Water Engineer
What the work is
Plans, designs, researches, manages and oversees water-related engineering projects involving the supply of clean water, prevention of flood damage, and disposal of wastewater and sewage.
Would you enjoy the work?
These are the main tasks in the official description. Mark how each one sounds to you.
- Plans, develops and improves water facilities and equipment, such as sewers, pipes and pumping stations
- Develops plans for controlling runoff and overland flow to minimise the risk of contamination of nearby bodies of water, such as rivers and lakes, by polluted water
- Studies water quality to identify and characterise sources of water pollution
- Uses computer models to simulate risks of flooding and propose engineering solutions
- Evaluates the operation and maintenance of water or wastewater systems to identify ways to improve their efficiency in a sustainable way
- Designs building features to ensure the supply or removal of fluids in a safe and efficient way
- Designs water or wastewater treatment plants, sewage systems, stormwater capture and treated water reuse schemes
Try it
A simulation and a case study from this kind of work, set in a civil engineering consultancy designing roads, bridges, drains and flood works for towns. They are fictional.
The kind of days you could have
Good days
- A road or drain you designed opens and people just use it without noticing the thinking behind it
- A heavy rain arrives and the stormwater system you designed does its job
- You solve a tricky site problem with a design that saves months and a lot of digging
Hard days
- Soil on site turns out to be nothing like the report and the design has to change
- A community meeting about a project that will disrupt people's streets
- A client wants the cheapest option and you know it will cost more in the end
Written by Career Calling as a general guide. Real roles vary by employer and place.
Work a mission
Step into a simulated workplace in this field, with a brief from your manager.
Description and tasks: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, 2024, Version 1.0 (opens another site), occupation 243236, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The skill guide above is our plain English summary.