Lead Power Plant Operations Specialist
industrial_energy_operations › Power Plant Management · S5 — S5 — Principal Support Specialist · Support
Senior individual contributor providing expert technical guidance on the daily operation, maintenance, and administrative functioning of a single non-nuclear power or mining plant.
Median pay · United States · annual
$60,631 USD
▲ +62.4% vs S1 on this ladder
Typical range ()
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What this role is
Senior individual contributor providing expert technical guidance on the daily operation, maintenance, and administrative functioning of a single non-nuclear power or mining plant. At the Principal Support Specialist (S5) level, the role owns function-wide support practice, program-level and systemic support problems, and drives support strategy across the function. Subject-matter authority; shapes the practice.
What this level does
- Operate as the plant's most highly skilled operator across the full range of power-generating and steam/chilled-water distribution systems, resolving complex, cross-system operating problems that others cannot.
- Contribute to the creation of new operating procedures, startup/shutdown sequences and abnormal-condition guides, drawing on deep knowledge of how the plant's equipment behaves.
- Develop operating techniques and refine control-room and field practices to improve plant efficiency, reliability and regulatory compliance.
- Act as working lead and facilitator for the operating crew, providing peer guidance and training on complex evolutions and serving as the reference point for non-routine judgment calls.
- Serve as the senior operator on-console for the most critical evolutions, supervising the sequence of controls during major transitions and emergencies within the operator envelope.
- Knowledge applied
- Highly skilled across power-generating and steam/chilled-water distribution systems; contributes to creation of procedures and techniques.
- Complexity & problem solving
- Resolves complex, cross-system operating issues and develops new operating concepts and methods.
- Collaboration & interaction
- Acts independently; serves as working lead/facilitator for the crew and provides peer guidance and training.
- Typical experience
- 6+ years; expert operator in the plant specialty.
Skills at this level
- Power-Generating Equipment Operation
- — Controls boilers, turbines and generators to produce specified power, starting and stopping units and holding output within safe operating parameters.
- Meter and Gauge Interpretation
- — Reads voltage, temperature, pressure and flow indicators on meters and gauges, judging whether values fall within specified operating parameters and when to act.
- Control-Room and SCADA Monitoring
- — Continuously monitors plant systems through control-room interfaces such as SPPA and OSI PI and SCADA displays, detecting alarms and trends that signal operating problems.
- Power Flow Regulation
- — Adjusts controls to regulate the flow of power during load changes, dispatch demand and equipment transfers so the plant meets load while staying within limits.
- Auxiliary Systems Control
- — Operates auxiliary equipment — pumps, fans, compressors and filters — to support the main generating units through startups, shutdowns and steady operation.
- Equipment Fault Diagnosis and Troubleshooting
- — Detects evidence of defects or malfunctions in plant equipment and isolates and corrects operating faults, referring larger repairs to maintenance.
- Preventive Maintenance and Surveillance
- — Performs scheduled inspections and preventive checks on boilers, turbines, generators and distribution systems, documenting condition and discrepancies.
- Steam and Chilled Water Distribution Systems
- — Operates and monitors steam and chilled-water distribution systems and the associated valves, headers and controls that carry plant output to the facility.
- Abnormal and Emergency Operations Response
- — Sequences safe shutdown, load-shed and equipment-protection actions during upset, off-normal and emergency plant conditions.
- Regulatory and Safety Compliance
- — Keeps operating actions and logs aligned with regulatory limits and safety protocols governing power-plant operation.
- Operating Log and Record Keeping
- — Records readings, adjustments, alarms and shift events on prescribed logs to document plant status and support trending and handover.
- Operating Procedure Development
- — Drafts and refines startup, shutdown and abnormal-condition operating procedures based on observed equipment behavior and operating experience.
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As of · 2026-07-30
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