Building Engineer I/II

The City of Alexandria is located in northern Virginia and is bordered by the District of Columbia (Potomac River), Arlington and Fairfax counties. With a population of approximately 150,000 and a land area of 15.75 square miles, Alexandria is the seventh largest city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Alexandria has a charming waterfront and is a unique and historic place to live and work. About one-quarter of the City's square miles have been designated as a national or local historic district. We proudly embrace our rich history and seize the endless opportunities that lie ahead. If you are interested in working for the vibrant City of Alexandria, we invite qualified candidates to apply for our Building Engineer position.

An Overview
Under general supervision, the Building Engineer is assigned and performs full performance or journey level skilled maintenance repairs and preventative maintenance in HVAC, plumbing, and/or electrical work as a licensed journeyman. The purpose of this work is to ensure maximum efficiency, economy and quality of work on the City's buildings. The Building Engineer II performs full performance work on building systems including but not limited to building automation systems, HVAC (including boilers, chillers, cooling towers, VAV's etc.), fire protection equipment, emergency generator back-up systems, plumbing, mechanical, electrical, roof and other structural and non-structural building systems.

What You Should Bring
The ideal candidate should have a broad base of knowledge, skill, and ability in various maintenance and repair disciplines. Must also possesses the skill and ability to operate the tools and equipment associated with these functions.

The Opportunity - Examples of Work

• Perform preventive maintenance, monitor, repair and replace controls for major/minor HVAC equipment to include vfd drives, pneumatic and digital thermostats; and replaces consumable parts on major/minor HVAC equipment to include belts, filters, pumps, bearings and couplings;
• Check gauges regularly to assure that boilers and air conditioners are operating properly, and performs adjustments and repairs;
• Calibrate and maintain control systems; make combustion efficiency tests on boilers and adjusts burners to give optimum performance;
• Monitor computer information regarding HVAC equipment and responds as required, and maintains logs of operations and temperature readings;
• Repair and replace plumbing parts and fixtures to include supply lines, sloan valves, faucets and o-rings; and clears out large and small drain lines;
• Access work order maintenance system in order to determine what needs maintenance; perform administrative duties including answering emails, inputting information into Cityworks system and communicating with vendors;
• Read building drawings and blueprints to locate equipment and identify sources of problems;
• Access BAS system to clear alarms, alter building schedules, and identify equipment that needs repairs or maintenance;
• Respond to after-hours emergency repair calls when serving in an on-call capacity;
• Perform other duties as required.

About the Department
The Department of General Services mission is to provide exceptional management of the City's real estate, property and other support services for all our customers, internal and external. The Department of General Services staff strives to provide our customers with unmatched services by proactively managing the City's assets to support the delivery of services to the City of Alexandria, responding to service requests in a timely manner, listening to our customers, and ensuring that our customers are satisfied with the resolution.

Minimum & Additional Requirements

High School Diploma or GED supplemented by building trades or technical maintenance courses; and one year of experience in the operation and maintenance of boilers, air conditioning, refrigeration, electrical, mechanical or plumbing systems; or any equivalent combination of experience and training which provides the required knowledge, skills and abilities. Candidates must possess a valid driver's license from state of residence.

Preferred Qualifications

The ideal candidate will possess plus significant experience, in more than one of the following areas: plumbing, electrical, generator and/or general mechanical repairs. Working knowledge for the operation of boilers, HVAC equipment, other auxiliary equipment and controls; demonstrate means, methods and practices used in maintaining boilers, air conditioning, electrical, mechanical and plumbing equipment; be aware of hazards and safety precautions particular to the trade. Candidates must possess the skill to operate, or ability to learn to operate computer monitoring equipment for the HVAC systems installed in facilities. 3-5 years experience using computerized building automation control systems (BAS) is strongly preferred.

Notes

This position requires the successful completion of pre-employment background checks including but not limited to drug testing and criminal background.

The Department of General Services (DGS) is a first response department and as such all DGS employees are deemed essential or emergency personnel and maybe required to report to work when the City government is open with liberal leave or closed during emergencies.
Outside of general business hours the Building Engineer will be required to work evening and weekend hours on a rotational bases.

This position may be filled at either the Building Engineer I or Building Engineer II level depending on education and experience.