Water Engineer Duties & Responsibilities

The role and function of a Water Engineer includes the following duties and responsibilities:

  • Maintaining awareness of current environmental issues.
  • Supervising the operation and maintenance of water and sewage infrastructure
  • Using computer simulations to analyze, for example, potential dam failure
  • Devising flood defence strategies
  • Monitoring flood levels at times of high risk
  • Designing sewer improvement plans or flood defence programmes, and associated structures, such as pumping stations, pipework and earthworks (the scale may range from an initial outline to a full, detailed design)
  • Producing designs - initial outlines or full plans
  • Presenting project details and technical information to colleagues/clients
  • Supervising staff and site workers
  • Using a variety of specialist computer applications/simulation software
  • Ensuring that projects keep to budgets and timescales
  • Managing and maintaining water and sewage infrastructure operations
  • Writing and advertising tender documents and managing contracts
  • Managing project budgets
  • Keeping up-to-date with changes in regulatory legislation, guidelines etc
  • Writing reports
  • Liaising with clients, contractors, government agencies, local authorities and suppliers

Note that this is not an exhaustive list of Water Engineer duties and responsibilities. Job functions for specific Water Engineer roles may vary, depending on the industry and type of employer.