Regional Professionalized Services Engineer

Role Overview

The Regional Professionalized Services Engineer strengthens the reliability and technical quality of water systems across Water Mission’s East Africa programs. Working alongside country-based teams, this engineer helps assess infrastructure, resolve operational problems, guide repairs and upgrades, and verify that completed work meets technical standards. The role also builds local staff capacity so teams can maintain safe, dependable services over time while country leadership retains responsibility for staffing and budgets.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide practical engineering guidance to country teams on water-system operation, maintenance, troubleshooting, repairs, upgrades, and commissioning.
• Train and coach engineers, technicians, operators, and service providers through field demonstrations, technical materials, and guidance on approved construction and maintenance practices.
• Oversee regional technical quality checks, including infrastructure assessments, design reviews, installation inspections, commissioning, and follow-up verification; maintain review tools and corrective-action records.
• Review or prepare engineering assessments, calculations, drawings, specifications, bills of quantities, and scopes of work for system improvements and repairs.
• Help teams diagnose recurring failures and address issues involving pumps, pipes, pressure, distribution flows, solar equipment, wiring, inverters, motors, monitoring devices, and prepaid meters.
• Support preventive maintenance planning, inspection schedules, spare-parts planning, asset assessments, and lifecycle replacement recommendations; use mWater and other approved tools to review performance and maintenance data.
• Assist with technical procurement and spare-parts requests, and help teams monitor system performance and confirm that communities continue to receive appropriate service.
• Identify and promptly raise technical, safety, water-quality, infrastructure, or operational concerns with the Regional Professionalized Services Manager and relevant country leaders; coordinate significant field work and scope or spending changes with country teams.
• Keep accurate records, submit required reports on time, coordinate concurrent work across countries, and present technical information to colleagues, partners, donors, and volunteers.
• Support disaster-response work and other duties as assigned, while demonstrating servant leadership and contributing to the organization’s Christian mission and values.

Requirements & Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering; civil, chemical, environmental, or mechanical engineering is preferred.
• At least four years of relevant engineering experience, including three or more years working on the design, installation, commissioning, operation, repair, or maintenance of rural or small-town water systems in low-resource settings.
• Working proficiency with Microsoft Office and engineering design or analysis tools such as AutoCAD, Civil 3D, or EPANET. Experience with mWater or comparable mobile data collection, asset-management, or system-monitoring platforms is preferred.
• Strong analytical, planning, project-management, and process-design skills, with careful attention to detail and a dependable work ethic.
• Clear written and spoken English, including the ability to explain technical issues and offer constructive feedback. Swahili proficiency or working familiarity is preferred; other languages used in assigned countries are an advantage.
• A valid driver’s license and readiness to travel for up to three months annually, mainly within East Africa. Trips generally last one to four weeks and may involve rough-road driving, extended periods on foot in hot conditions, and lifting moderately heavy items.
• Legal authorization to work in the country where the role is based, and home internet adequate for video calls and other work duties.
• Ability to work occasional nights and weekends and adapt to cross-cultural settings and the needs of regional projects.
• A personal, growing relationship with Jesus Christ and alignment with Water Mission’s Statement of Faith and its values of Love, Excellence, and Integrity.

What We Offer / Why Join

This role offers the opportunity to apply engineering expertise to water services across Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and Malawi while developing the capabilities of country-based teams. The position is based in East Africa, with Nairobi preferred; Tanzania or Malawi may also be considered. Regular travel to remote project locations is part of the work.