Utility Systems Repairer Operator

Although they’re man-made, buildings often have minds of their own. Like wild animals, they’re unpredictable, prone to fits of rebellion that manifest themselves in the form of disrepair and malfunction. To tame them often requires going into the belly of the beast — which in a building is typically its utilities.

A Utility Systems Repairer Operator is like a Lion Tamer, coercing buildings into behaving by coddling their utility systems, including their air-conditioning, heating, water, sewage, and electricity systems. Employed most often by universities, governments, and the military — all of which have large and complex networks of buildings that require coordinated and integrated maintenance — Utility Systems Repairer Operators are facilities experts who are tasked, as their title suggests, with both operating and repairing said systems.

To that end, common duties for a Utility Systems Repairer Operator include: installing new utility systems; performing checks, tests, adjustments, and troubleshooting tasks to determine the repair needs for and performance of existing utility systems; cleaning and maintaining mechanical equipment; responding to and investigating tenant and occupant complaints; and developing standard procedures in areas such as inspections, preventative maintenance, safety, training, procurement, inventory management, and process improvement.

Although you often serve tenants by overseeing the utility systems within buildings, you might also be hired to serve citizens by overseeing public utility systems and infrastructure, which deliver power and water to entire communities instead of individual facilities.

Either way, you’re basically several maintenance professionals — for example, an Air Conditioning Technician, Heating-Equipment Repairer, a Water Treatment Plant Operator, and an Electrical Worker — all rolled into one!