Also called: Public Works Water Director, Utility General Manager
Runs a city or regional water system that delivers clean water and treats sewage for hundreds of thousands of people.
You oversee treatment plants, thousands of miles of pipes, and hundreds of workers. One day it's a budget fight with city council about replacing 100-year-old lead pipes; another it's a 3 a.m. water main break flooding a downtown street.
Estimate; large city utilities pay the most.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Bachelor's degree (4-year), about 4 years after high school. Bachelor's in engineering or environmental science plus many years in utility management; often a PE license or top operator certification.
Ways in: 4-year college, Graduate school, On-the-job training. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Public Administration.
Growing about average. Aging infrastructure and new federal funding keep demand steady.
Low risk for 10 years. AI predicts pipe breaks and tunes plants; leading the utility, setting budgets and keeping public trust in the water stay human.
Classes: Chemistry, Economics, AP Government.
Official data: O*NET occupation 11-9199.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.