Field Investigation Specialist (Senior Water Service Technician)

Date Opened: Wednesday, July 16, 2025 12:00 AM

Close Date: Wednesday, July 30, 2025 12:00 AM

Department: Charlotte Water Department

Salary: $24.00 - $25.75 Commensurate with Experience

Welcome to the City of Charlotte

Charlotte is America’s Queen City, opening her arms to a diverse and inclusive community of residents, businesses and visitors alike. Here you will find a safe, family-oriented city where people work together to help everyone thrive. The mission of the City of Charlotte is to deliver quality public services and promote the safety, health, and quality of life for all residents.

Our guiding principles include:

• Attracting and retaining a skilled and diverse workforce

• Valuing teamwork, openness, accountability, productivity, and employee development

• Providing all customers with courteous, responsive, accessible, and seamless quality services

• Taking initiative to identify, analyze, and solve problems

• Collaborating with stakeholders to make informed decisions

SUMMARY

Charlotte’s local government, with more than 9,000 employees and a total budget of $3.65 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 over 330,000 customer accounts and over 1100 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 26 budget is $651 million and a five-year capital program of $2.2.28 billion. We enjoy the highest credit ratings from Moody’s and S&P Global 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:

$23.18 - $25.74 Commensurate with Experience

JOB SUMMARY:

A Field Investigation Specialist is responsible for conducting high usage investigations stemming from high meter readings and customer complaints, identifying discrepancies in metering equipment and providing appropriate corrective actions, identifying city and private leaks and educating customers on the differentiating circumstances, performing pressure tests to address low pressure complaints, submitting emergency work orders when pressure tests read below city standards, analyzing and communicating usage and billing data to successfully troubleshoot metering equipment and direct field actions to resolution or escalation, performing all service order work at performance levels of a Water Service Technician and Field Investigation Specialist. A Field Investigation Specialist has daily and recurring customer interactions and will need exceptional soft skills to educate and communicate with both internal and external customers. This role directly reports to the Field Operations Supervisor of the assigned zone but will be subject to operate outside of the assigned zone when specific work needs are present. The Field Operations Supervisor also allocates other duties as assigned.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS:        

• Completes high usage and low-pressure service orders.
• Conducts high bill investigations to address high usage complaints.
• Performs comprehensive field inspections of metering equipment for proper operation and provides maintenance replacements as needed (transmitter, register and transmitter, and/or water meter).
• Inspects water meter connections for leaks and replaces material as needed to repair leaks (washers and/or expansion wheels).
• Evaluates field conditions to determine if there is an irregularity or condition at the service address that would cause high consumption or unknown usage to occur and report findings.
• Communicates with customers on identified leaks, our meter reading process, metering equipment functionality and reasons for work performed.
• Applies necessary soft skills to de-escalate and educate customers. Limit further complaints that may lead to supervisor escalation.
• Evaluates usage data and billing history to troubleshoot high usage service orders and high bill investigations.
• Evaluates usage data and billing history to direct customer communication and/or corrective field actions. Field Investigation Specialist makes determination if high usage service orders/ complaints are a result of changes in rates, days of service, associated utility services fees and/or identified city or private leaks. Notifies the customer of findings.<