Driver’s License
• Post-secondary experience, current or recent graduate in an accredited college or university with major course work in environmental engineering, chemistry, biology, environmental science, or a related field of study
• Pursuing a postgraduate degree

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor's Level Degree in environmental engineering, chemistry, biology, environmental science, or a related field of study

EMPLOYMENT TYPE:

Full-time (preferred) and part-time (20+ hours/week) will be considered if the applicant can demonstrate that proposed research can be completed within one year on a part-time schedule.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS/ WORK ENVIRONMENT:

Standing, walking, bending, and light lifting in a primarily indoor environment.

PROGRAM BENEFITS:

• Assigned mentor/trainer and workplace readiness skills
• Hands-on experience in the wastewater treatment industry
• Interdisciplinary collaboration.
• Exposure to a wide array of projects from planning level through conceptual design, piloting, construction, operation, maintenance, and rehabilitation

ADDITIONAL INFO