The water industry does not have a hiring problem anymore. It has a workforce crisis.
Utilities across the US are trying to deliver major infrastructure upgrades, manage tightening compliance requirements, prepare for PFAS regulation, and modernize aging systems while simultaneously losing decades of technical knowledge to retirement. According to the EPA, between 30% and 50% of the water workforce is expected to retire within the next decade, creating one of the most significant succession challenges the sector has faced in years (EPA).
At the same time, more than $50 billion in federal infrastructure funding is accelerating demand for engineering, operations (EPA), and compliance talent across the country. The problem is that the talent pool is not growing at the same pace and in many cases, it is shrinking.
That is why some of the hardest to fill engineering jobs water utilities are hiring for now remain open for six months or longer, particularly in specialized technical and leadership functions where experience cannot easily be replaced. And despite how serious the issue has become, many utilities are still relying on hiring strategies that no longer reflect how candidates actually move in today’s market.
For years, the industry talked about the “silver tsunami” of retirements coming to water and wastewater utilities. That wave is no longer approaching. It is already here.
The challenge has become especially visible in:
According to AWWA’s State of the Water Industry report, more than 75% of utilities report difficulty recruiting qualified workers (LG SONIC). That statistic alone tells you this is not a localized issue. It is an industry-wide structural problem.
But the conversation around hiring still tends to oversimplify what is actually happening.
Utilities often blame:
Those factors matter, but they are not the full story. The reality is that many hiring processes in water utilities have failed to evolve alongside the market itself.
One of the biggest misconceptions in water recruitment is that candidates are simply looking for more money elsewhere.
The truth is that most experienced candidates are evaluating a much broader picture:
Many utilities underestimate how carefully candidates assess employers before engaging in a process. A senior wastewater engineer or compliance specialist is not just evaluating salary. They are evaluating whether they are walking into an underfunded operation, a reactive leadership team, or a department carrying years of deferred maintenance and staffing shortages.
That is particularly true in compliance hiring water utilities are struggling with today, where professionals are increasingly burned out from managing expanding regulatory obligations with limited support.
The strongest candidates know they have options. And increasingly, they are selective.
PFAS hiring has changed the talent landscape across water utilities almost overnight.
Following the EPA’s introduction of national drinking water standards for PFAS, utilities across the US are now competing aggressively for professionals with experience in:
The issue is simple: there are very few professionals with deep hands-on PFAS expertise because the market itself is still relatively new.
Most experienced PFAS specialists built their expertise within environmental consulting firms, remediation projects, or highly specialized treatment programs. Utilities trying to hire these individuals through traditional job advertising alone are finding themselves in direct competition with engineering consultancies, infrastructure firms, and environmental services organizations with far more aggressive recruitment models.
Many utilities also make the mistake of treating PFAS roles as extensions of standard environmental engineering positions. Candidates do not see them that way. They understand how commercially valuable their experience has become.
That changes salary expectations, hiring timelines, and candidate behavior dramatically.
This remains one of the hardest to fill engineering jobs water utilities face today, particularly in utilities managing nutrient removal upgrades, expansion projects, and aging treatment infrastructure.
The problem is not simply a lack of engineers. It is a lack of engineers with operational judgment.
Strong wastewater process engineers are expected to understand:
At the same time, many utilities lost mid-level engineering talent during years of inconsistent hiring or budget pressure. The result is a widening experience gap where organizations need senior expertise but have limited succession pipelines beneath them.
One Midwest utility recently spent nearly eight months trying to hire a senior wastewater process engineer through traditional advertising channels before shifting to a more targeted recruitment strategy focused on passive candidates. The position was filled within six weeks after expanding the search criteria and reducing unnecessary “perfect fit” requirements. And this scenario is becoming increasingly common.
Utilities that insist on exact industry matches, local experience, or highly specific technical backgrounds are often eliminating otherwise strong candidates before conversations even begin.
Compliance hiring water utilities has become significantly more difficult over the last several years because the complexity of regulation itself has increased.
Utilities are now managing:
At the same time, experienced compliance professionals are often operating with limited internal resources and rising workloads.
One of the biggest hiring mistakes utilities make is positioning compliance roles as purely administrative functions. The strongest candidates view compliance as a strategic operational discipline directly tied to risk management, public trust, and infrastructure resilience. That distinction matters.
Candidates increasingly want:
Without those factors, retention becomes just as difficult as recruitment.
Controls and SCADA professionals are among the most aggressively targeted technical candidates in the market right now.
Utilities are no longer only competing against each other. They are competing against:
These industries often move faster, pay more competitively, and provide clearer advancement pathways.
At the same time, utility infrastructure modernization is increasing demand for engineers capable of supporting:
Yet many hiring processes for these roles remain slow and heavily bureaucratic.
That creates a major disconnect. The best controls engineers often receive multiple approaches per month. If a utility takes several weeks to coordinate interviews or approvals, the market has already moved on.
Speed is no longer a recruitment luxury. It is a competitive advantage.
Operations leadership is becoming one of the most overlooked workforce risks in the industry.
Plant superintendents, operations managers, and senior utility leaders are responsible for balancing:
Many of these professionals are approaching retirement age, while succession planning underneath them remains thin.
What makes these hires particularly difficult is that leadership candidates rarely move because of compensation alone.
They move for:
Some utilities still believe salary is the primary reason candidates reject opportunities. But the reality is that many experienced professionals walk away because the organization itself feels operationally unstable or resistant to change.
Candidates notice those issues quickly.
And once trust is lost during a recruitment process, it is very difficult to recover.
The water industry often frames recruitment as a candidate supply issue. But many hiring failures are process failures.
We repeatedly see utilities lose strong candidates because of:
The strongest candidates in water utilities are rarely active applicants anymore. Most are passive candidates who move selectively through trusted industry relationships.
That means traditional “post and wait” recruitment models are becoming increasingly ineffective for technical and leadership hiring.
The market has changed, but many hiring strategies have not.
One of the biggest shifts in the water sector is that candidates now evaluate utilities just as critically as utilities evaluate them.
Experienced engineers and operators are asking:
These questions influence hiring outcomes more than many organizations realize.
“The best candidates are not waiting for your hiring process to improve. They are already interviewing elsewhere.”
That is especially true in highly specialized areas like PFAS, wastewater engineering, and controls.
Move Faster Without Sacrificing Quality
Efficient hiring processes consistently outperform slow, overcomplicated recruitment structures.
That means:
Top candidates interpret slow processes as organizational indecision.
Utilities that remain overly rigid with requirements are shrinking already limited talent pools even further.
Prioritize:
Strong engineers can learn systems. Strong leaders can develop regulatory familiarity. What is much harder to teach is critical thinking and operational maturity.
These are no longer support functions.
They are critical operational and reputational roles tied directly to long-term utility resilience.
Candidates want to see:
Candidates research utilities extensively before engaging.
Your reputation around:
all directly impact hiring success.
Specialist recruitment matters more in water utilities because this market is relationship-driven and technically nuanced.
A recruiter who understands:
will reach entirely different networks than recruiters relying solely on LinkedIn searches and generic outreach campaigns.
The water sector is becoming more specialized, more regulated, and more technically demanding every year. That changes how recruitment works.
At The Sterling Choice, we spend time understanding the operational realities behind every hire:
That level of specialization matters because the strongest candidates are rarely visible through traditional recruitment channels. They are able to move through trusted industry conversations. And in today’s market, access to those networks can be the difference between filling a critical role in six weeks or struggling with the same vacancy for six months.
The workforce challenge facing water utilities is no longer a future problem. It is already shaping operational performance across the industry.
As regulatory pressure, infrastructure investment, and retirement-driven attrition continue accelerating simultaneously, the utilities that adapt their hiring strategies fastest will gain a significant competitive advantage.
The ones that continue hiring the same way they did a decade ago will continue losing talent to organizations that move faster, communicate better, and understand what today’s candidates actually value.
If you’re struggling to fill roles in your organization, reach out to our team.
