Recycled Water Project Manager

KING COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF WATER & LAND RESOURCES; Seattle (WA); Hybrid; USD 90,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision coverage

Retirement plan

Flexible schedules and telecommuting

Paid time off and holidays

Job summary

King County is seeking a driven professional to support recycled water initiatives across treatment plants and distribution systems. This role focuses on project management, regulatory alignment, and stakeholder collaboration to deliver reliable, science-based reclaimed water for environmental restoration and irrigation.

You will coordinate with facility staff, regional agencies, and customers, ensuring quality, safety, and timely delivery while advancing King County’s sustainability goals.

Qualifications

• Knowledge of water quality and recycled water operations.
• Experience with regulatory reporting and permit conditions.
• Strong written and verbal communication for outreach materials.

Responsibilities

• Manage planning, scheduling, and delivery of recycled water projects at South Plant.
• Coordinate with program managers for consistent planning and permits.
• Engage stakeholders and prepare customer agreements and trainings.
• Support long-range planning for production and distribution.
• Guide project teams through complex issues and ensure deliverables.

Skills

Project management

Stakeholder engagement

Regulatory compliance

Written communication

Data analysis

Education

Bachelor's degree in a relevant field

Job description

Job Description

Summary

This position is open to the general public and King County Employees.

This role offers a unique opportunity to support King County’s recycled water initiatives by driving outcomes for the recycled water program, County wastewater treatment plants, and recycled water distribution systems. You will serve as a subject matter expert in recycled (reclaimed) water and participate in a range of multi-jurisdictional efforts including planning, project management, technical leadership, and execution of project tasks.

King County is reducing long-term discharges to Puget Sound by producing and using recycled water as a valuable resource. Recycled water helps return nutrients to the environment, conserves drinking water, and keeps more freshwater in rivers and streams for fish and wildlife. To fulfill this mission, we ensure recycled water meets or exceeds quality standards, promote water reuse across the region, deliver recycled water reliably and efficiently, and educate the public about the safety and benefits of water reuse.

The Resource Recovery unit within the Operations & Maintenance Section of King County’s Wastewater Treatment Division strives to bring valuable resources, technology, and sound business practices together to deliver products and programs that inspire our customers to be part of an environmentally sustainable future.

As part of the Resource Recovery Unit, you’ll join a mission-driven team at the forefront of sustainable resource recovery. This role blends stakeholder engagement, environmental compliance, and project management to deliver real-world climate solutions. The position works within the Recycled Water Program, which distributes recycled water for environmental restoration, sports fields, and agricultural irrigation. King County has produced recycled water for more than 25 years, ensuring availability during peak spring and summer demand through close coordination with treatment plants.

If you thrive in a collaborative, entrepreneurial environment and want to make a meaningful impact on regional sustainability, this role offers that opportunity. You’ll join the Renewable Products & Services work group, surrounded by professionals who value innovation, performance, and transformation, and contribute to shaping the future of wastewater resource recovery.

About The Role

This position supports reuse of highly treated wastewater-marketed as recycled water-across King County’s treatment plants and distribution systems. By managing projects, developing recommendations, and ensuring compliance with regulatory and contractual requirements, the role advances the County’s sustainability goals by reducing discharges to Puget Sound, conserving water supplies, and supporting regional climate resilience.

This position offers meaningful opportunities to collaborate with treatment facility staff, peers within other clean water agencies, water users and regional stakeholders to ensure recycled water is produced, monitored, and delivered safely, and helps protect public and environmental health while supporting a recycled water program that is reliable, science based, and community focused. This position will coordinate recycled water production at King County’s South Treatment Plant, and support and collaborate with the other members of the Recycled Water team on their subject areas.

About The Team

The Renewable Products & Services work group within the Resource Recovery Unit includes both the Recycled Water and Biosolids Programs. This position serves in the Recycled Water Program, which transforms highly treated wastewater into a reliable resource for environmental restoration, irrigation, climate mitigation and other non-potable uses. Recycled water is produced at our treatment plants to rigorous quality standards, ensuring it is safe, dependable, and protective of public and environmental health.

For more than two decades, King County has partnered with farms, recreational venues, and habitat restoration projects to put recycled water to beneficial use-reducing effluent discharges to Puget Sound, conserving drinking water supplies, and keeping more freshwater in rivers and streams for fish and wildlife. The program plays a critical role in advancing the County’s climate goals by supporting drought resilience, nutrient recycling, and long-term water sustainability across the region.

Our team brings an entrepreneurial spirit and deep technical expertise to recovering resources that mitigate climate impacts. We prioritize transformation, innovation, and performance, and we value employees who take initiative, build strong partnerships, and want to help shape the future of sustainable water management.

About WTD

Join our team dedicated to ensuring clean water for generations to come! With over 1000 employees engaged in planning, designing, building, and operating treatment facilities, our agency is at the forefront of environmental stewardship. Success for us means upholding our legacy while promising future generations a pristine environment.

We partner with regulatory agencies to reduce harmful waste discharge and actively educate the public and businesses on water quality protection. We prioritize accountability to our ratepayers and operate a well-managed agency that services over 2.3 million King County residents. Our regional wastewater treatment system not only sustains a healthy environment but also fuels economic development, fostering prosperity in our region. If you're passionate about making a difference and thrive in a collaborative environment, join us in our mission to safeguard our precious water resources.

Commitment to Equity, Racial and Social Justice:

King County, named after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is a diverse and vibrant community that represents cultures from around the world. Our True North is to create a welcoming community where everyone can thrive. We prioritize equity, racial and social justice, making it a foundational and daily expectation for all employees. As a King County Employee, you will actively apply these principles in all aspects of your work. Learn more about our commitment at http://www.kingcounty.gov/equity .

Job Duties

• Project management - Manage planning, scheduling, and delivery of recycled water projects primarily at South Treatment Plant, coordinating treatment plant operations and maintenance needs as well as customer needs, capital work, and resource recovery objectives. Ensure project scopes and budgets support reliable Class A recycled water output.
• Cross-program coordination - Collaborate and cross-train with recycled water project managers across the Recycled Water Program to align project delivery approaches, share operational insights, and strengthen program-wide consistency in planning, permitting, and customer support.
• Stakeholder engagement and collaboration- Build and maintain relationships with partner agencies and internal work groups. Work with potential customers by providing information they need, help prepare customer agreements, and provide customer training and onboarding. Work with Operations and maintenance staff on water quality, water availability, operational reliability.
• Program planning - Contribute to long-range planning for recycled water production and distribution by working with the program Lead to ensure South Plant project priorities align with division wide resource recovery goals and the Renewable Products & Services work group’s strategic direction.
• Policy and regulatory guidance - Provide project-level alignment with recycled water regulations, user agreements, and permit conditions. Prepare reports and contribute to the development of studies as required by permits.
• Technical and planning leadership -Collaborate on planning studies, operational assessments, and coordinate with capital project managers for South Plant recycled water projects. Develop scopes and schedules; guide project teams through ambiguous issues; and ensure project deliverables.
• Program communications--Contribute to the development of project specific and program wide communications, including web content, fact sheets, customer materials, and internal briefings. Provide input on, and contribute to, clear, accurate messaging for potential and existing customers, partner agencies, regulators, elected officials, and media. Participate in public education events on recycled water.

Experience, Qualifications, Knowledge, Skills

Qualifications You Bring:

• Knowledge of water quality, drinking water systems, treatment processes, recycled water, wastewater system operations, or similar utility-based experience.
• Familiarity with water, reclaimed water, wastewater regulations and/or resource management (water rights, municipal planning, instream protection, sustainability), regulatory frameworks, permit requirements, and principles that support safe, compliant, and beneficial use of recycled water.
• Strong project management experience and written and verbal communication skills, with experience preparing technical documents, regulatory reports, policy recommendations, and outreach materials.
• Experience using environmental or operational data to inform program decisions, including maintaining detailed records, developing systems, producing summaries or visualizations, and applying data to improve recycled water (or similar utility-based resource) production, distribution, or compliance strategies.
• Proven ability to build and sustain relationships with a wide range of stakeholders, including customers/users, partner agencies, researchers, and internal teams. While navigating competing priorities, and long-term program planning needs.

Competencies You Bring:

• Manages Complexity: Making sense of complex, high quantity, and sometimes contradictory information to effectively solve problems
• Collaborates: Building partnerships and working collaboratively with others to meet shared objectives.
• Strategic Mindset: Seeing ahead to future possibilities and translating them into breakthrough strategies.
• Organizational Savvy: Maneuvering comfortably through complex policy, process, and people-related organizational dynamics.
• Resourcefulness: Securing and deploying resources effectively and efficiently.

Required Licenses

• A valid Washington State Driver’s License or an alternate ability to get to meetings and field sites not served by transit at varying times of day.

It Would Be Great if You Also Bring:

• Experience contributing to strategic planning efforts within a utility, environmental, or public-sector setting, including the ability to translate long term vision into actionable plans that advances system reliability, and regional sustainability goals.
• Demonstrated experience with cross disciplinary collaboration and organizational alignment, including the ability to coordinate across technical, operational, policy, and communications teams to advance initiatives and strategies that are consistent with broader priorities.
• Experience with recycled water and/or wastewater, including water demand planning for municipal, commercial, agriculture and instream water demands, and/or water resource management, including water rights and instream protection.
• Knowledge of current trends in water reuse and familiarity with federal/state recycled water regulations

Supplemental Information

Work Location:

The unit works in a hybrid model, with a minimum of 3 days in the office as well as telecommuting. The ratio of remote to onsite work will be dependent on business needs and is subject to change. The primary onsite locations are South Treatment Plant 1200 Monster Rd, Renton WA, and the Collaboration space at King Street Center, 201 S. Jackson, Seattle, Washington 98104. Employees must reside in Washington state and within a reasonable distance to their King County worksite to respond to workplace reporting requirements. King County has a robust collection of tools and resources to support working remotely. The individual selected for this opportunity will join an innovative and progressive team that is redefining how we work as we transition to the department's hybrid environment. Employees will be provided with a County-issued laptop and must maintain a home workspace with an internet connection where they can reliably perform work and remain available and responsive during scheduled work hours.

Work Schedule

This full-time position works a 40-hour work week. This position is exempt from the overtime provision of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and is not overtime eligible.

Union Representation:

This position is represented by Technical Employees’ Association (TEA) - Wastewater Treatment Division,

Physical Requirements:

• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to stand, walk, and use hands to touch, handle or feel objects, tools or controls. The employee frequently is required to talk and hear. The employee is occasionally required to reach with hands and arms, and to stoop, kneel or crouch. Must occasionally lift and/or move up to 15 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and the ability to adjust focus. You may need to navigate uneven terrain and wastewater facilities.

King County is an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Employer

No person is unlawfully excluded from employment opportunities based on sex, race, color, national origin, ethnicity, religious affiliation, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age except by minimum age and retirement provisions, pregnancy, status as a family caregiver, parental status, marital status, military status or status as a veteran who was honorably discharged or who was discharged solely as a result of the person's sexual orientation or gender identity or expression, citizenship or immigration status, genetic information, or other protected class. However, to the extent that distinction or differential treatment on the basis of citizenship or immigration status is authorized by either federal or state law, regulation, or government contract, it is not an unfair practice.

Our EEO policy applies to all employment actions, including but not limited to recruitment, hiring, selection for training, promotion, transfer, demotion, layoff, termination, rates of pay or other forms of compensation.

King County offers a highly-competitive compensation and benefits package designed to meet the diverse needs of our employees and support our employees' health and well-being. Eligible positions receive the following benefits and have access to the following programs:

• Excellent medical, dental, and vision coverage options: King County provides eligible employees with options, so they can decide what’s best for themselves and their eligible dependents
• Life and disability insurance: employees are provided basic coverage and given the opportunity to purchase additional insurance for both the employee and eligible dependents
• Retirement: eligible King County employees may participate in a pension plan through the Washington State Department of Retirement Systems and a 457(b) deferred-compensation plan
• Transportation program and ORCA transit pass
• 12paid holidays each year plus twopersonal holidays
• Generous vacation and paid sick leave
• Paid parental,family and medical, and volunteer leaves
• Flexible Spending Account
• Wellness programs
• Onsite activity centers
• Employee Giving Program
• Employee assistance programs
• Flexible schedules and telecommuting options, depending on position
• Training and career development programs

For additional information about employee benefits, visit our Benefits, Payroll, and Retirement Page .

This is a general description of the benefits offered to eligible King County employees, and every effort has been made to ensure its accuracy. If any information on this document conflicts with the provisions of a collective bargaining agreement (CBA), the CBA prevails.

NOTE:

Benefits for Term Limited Temporary (TLT) or Short Term Temporary (STT) positions, including leave eligibility and/or participation in the pension plan through the Washington State Department of Retirement Systems, will vary based upon the terms and details of the position.Short Term Temporary positions are not eligible for an ORCA transit pass.

For inquiries about the specifics of this position, please contact the recruiter identified on this job posting.

Closing Date/Time: 11/10/2026 11:59 PM Pacific

King County's Vision, Mission, and ACTIVATE Values unite us.

King County serves residents with a relentless sense of urgency, delivering on commitments with transparency and accountability. We are action-oriented, creative problem solvers who collaborate across roles, engage directly with communities, and challenge the status quo to achieve meaningful impact. As a unified team, we uphold high ethical and stewardship standards, embrace change, stay curious, and continuously improve. Across all interactions, we listen first, act quickly, and stay aligned as a team to earn and sustain public trust. Learn more about our Vision, Mission, and ACTIVATE Values here and visit our Why work at King County page here .