Operations Manager Jobs in Durham, NC

At Wolfspeed, we do amazing things in a human way.

We know that the achievements of our organization are due to the passion, hard work and creativity of our employees. We celebrate different perspectives to foster excellence across our organization, and our goal is to make diversity a foundation of what we do. We are proudly building an environment where you can bring your authentic self to work.

• Enjoy doing things that people say can’t be done? Innovation is at the center of everything we do.
• Hate red tape? We remove roadblocks instead of creating them.
• Working parent? We provide childcare assistance and paid parental leave.
• Student? We offer continuing education assistance.
• Looking for community? There are many ways to get involved, from Employee Resource Groups to local outreach.

Here’s the Gist: We are seeking a Facilities Engineering & Operations Manager – Water & Wastewater Treatment to lead a multi-site team of engineers, supervisors, and technicians responsible for the reliability, system hardening, and cost-efficient operation of water, wastewater, and reclaim systems across U.S. facilities. Up to 20% domestic travel to support multi-site operations and improvement initiatives

This role is focused on operational excellence, asset lifecycle optimization, and sustained OPEX reduction, with primary emphasis on strengthening and optimizing existing infrastructure rather than greenfield expansion. The successful candidate will act as a central technical authority, driving enterprise-wide standardization, improving system robustness, eliminating single points of failure (SPOFs), and delivering measurable cost savings while ensuring strict environmental compliance.

Additionally, this role plays a key part in developing engineering talent, fostering a high-performance culture, and elevating team engagement and morale across geographically distributed teams.

Key Responsibilities

Engineering Leadership (System Hardening & Risk Reduction)

• Provide enterprise-level technical leadership for water, wastewater, reclaim, and hazardous waste systems, including RO/DI, UF, ion exchange, and advanced wastewater treatment technologies.
• Lead system hardening initiatives to enhance reliability, redundancy, and resilience of critical utility infrastructure.
• Identify and eliminate single points of failure (SPOFs) through robust redundancy and design improvements.
• Drive root cause failure analysis (RCFA) and ensure implementation of sustainable corrective and preventive actions across all sites.
• Establish and lead global improvement forums and steering committees to drive best known methods (BKMs) and cross-site knowledge sharing.
• Champion FMEA and Facilities Change Review Board (FCRB) processes to proactively manage system risks and changes.

Operational Excellence & Cost Optimization

• Lead cross-site initiatives to reduce operating costs (chemicals, energy, consumables, waste disposal) while maintaining or improving system performance.
• Optimize system performance through setpoint tuning, recovery improvement, and process efficiency enhancements.
• Define, track, and enforce KPIs such as cost per unit treated, chemical intensity, energy consumption, and system uptime.
• Deploy Lean, Six Sigma, and continuous improvement methodologies to drive sustainable performance gains.

Reliability Engineering & Maintenance Strategy

• Develop and implement predictive and preventive maintenance programs for critical water and wastewater assets.
• Standardize spares strategies, redundancy philosophies, and maintenance procedures across all sites.
• Leverage condition monitoring, data analytics, and digital tools to reduce unplanned downtime.

People Leadership, Mentoring & Engagement

• Mentor and coach early-career engineers and supervisors, strengthening technical depth and problem-solving capability.
• Foster a culture of continuous learning, innovation, and accountability across all sites.
• Establish structured career development pathways, training programs, and competency frameworks.
• Recognize high performance and proactively address skill gaps to build a motivated, high-capability team.

Regulatory & Compliance

• Ensure compliance with EPA, NPDES, and state regulatory requirements (e.g., NCDEQ, NYDEC).
• Support audits, inspections, and regulatory reporting.

Targeted Capital & Retrofit Execution (ROI-Driven)

• Lead brownfield retrofit and debottlenecking projects focused on reliability improvement and OPEX reduction.
• Prioritize investments based on ROI, payback, and risk reduction, rather than capacity expansion.
• Review and approve engineering designs, technical solutions, and vendor proposals.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Partner with EHS, manufacturing, and corporate engineering to align on reliability, cost, and sustainability goals.
• Lead technical support for incident investigations and corrective actions.
• Communicate performance metrics, risks, and cost-saving opportunities to executive leadership in a clear, data-driven manner.

This Job is Right for You if You Have:

• Bachelor’s degree in Chemical, Environmental, Mechanical Engineering, or related field (required) Master’s degree (preferred)
• 8–12+ years of experience in industrial water/wastewater engineering and operations
• Demonstrated success in system hardening, brownfield optimization, and cost reduction initiatives
• Experience leading and mentoring engineering and operations teams preferred
• Experience supporting multi-site or centralized engineering organizations
• Semiconductor or advanced manufacturing experience strongly preferred
• Proven track record delivering quantifiable OPEX savings and reliability improvements
• Deep expertise in:
  • Water systems: RO/DI, UF, IX, filtration, reclaim
  • Wastewater systems: chemical and advanced treatment processes
• Familiarity with emerging regulatory challenges such as PFAS, azoles, and POTW compliance is preferred
• Strong understanding of process integration, automation, and PLC/SCADA systems
• Proficiency in data analytics, performance trending, and process optimization tools
• Ability to lead enterprise-wide initiatives without direct authority
• Strong coaching, mentoring, and talent development skills
• Excellent communication and stakeholder influence capabilities
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making abilities
• Hands-on leadership style with a people-first, cost-focused mindset

To put it legally – Wolfspeed is an equal opportunity employer.

We recruit, employ, train, compensate and promote regardless of race, sex, religion, color, national origin, disability, age, veteran status, gender identity, sexual orientation and other protected status as required by law.