Project Engineer III

Essential Utilities, Inc.

About The Position

Aqua, an Essential Utilities company, employs people in a variety of roles within our eight-state footprint, ranging from field workers and customer service representatives who are on the front lines working with customers, to scientists and engineers who help ensure we’re delivering reliable water and wastewater services to our communities. If you’re looking for a rewarding career helping improve our environment and protect our natural resources, we encourage you to join our team! About Essential Utilities Essential Utilities, Inc. delivers safe, clean, reliable services that improve quality of life for individuals, families, and entire communities. Operating as the Aqua (water and wastewater services) and the Peoples and Delta (natural gas) brands, Essential serves approximately 5.5 million people across 10 states. We are committed to sustainable growth, operational excellence, a superior customer experience, and premier employer status - including a competitive and comprehensive benefits package as well as a commitment to career growth opportunities. We are advocates for the communities we serve and are dedicated stewards of natural lands, protecting more than 7,600 acres of forests and other habitats throughout our footprint. Our company is one of the most significant publicly traded water, wastewater service and natural gas providers in the U.S. GENERAL FUNCTIONS: The Corporate Automation (SCADA) Engineer is responsible for the development, management, communication, and execution of a programmatic approach to SCADA solutions in all eight Aqua America state operating units. This includes development and implementation of a governance framework: guidelines, specifications, standards and processes necessary for an operational, secured, and data centric SCADA environment. The Corporate Automation (SCADA) Engineer will coordinate the proper requirements across all states by providing a direct role in capital planning, design, implementation, and maintenance of SCADA for water and wastewater systems across Aqua. These efforts include technical leadership of all process control initiatives, capital master planning focused on system architecture and operational requirements, control system design, corporate standards development, compliance, data acquisition/storage/reporting, and business continuity efforts. The Corporate Automation (SCADA) Engineer will partner with the Essential Utilities Information Technology department to advance the work structure necessary to enforce SCADA guidelines and standards across the States in conformance with the Information Technology / Operational Technology (IT/OT) roadmap. The role also works directly with Information Security on planning, coordination, and execution of state OT Cybersecurity assessments as well as subsequently OT remediation planning and execution. The Corporate Automation (SCADA) Engineer supports the execution of existing cybersecurity processes to ensure a reliable operation while minimizing risks to cyber threats. The Corporate Automation (SCADA) Engineer will manage stakeholder and executive level sponsor expectations, as well as the requirements of internal governance committees and oversight from each State’s regulatory body. Finally, the Corporate Automation (SCADA) Engineer will facilitate and develop processes necessary to extract data and value from our SCADA systems, fostering SCADA data consumption and analytics by other business units. The ideal candidate will have a diverse background and have served in a leadership role for SCADA master planning, SCADA standardization, instrumentation and control design, and control systems maintenance and upgrades.

Requirements

Proven ability to architect and implement industrial control systems in a large, complex and geographically distributed environment that integrates IT and OT.
Must have dedicated experience with SCADA architecture design and information security concepts. Current hands-on experience with DMZ design and hardening, perimeter defense, defense in depth, encryption management, prevention and detection of network security issues.
Strong written and verbal communication skills are required.
Minimum of 10 years primary responsibility leading SCADA and Control system environments.
Strong, clear and concise written and oral communication skills.
Ability to work on multiple, unique assignments across various operational areas and Teams simultaneously.
Strong organizational, analytical and problem solving skills.
Reasonable knowledge of the following concepts: a. Encryption in transit and at rest b. SCADA and Industrial Control Network best practices c. Security best practices d. Operational HMI best practice
Ability to travel up to 60-70% of the time outside the Bryn Mawr Area.
Bachelor’s Degree in Control Systems Engineering, Electrical Engineering or equivalent required, with 10 years of experience in Control systems and SCADA systems.
Experience in water and wastewater utility space preferred.

Nice To Haves

Wonderware System Platform Certification (v. 2012 or later)
Working knowledge of GE Proficy iFix (v 5.0 or later)
Working knowledge of GeoSCADA Expert
Working knowledge of Allen-Bradley Studio 5000
Working knowledge of Schneider Electric Unity Pro
Masters degree in Controls Engineering, Electrical Engineering or related field
SCADA protocols such as Modbus and DNP3
Experience in water and wastewater utility space preferred
GICSP Industrial Controls Certification
Pennsylvania DEP Class A Water License (or other operational states)
Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification
ISA Certified Automation Professional (CAP)

Responsibilities

The Corporate Automation (SCADA) Engineer will apply strong critical thinking, organizational, and technical expertise in designing, developing, implementing, and maintaining industrial control systems for Aqua water and wastewater systems. This key Corporate Engineering role will require working closely with in-house personnel at the Corporate and State level, Contractors, Consultants, Suppliers, and Manufacturers on both small and large scale SCADA projects throughout the states.
Provide technical leadership in the areas of SCADA architecture and design, control system design and review, cybersecurity awareness, standard operating procedures (SOPs) and operational reliability.
Provide vision and direction in executing the Company’s automation strategy. Facilitate communication and enforcement of corporate standards for compliance with Engineering, IT, and OT policies, standards, practices, and guidelines.
Participate in all phases of project lifecycle for IT/OT initiatives - design, build and assist with operation and maintenance of current and upcoming SCADA efforts both at the state and corporate level.
Facilitate the IT/OT program by coordinating all IT/OT efforts through the established IT/OT Program Governance Structure: a. Steering Committee – Senior and Executive Operational, Engineering, and IT b. Leadership Leadership Group – Engineering and IT Management c. Working Group – IT PMO, IT Functional Groups, Internal and External OT Resources d. Advisory Council – cross-functional quality circle
Work with Senior Leadership and Functional Leads to develop and execute overall technological strategy to meet strategic needs and functional requirements.
Work with Engineering, IT, and OT stakeholders, State Operations, and Asset Management Team to facilitate and define technology, security standards, operational needs, and system architectures, regarding state reporting requirements and SCADA data transport to enterprise level applications. Work together with Essential Utilities Information Technology to develop, implement, and maintain this system architecture.
Support and coordinate with the IT and Cyber Security Team: a. Engineering / management / maintenance of firewall and network access control Technology for the SCADA assets. b. Assist the Information Security team with the upkeep of cybersecurity equipment such as networks, intrusion prevention / detection systems, proxy / content filtering technologies, virtual private networks, DMZ networks, secure file transfer, and encryption. c. Support and communicate with IT team on day-to-day access control change requests and provisioning at the network perimeter and between network segments. d. Assist in the development and implementation of both IT and OT strategies and facilitate such initiatives as they relate to the company’s SCADA architecture, including network infrastructure and security program. e. Capability to provide technical vulnerability and risk assessment as well as ability to design reasonable and actionable remediation/improvement plans.
Support and coordinate with the State Engineering & Operations Teams and State Automation / Process Controls Personnel: a. Provide guidance and hands-on management to State and Corporate Engineering on State’s Annual Capital 510 Budget in VA, IL, IN, OH, and TX b. Provide guidance and support to NC and PA. Guide and manage embedded OT dependencies contained in additional Capital work (i.e. control system components within vertical construction projects).GBS1 c. Review and coordinate with stakeholders from each individual state and business area on upcoming SCADA projects for both technical and organizational compliance with corporate requirements in terms of guidelines, standards, specifications, operational requirements and technical objectives. d. Oversee and coordinate the architecture / engineering, management, maintenance, planning and monitoring of the various SCADA networks. This includes configuration management, rule set design and device security. e. Work with State Automation Managers and Contract Integrators to create / maintain PLC and HMI programming application code and documentation of all state SCADA systems and build a virtual library of control documentation for all SCADA assets.
Support and coordinate with the Information Technology Project Management Office (IT PMO) a. Design IT/OT system architectures with clearly defined IT components in alignment with Aqua America IT/OT Roadmap b. Identify IT components and deliver requirements documentation to the IT PMO i. System architecture diagrams ii. Data flow diagrams iii. Security policy documentation iv. Network policy documentation v. Infrastructure requirements documentation c. Collaborate with IT PMO personnel to develop project plans, resourcing assignments, and project Gantt charts d. Act as a liaison between the IT PMO and State/Corporate Engineering to convey project delivery timelines, translate requirements, and identify and remediate obstacles.
Leadership roles: a. Primary point of contact and source of responsibility for gathering operational needs across the Aqua footprint that can be supported through automation (SCADA). b. Primary point of contact for Aqua States’ Process Controls personnel, Contract Integrators, manufacturers, and suppliers, and for providing / coordinating support and expertise across States. c. Communicate the possibilities and options that exist for the support of operations under the latest accepted Company-wide SCADA framework and implementations through the OT Advisory Groups.
Ability to work off hours maintenance windows and participate in rotating on call shift.
Ability to work alone or function effectively as part of a team.
Ability to follow change control processes.
All other duties as assigned by management.