Compressed Air System Auditor (Field Engineer)

Compressed Air Consultants; United States; On-site; USD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Compressed Air Consultants seeks an engineer to connect how a plant runs its air system to actual costs, then explain it in plain language to technical staff and management. You will work independently, audit plants nationwide, and present financially supported findings in reports and executive summaries.

The role requires hands‑on plant work, travel roughly a third of the time, and strong data skills. You’ll train and build AI tools while delivering measurable energy savings for clients.

Qualifications

• Engineering background or equivalent hands‑on experience in rotating equipment, motors, controls, P&IDs.
• Ability to turn logger output into actionable answers, not just raw data.
• Strong technical writing for executive summaries and financial workbooks.

Responsibilities

• Conduct supply-side and demand-side compressed air audits at industrial plants nationwide.
• Install and retrieve data loggers on compressors, dryers, and distribution; log amps, power, pressure, flow, and dewpoint.
• Build pressure profiles to isolate where pressure and money are lost.
• Run ultrasonic leak detection surveys and quantify leaks.
• Identify artificial demand and misapplied equipment; develop defensible baselines.
• Evaluate compressor control strategies and model alternatives.
• Size storage, piping, and system controls and quantify energy savings and ROI.
• Author reports and financial workbooks; present findings to plant teams.

Skills

Engineering background

Data interpretation

Technical writing

Willingness to travel

Driver's license

Tools

Data loggers (ACR, HOBO)

Ultrasonic leak detection equipment

Excel

Job description

Compressed Air Consultants is a vendor-neutral engineering consultancy specializing in industrial compressed air systems. We audit and re-engineer the systems that run heavy industry: cement, lime, pulp and paper, food and beverage, primary metals, and aerospace.

We take no commissions, no spiffs, and no referral fees from equipment manufacturers. The recommendation is our product, so it's the only thing we have to protect. Clients hire us because we're the one voice in the room with nothing to gain from the answer.

Compressed air is often the most expensive utility in a plant, and most plants pay far more for it than they should. The usual culprits are leaks, artificial demand, poor control strategy, undersized storage, and misapplied equipment. We find that money with instrumentation and engineering, then build the business case that gets the fix approved.

It's About Money, Not Air.

The role

Your job is to connect how a plant runs its air system to what that system actually costs, then explain it in plain language to both the technical people who run it and the managers who pay for it. The point is to let them make business decisions with the consequences of every choice in full view.

That means putting on a consulting hat, which is not the same as working for an OEM. You do whatever is in the client's best interest, regardless of what their current supplier recommends, or what CAC recommends, for that matter. (Can you picture an OEM's auditor recommending a competitor's compressor, even when it's the right one for the job?) That independence is the whole value of the work, and protecting it is part of the job.

This kind of expertise takes hands‑on effort, so you'll be in plants (safely) as well as at a desk. Families matter to us, and that's why we hold travel to about a third of your time. The road can be a grind, but it's nothing like it once was now that you can stay connected from anywhere.

When you're in the home office, report writing comes first. But that still leaves a considerable chunk of time, and we want you spending it on work that makes our customers or our business better. Technical or commercial, the door is wide open: writing a magazine article, inventing something worth patenting (we're working on two right now), building out our AI expert systems, taking a new control system apart until you understand it cold. The best engineers have more to offer the world than auditing. Auditing is just the fun part.

What you'll do

• Conduct supply‑side and demand‑side compressed air audits at industrial plants nationwide
• Install and retrieve data loggers (ACR, HOBO) on compressors, dryers, and distribution — logging amps, power, pressure, flow, and dewpoint
• Build pressure profiles from compressor discharge to point of use to isolate where pressure — and money — is lost
• Run ultrasonic leak detection surveys: locate, tag, quantify, and price leaks
• Identify artificial demand, inappropriate uses, open blowing, and misapplied equipment
• Reduce a week of logged data into a defensible baseline (kW, cfm, $/yr)
• Evaluate compressor control strategies — load/unload, modulation, variable displacement, VSD — and model alternatives
• Size and specify storage, piping, and system controls; quantify energy savings, payback, and ROI
• Author engineering reports, executive summaries, and financial workbooks
• Present findings to plant engineering, operations, and corporate management

What we're looking for

• Mechanical or electrical engineering background, or equivalent hands‑on experience — rotating equipment, motors, controls, P&IDs
• Real comfort with data: you can turn a week of logger output into an answer, not just a spreadsheet
• Strong technical writing — our deliverables have to hold up in front of a corporate energy team
• Willingness to travel ~30%, typically multi‑day site visits
• Ability to work in operating plants: ladders, elevations, PPE, long days on your feet
• Valid driver's license and clean driving record

Preferred

• 3+ years in compressed air, plant utilities, industrial energy, or rotating equipment
• Familiarity with audit methodology — Compressed Air Challenge, DOE AIRMaster+, ISO 11011
• Hands‑on across compressor types (rotary screw, centrifugal, reciprocating), dryers, and air treatment
• Strong Excel — you can build a financial model, not just a chart

Strong ME/EE with field instincts but no compressed air background? We'll train you. The domain can be taught. Curiosity, rigor, and integrity cannot.

Why this job

• The findings are yours. Nobody will ever ask you to soften a conclusion to sell a machine.
• You'll be trained by people who've spent careers on this. There are very few places left to learn compressed air properly. This is one of them.
• Measurable impact. You'll leave plants having permanently cut six‑figure energy bills — verified, with your name on them.
• Small firm, high trust, high autonomy. No layers. Your work goes straight to the client.
• $90,000–$120,000
• Travel fully expensed
• All tools, instrumentation, and PPE provided