Water & Wastewater Recruiter
St. Louis, MO
MSD's Project Clear is a 23-year, $6+ billion federal consent decree program, among the largest in the country, rebuilding combined and sanitary sewers across the St. Louis region.
Specialized staffing for St. Louis water infrastructure
Metro Associates runs a dedicated water and wastewater search practice across St. Louis and the Gateway region, connecting firms and utilities with licensed Professional Engineers (PE), process engineers, and construction inspection specialists reviewed under Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District (MSD).
Locally, that has included work like project clear consent decree tunnel & sewer program. We match vetted talent to the regulatory, operational, and performance demands of that kind of water infrastructure program.
2026 St. Louiswater & wastewater hiring
In 2026, the the Gateway region market is defined by aging-infrastructure replacement, PFAS and emerging-contaminant compliance, and federally funded resiliency programs. Demand for licensed process engineers and inspection specialists who can deliver permit-compliant, resilient systems is at an all-time high.
Pay for these roles moves with local cost of labor and project mix, so we publish ranges nationally rather than implying a St. Louis-specific figure we have not measured. See the national water & wastewater compensation ranges, or ask us what we are seeing in St. Louis right now.
Supporting St. Louiswater & wastewater programs
What water and wastewater engineering in St. Louis actually involves
The regional sewer district serves the city and most of the county, and it operates two quite different systems at once: a combined network in the older core and separate sanitary and storm systems in the postwar suburbs. Its overflow control obligations therefore require different engineering answers in different parts of the same service area, which makes hydraulic modeling and program prioritization unusually important.
Drinking water is drawn from two great rivers just above their confluence, which means very high and variable sediment loads and treatment designed around solids handling at a scale most utilities never face. Residuals management is a major operation in its own right, and intake reliability through floods and ice is a recurring engineering concern rather than a seasonal inconvenience.
Who owns the systems
The utilities and districts that own most St. Louis water and wastewater assets. Experience on their programs is the shorthand hiring managers here read first.
- Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District
- Missouri American Water
- Missouri Department of Natural Resources
- City of St. Louis Water Division
- Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
- US Army Corps of Engineers St. Louis District
Hardest St. Louis 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.
Collection system & overflow control engineers
One authority running both combined and separate systems needs different compliance engineering in each.
Hydraulic modelers
Prioritizing a very large program across two system types is a modeling and planning problem first.
Water treatment & residuals engineers
Extremely high sediment loads from two rivers make solids handling a major process operation.
Pump station & conveyance engineers
Flat floodplain service areas and river-level constraints make pumped conveyance widespread.
Licensure & operator credentials in Missouri
Missouri licenses through the Board for Architects, Professional Engineers, Professional Land Surveyors and Professional Landscape Architects, with comity on an NCEES record the usual route and corporate authorization required for firms. The Department of Natural Resources certifies operators by class and issues construction permits for water and wastewater works, and because the metro reaches into Illinois, projects there fall under a second state agency entirely.
What else is being built in St. Louis
Our other practices are working the same metro. The programs below are what they are staffing in St. Louis right now, useful context if your project sits across more than one discipline, which most of them do.
- MoDOT & IDOT Mississippi River bridge programs
- MetroLink light-rail expansion
- Levee, floodwall, and river-corridor systems
- BJC / Washington University Medicine MEP
- Cortex life-science and lab-space build-outs
- Manufacturing-facility mechanical & electrical
- I-270 North corridor resident engineering
- Mississippi River bridge inspection
- I-64 corridor materials testing
- Project Clear consent-decree sewer program
- Street & sidewalk capital reconstruction program
- Cortex-district site plan review
Water & wastewater recruiting in St. Louis, FAQ
Do you place water and wastewater engineers in St. Louis, MO?
Yes. Metro Associates is a specialized water and wastewater engineering recruiter serving St. Louis and the Gateway region, placing licensed PEs, process engineers, and construction inspection specialists on treatment, distribution, and collection-system programs.
What water/wastewater roles do you recruit for in St. Louis?
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 St. Louis?
Our pre-vetted national pipeline usually puts a qualified MO 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 Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District (MSD) and Missouri's regulatory requirements.
Hiring water & wastewater engineers in St. Louis?
Tell us about the role. We'll deliver a vetted shortlist of licensed MO water and wastewater talent, screened against Missouri licensure requirements.
Water & wastewater recruiting across the Upper Midwest
Other engineering disciplines in St. Louis