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Facilities Engineering & Operations Manager – Water & Wastewater Treatment
Wolfspeed
Durham, USA
Full-time
Manager · 12+ years experience
Onsite
Discovered 2 weeks ago
Full Job Posting
Key Responsibilities
- Engineering Leadership (System Hardening & Risk Reduction)
- Provide enterprise-level technical leadership for water, wastewater, reclaim, and hazardous waste systems, including RO/DI, UF, ion exchange, and advanced wastewater treatment technologies.
- Lead system hardening initiatives to enhance reliability, redundancy, and resilience of critical utility infrastructure.
- Identify and eliminate single points of failure (SPOFs) through robust redundancy and design improvements.
- Drive root cause failure analysis (RCFA) and ensure implementation of sustainable corrective and preventive actions across all sites.
- Establish and lead global improvement forums and steering committees to drive best known methods (BKMs) and cross-site knowledge sharing.
- Champion FMEA and Facilities Change Review Board (FCRB) processes to proactively manage system risks and changes.
- Operational Excellence & Cost Optimization
- Lead cross-site initiatives to reduce operating costs (chemicals, energy, consumables, waste disposal) while maintaining or improving system performance.
- Optimize system performance through setpoint tuning, recovery improvement, and process efficiency enhancements.
- Define, track, and enforce KPIs such as cost per unit treated, chemical intensity, energy consumption, and system uptime.
- Deploy Lean, Six Sigma, and continuous improvement methodologies to drive sustainable performance gains.
- Reliability Engineering & Maintenance Strategy
- Develop and implement predictive and preventive maintenance programs for critical water and wastewater assets.
- Standardize spares strategies, redundancy philosophies, and maintenance procedures across all sites.
- Leverage condition monitoring, data analytics, and digital tools to reduce unplanned downtime.
- People Leadership, Mentoring & Engagement
- Mentor and coach early-career engineers and supervisors, strengthening technical depth and problem-solving capability.
- Foster a culture of continuous learning, innovation, and accountability across all sites.
- Establish structured career development pathways, training programs, and competency frameworks.
- Recognize high performance and proactively address skill gaps to build a motivated, high-capability team.
- Regulatory & Compliance
- Ensure compliance with EPA, NPDES, and state regulatory requirements (e.g., NCDEQ, NYDEC).
- Support audits, inspections, and regulatory reporting.
- Targeted Capital & Retrofit Execution (ROI-Driven)
- Lead brownfield retrofit and debottlenecking projects focused on reliability improvement and OPEX reduction.
- Prioritize investments based on ROI, payback, and risk reduction, rather than capacity expansion.
- Review and approve engineering designs, technical solutions, and vendor proposals.
- Cross-Functional Leadership
- Partner with EHS, manufacturing, and corporate engineering to align on reliability, cost, and sustainability goals.
- Lead technical support for incident investigations and corrective actions.
- Communicate performance metrics, risks, and cost-saving opportunities to executive leadership in a clear, data-driven manner.
- This Job is Right for You if You Have:
- Bachelor’s degree in Chemical, Environmental, Mechanical Engineering, or related field (required) Master’s degree (preferred)
- 8–12+ years of experience in industrial water/wastewater engineering and operations
- Demonstrated success in system hardening, brownfield optimization, and cost reduction initiatives
- Experience leading and mentoring engineering and operations teams preferred
- Experience supporting multi-site or centralized engineering organizations
- Semiconductor or advanced manufacturing experience strongly preferred
- Proven track record delivering quantifiable OPEX savings and reliability improvements
- Deep expertise in:
- Water systems: RO/DI, UF, IX, filtration, reclaim
- Wastewater systems: chemical and advanced treatment processes
- Familiarity with emerging regulatory challenges such as PFAS, azoles, and POTW compliance is preferred
- Strong understanding of process integration, automation, and PLC/SCADA systems
- Proficiency in data analytics, performance trending, and process optimization tools
- Ability to lead enterprise-wide initiatives without direct authority
- Strong coaching, mentoring, and talent development skills
- Excellent communication and stakeholder influence capabilities
- Strong analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making abilities
- Hands-on leadership style with a people-first, cost-focused mindset
- To put it legally – Wolfspeed is an equal opportunity employer.
- We recruit, employ, train, compensate and promote regardless of race, sex, religion, color, national origin, disability, age, veteran status, gender identity, sexual orientation and other protected status as required by law.
- We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.
Preferred Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Chemical, Environmental, Mechanical Engineering, or related field (required) Master’s degree (preferred)
- Familiarity with emerging regulatory challenges such as PFAS, azoles, and POTW compliance is preferred
About Wolfspeed
Semiconductors3434 employeesFounded 1987
Public semiconductor manufacturer supplying silicon-carbide materials and power devices for electric vehicles, charging, energy storage, and industry.
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