Water & Wastewater Recruiter
Memphis, TN
Memphis draws drinking water from the pristine Memphis Sand Aquifer, one of the largest and cleanest groundwater sources in the country, even as the utility works under a federal consent decree to eliminate sanitary sewer overflows citywide.
Specialized staffing for Memphis water infrastructure
Metro Associates runs a dedicated water and wastewater search practice across Memphis and the Mid-South, connecting firms and utilities with licensed Professional Engineers (PE), process engineers, and construction inspection specialists reviewed under Memphis Light, Gas and Water (MLGW).
Locally, that has included work like memphis sand aquifer wellfield protection. We match vetted talent to the regulatory, operational, and performance demands of that kind of water infrastructure program.
2026 Memphiswater & wastewater hiring
Heading into 2026, Memphis's market is shaped by aging-infrastructure replacement, PFAS and emerging-contaminant compliance, and federally funded resiliency work. Licensed process engineers and inspection specialists who can deliver permit-compliant, resilient systems remain in short supply.
Pay for these roles moves with local cost of labor and project mix, so we publish ranges nationally rather than implying a Memphis-specific figure we have not measured. See the national water & wastewater compensation ranges, or ask us what we are seeing in Memphis right now.
Supporting Memphiswater & wastewater programs
What water and wastewater engineering in Memphis actually involves
Memphis sits on an artesian sand aquifer of exceptional quality, and the city has always treated it very lightly, essentially aerating and disinfecting rather than filtering. That makes protecting the clay layer confining the aquifer the single most important water engineering task in the region: where that layer is thin or breached, surface contamination can reach the supply, and locating and managing those windows is specialist hydrogeological work.
Wastewater and stormwater face the opposite problem. Flat terrain with a high water table makes gravity conveyance marginal and pumping widespread, the Mississippi's stage affects outfalls and drainage for long stretches of the year, and the old collection system takes in substantial infiltration. Seismic risk from the nearby fault zone also applies to buried pipe and plant in ways most utilities never assess.
Who owns the systems
The utilities and districts that own most Memphis water and wastewater assets. Experience on their programs is the shorthand hiring managers here read first.
- Memphis Light, Gas and Water
- Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation
- Shelby County Health Department
- Mississippi River Commission
- Memphis and Shelby County Office of Sustainability
- Tennessee Board of Water Quality
Hardest Memphis roles to fill
Where demand in this metro runs ahead of supply, and the local reason why, which is usually a feature of the work itself rather than of the job market.
Hydrogeologists & source protection engineers
Protecting the confining layer over the aquifer is the region's most consequential water engineering task.
Pump station & drainage engineers
Flat terrain, a high water table and river stage make pumped conveyance and drainage the default.
Collection system & infiltration engineers
An aging system in high groundwater takes in extraneous flow that has to be located and reduced.
Seismic assessment engineers for buried infrastructure
Proximity to an active seismic zone makes pipeline and plant survivability a genuine design question.
Licensure & operator credentials in Tennessee
Tennessee licenses through the Board of Architectural and Engineering Examiners within the Department of Commerce and Insurance, with comity on an NCEES record the normal route, and engineers covering the wider metro often hold Mississippi or Arkansas registration too. The state environment department certifies operators by grade and reviews plans for public water systems and treatment works.
What else is being built in Memphis
Our other practices are working the same metro. The programs below are what they are staffing in Memphis right now, useful context if your project sits across more than one discipline, which most of them do.
- TDOT highway and I-55 Mississippi River bridge work
- MATA transit and mobility improvements
- Wolf River and Mississippi levee systems
- FedEx World Hub & logistics-facility MEP
- St. Jude & academic medical center infrastructure
- Manufacturing-facility mechanical & electrical
- I-55 Mississippi River bridge inspection
- Memphis Regional Megasite utility inspection
- I-40/I-240 interchange materials testing
- Accelerate Memphis paving capital program
- Sanitary sewer overflow consent-decree program
- Site plan & subdivision review for warehouse-corridor growth
Water & wastewater recruiting in Memphis, FAQ
Do you place water and wastewater engineers in Memphis, TN?
Yes. Our water and wastewater search practice covers Memphis and the Mid-South, placing PEs, process engineers, and inspection specialists on treatment, distribution, and collection-system work.
What water/wastewater roles do you recruit for in Memphis?
We fill Water/Wastewater Project Engineer (PE), Senior Process Engineer, Water Resources Engineer, Utility/Pipeline Design Engineer, SCADA/Controls Engineer, and Director of Water/Wastewater Engineering roles.
How quickly can you fill a water/wastewater position in Memphis?
Our pre-vetted national pipeline usually puts a qualified TN shortlist in front of you within days, not weeks.
Do you recruit for NPDES permitting and utility compliance work?
Yes. We recruit engineers fluent in NPDES permitting, SCADA and instrumentation, and utility infrastructure rehabilitation, reviewed under Memphis Light, Gas and Water (MLGW) and Tennessee's regulatory requirements.
Hiring water & wastewater engineers in Memphis?
Tell us about the role. We'll deliver a vetted shortlist of licensed TN water and wastewater talent, screened against Tennessee licensure requirements.
Water & wastewater recruiting across the Mid-South
Other engineering disciplines in Memphis