Performance Engineer Monitoring & Diagnostics 5

NAES•The Woodlands, TX

5d•Onsite

About The Position

The Performance Engineer supports NAES Remote Operations and Monitoring & Diagnostics (M&D) services from the Remote Operating Center. The role continuously monitors plant and equipment performance, identifies abnormal operating conditions and emerging equipment issues, performs diagnostic analysis, and works with plant teams to drive issues through resolution. It combines power plant operations knowledge, equipment diagnostics, data analysis, and performance engineering, using plant historian data, monitoring and diagnostic applications, equipment models, alarm systems, and engineering tools to identify equipment degradation, operational abnormalities, and opportunities to improve reliability, availability, and plant performance. The role also supports development and standardization of NAES M&D capabilities as additional facilities are onboarded to the Remote Operating Center. The position monitors plant and major equipment health; investigates alerts, anomalies, performance deviations, and abnormal operating conditions; performs first-level diagnostics; manages M&D cases; and provides actionable recommendations to plant operations and maintenance teams. It supports plant performance and reliability analysis, Remote Operating Center operations, customer reporting and meetings, and plant onboarding and M&D system development. The role reports to the Technical Program Director and works closely with ROC/PMOC Operators and Shift Leads, the ROC Manager, Reliability and Performance Engineering teams, plant Operations personnel, digital platform partners, IT and SCADA support teams, client sites, and internal NAES stakeholders. It is primarily office-based in a control room/operations center environment, with occasional travel to plant sites and NAES offices. The work involves extended periods of sitting, computer use, and monitoring multiple screens.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in mechanical, electrical, or related engineering from an accredited college or university recognized by the United States Department of Education or equivalent.
10 years of experience in power plant operations, performance engineering, controls, or a related field.
Working knowledge of major power plant equipment and systems, including gas turbines, steam turbines, HRSGs, generators, pumps, compressors, heat exchangers, cooling systems, and balance-of-plant equipment.
Experience with data integration and system onboarding.
Strong understanding of power plant operations and equipment.
Ability to interpret plant data and identify performance issues.
Strong communication and training skills.
Ability to work in a fast-paced, evolving digital operations environment.
Willingness to travel periodically to support site onboarding and ROC development.
Knowledge of SCADA systems and plant control systems, historian systems and data analytics tools, CMMS platforms, performance modeling tools, and digital platforms.

Nice To Haves

Experience with plant historians and analytical platforms such as AVEVA PI/OSIsoft PI, Predict-It, APR, Pathway, or similar monitoring and diagnostic applications.

Responsibilities

Continuously monitor plant and major equipment health using plant historian data, Predict-It, APR/Pathway models, diagnostic tools, alarms, and other M&D applications.
Review and investigate alerts, anomalies, equipment performance deviations, and abnormal operating conditions.
Perform first-level diagnostic analysis to determine likely causes, operational significance, and recommended next steps.
Manage M&D cases from initial identification through investigation, plant notification, escalation, and closure.
Identify developing equipment problems before they result in forced outages, derates, or significant equipment damage.
Provide equipment diagnostic advisories and actionable recommendations to plant operations and maintenance teams.
Review equipment behavior during startup, shutdown, trips, and other significant operating events.
Monitor unit and equipment performance and identify degradation or changes from expected operating performance.
Analyze operational and equipment data to support troubleshooting and root-cause investigations.
Support thermal performance monitoring and analysis, including identification of performance losses and opportunities for improvement.
Assist with unit trip root-cause analysis and restart support.
Identify recurring equipment issues and reliability trends across supported facilities.
Develop corrective and preventive maintenance recommendations based on M&D findings.
Support outage planning by identifying equipment concerns, inspection opportunities, and recommended outage work scope.
Serve as an engineering resource to Remote Operations personnel when abnormal plant or equipment conditions are identified.
Provide technical guidance to ROC operators during equipment alarms, abnormal conditions, startups, shutdowns, and other operating events.
Support alarm notification and escalation processes and ensure significant findings are communicated to appropriate plant and NAES personnel.
Coordinate with plant Operations, Maintenance, Engineering, and management teams to resolve identified issues.
Maintain clear documentation of findings, recommendations, plant responses, and case resolution.
Prepare regular M&D reports summarizing open issues, new findings, equipment concerns, recommendations, and resolved cases.
Participate in recurring M&D review meetings with plant teams and customers.
Develop instrumentation-out-of-service reports and identify instrumentation issues affecting monitoring or diagnostic capabilities.
Prepare outage equipment worklist recommendations based on identified equipment conditions.
Support customer discussions regarding equipment health, performance, and M&D findings.
Support onboarding new plants into NAES Monitoring & Diagnostics services.
Review historian data availability, tag quality, instrumentation, and equipment configuration.
Assist with development and validation of equipment models and monitoring logic.
Support deployment and tuning of APR, Pathway, anomaly detection, and equipment diagnostic models.
Identify gaps in instrumentation or data quality that limit diagnostic effectiveness.
Help develop standardized M&D procedures, workflows, alarm thresholds, escalation criteria, reports, and case-management practices.
Coordinate with ROC/PMOC Operators and Shift Leads, ROC Manager, Reliability and Performance Engineering teams, plant personnel, digital platform partners, IT and SCADA support teams, client sites, and internal NAES stakeholders.
Adhere to NAES safety rules and procedures and work safely at all times.