Shift Charge Engineer

Role overview

Plant operations

• Lead and supervise plant operations during the assigned shift.
• Manage safe startup, normal operation, shutdown, and emergency operation in line with approved procedures and operating limits.
• Monitor plant status and process parameters, including RO trains, pumps, energy recovery, pretreatment, post-treatment, and chemical dosing.
• Ensure production, availability, recovery, and water quality targets are achieved.
• Respond to abnormal conditions, trips, process disturbances, and emergencies; supervise checklists, interlock checks, protection tests, and functional checks.
• Coordinate membrane cleaning, acid cleaning, preservation, flushing, and equipment changeovers.

Coordination and reporting

• Coordinate equipment isolation, maintenance, release, return to service, and operational testing with Maintenance.
• Issue, control, suspend, and cancel PTW within the authorized level; ensure equipment isolation and normalization.
• Coordinate plant chemistry and water quality with the Chemistry/Laboratory team and operations with other departments.
• Maintain shift logs and daily status reports, provide shift handover, and submit incident, accident, near-miss, and abnormal-operation reports.
• Communicate with the Load Dispatch Center or Grid Control Authority on power availability and plant operating requirements where applicable.

Safety and improvement

• Apply plant safety, HSE, PTW, LOTO, emergency response, environmental, regulatory, contractual, and organizational requirements.
• Identify and control operational hazards; implement environmental aspect and impact and hazard risk assessments.
• Monitor integrated management system objectives, programs, deviations, and non-conformities.
• Support root cause analysis and corrective and preventive actions for failures, incidents, and recurring abnormalities.
• Lead or support emergency response during equipment failures, power loss, train trips, chemical system failures, fire, leakage, or other emergencies.
• Identify improvements in efficiency, reliability, production, energy use, and operational performance; ensure effective resource use.

Team support

• Assist with training and familiarization of new operators and shift personnel; identify competency gaps and support development plans.
• Conduct periodic performance evaluations of reporting employees and maintain effective shift and departmental communication.
• Perform other duties assigned by the Operations Manager.

Education and experience

• A bachelor’s degree in Engineering is required.
• A degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Chemical, Process, or a related engineering discipline is preferred.
• A postgraduate degree in Engineering, Water Desalination, Process Engineering, Power Plant Engineering, or a related field is preferred.
• At least 8 years of relevant experience in power, water desalination, RO water treatment, utilities, or similar process plants, including plant shift operation and supervision.
• Similar RO desalination or combined power and desalination plant experience in the Middle East is preferred.
• Previous experience as a Shift Charge Engineer, Shift Engineer, Senior Operations Engineer, or equivalent is preferred.