Senior Mechanical Engineer

Vicinity Energy is North America’s largest provider of district energy solutions, offering low carbon energy to most of the iconic buildings you see in the skylines of Boston, Cambridge, Philadelphia, Baltimore and many other cities in the US. As a member of the communities we serve, all of us at Vicinity understand the critical role we play in reducing the impacts of climate change and being a leader in decarbonization. We are committed to net zero and eliminating our reliance on fossil fuels, but we need the best and the brightest minds on our team to help us reach our goal, not only for us as a company, but for our customers, our communities, and our planet.

Summary

The Senior Mechanical Engineer provides engineering support to Vicinity’s facilities throughout North America which includes all plant and steam and chilled water distribution assets. The Senior Mechanical Engineer will be involved in Vicinity’s industry leading steam system de-carbonization efforts. This position provides engineering support services to business development, finance and regional/district operations teams including: engineering designs, technical reviews, and project cost information for projects, and new development opportunities.  This is a full-time exempt position. The Senior Mechanical Engineer reports to the Senior Vice President of Engineering and the position is located in Boston, MA.

Responsibilities

• Must be willing to travel locally and regionally up to 25% of the time.

• Responsible for identifying thermal performance of plant equipment, as well as synchronizing real time plant operations and long-term forecasting to achieve optimal plant returns and budgeting.
• Maintains VEOS (Vicinity Efficiency Optimization System).

• Optimize combustion processes for efficiency and performance.
• Conduct testing and analysis of combustion systems.
• Ensure compliance with environmental and safety regulations.
• Monitor and maintain existing combustion systems

• Directs and manages engineering resources to achieve company objectives and goals.
• Ensure the provision of engineering support and services to Vicinity operating assets.   Includes on site RCA investigations, engineering studies, operating performance evaluations, technical reviews, and manpower support as needed.
• Develops monthly forecasting of the engineering resources (internal and external) required to support sales, business development, operations, maintenance, quotations, and special projects.  Schedules internal and external resources (where needed).
• Ensures that all engineering deliverables for team projects are identified and prioritized in a project execution plan.  Measures engineering’s on-time delivery performance for critical deliverables.  Helps define, implement, and monitor measurements for continuous improvement of engineering performance and product cost reductions. 
• Participates in key engineering design reviews.  Enforces conformance with defined requirements and ensures that corrective actions are completed as required.
• Supports Business Development with technical strategy and experience to maintain current accounts and to capture new business. 
• Defines training needs and implements programs for continuous development within respective control. 

• Defines technology, equipment, instrumentation, and systems needs in assigned area and ensures that staff has adequate resources to effectively meet department and individual objectives.

• Participates in developing and preparing annual budget for assigned area. 

• Assists in the capital expense request process and acquisition of new or upgraded capital equipment, systems, and software.

Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering required
• Master’s degree in engineering concentration, MBA or Registration as a Professional Engineer or Engineer-in-Training preferred.
• Minimum of 10 years of progressive experience in design, project, construction, maintenance or management of power plants and ability to troubleshoot and solve power plant, underground piping, chilled water process/ operations problems.
• Combustion engineering experience a plus

• 5 years of supervisory experience preferred.

• Ability to interpret and apply a variety of policies, procedures and/or precedents used in combination. 
• Self-directed and confident in their ability to overcome challenges and respond to deviations without the need for direction. Acts independently, secure in the knowledge that they have, support from above when acting within policy and practice and accepted limits.
• Great judgment, strong interpersonal communication, and timely action to resolve errors or issues that arise. This position has high customer visibility with potential long-term impacts.

• Demonstrated leadership ability and the ability to effectively manage resources (personnel, equipment, materials, facilities, funds and reputation).

Physical Requirements 

• Must submit to company required pre-employment physical and drug screening.
• Typically spends 25% of time in operations environment and 75% of time in office environment.  Requires working in outside and inside environments with noise and all temperatures and climatic conditions and must be able to work under adverse weather conditions for extended periods of time.
• May be exposed to possible operations hazards including dust, fumes, toxic and caustic chemicals, rotating machinery, high pressure, hot or cold work temperatures, slippery surfaces, water, electrical hazards, and asbestos.
• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required use hands to finger, handle, or feel, reach with hands and arms, and talk or hear. 
• Occasionally required to stoop, kneel, or crouch and enter confined spaces.  May be required to use stairs, ladders, catwalks and supports at heights of 50 feet above the ground.

• May occasionally lift and/or move up to 50 pounds.
• Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, and ability to adjust focus. Requires close visual observation to detect process non-conformance and machine malfunction.

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY POLICY STATEMENT Vicinity North America is an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) employer. It is the policy of the Company to provide equal employment opportunities to all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, protected veteran or disabled status, or genetic information.