AIR QUALITY ENGINEER I/II

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District (Air District) is a regional government agency, committed to achieving clean air to protect the public's health and the environment. The Air District accomplishes this goal through regulation of industrial facilities and various outreach and incentive programs designed to encourage clean air choices.

The Air District's jurisdiction encompasses all of seven counties - Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Napa, and portions of two others - southwestern Solano and southern Sonoma.

The Air District is currently accepting applications for the position of Air Quality Engineer I/II in the Air Quality Modeling and Analysis (AQMA) Section of the Assessment, Inventory, and Modeling (AIM) Division. This is an open recruitment for one (1) full-time, represented vacancy position.

DEFINITION

Under direction, performs professional engineering work in a variety of areas such as permit application evaluation, calculation of air pollutant emissions, toxic risk screening and health risk assessment evaluations, compliance audits and source testing; performs related work as assigned.
DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS

Air Quality Engineer I is the entry-level class of this series. Initially under close supervision, incumbents perform a variety of routine air quality engineering duties while learning District policies and procedures and specialized air quality knowledge. With experience, the work becomes increasingly more diversified and difficult and requires increasing independence of judgment. This class is alternately staffed with Air Quality Engineer II and incumbents may progress to the higher level after gaining experience and demonstrating proficiency which meet the qualifications for the higher-level class.

Air Quality Engineer II is the journey level in this series. Incumbents perform a variety of difficult air quality engineering work and exercise a greater latitude of independent judgment. This class is distinguished from Senior Air Quality Engineer in that the latter is the specialist level and performs the more complex air quality engineering duties and provides lead direction to engineering staff.

About the Division

The Assessment, Inventory, and Modeling (AIM) Division prepares comprehensive source emission inventories for the Bay Area and conducts air quality modeling at both regional and community scales. AIM prepares technical assessments that evaluate equity in air pollution exposures and health impacts in support of Air District programs. AIM coordinates and implements programs to improve and report estimates of emissions of criteria pollutants, toxic air contaminants, and climate forcing pollutants. AIM assesses emissions, modeled concentrations, and exposures of toxic air contaminants, particulate matter, ozone and their precursors, to support targeted strategies that reduce impacts of air pollution both regionally and within communities, especially in impacted communities requiring action plans in accordance with Assembly Bill 617 (AB617). AIM reviews and provides guidance on environmental health risk assessments within environmental review documents prepared pursuant to California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

About the Position

The Air Quality Engineer I/II works with staff in the AIM Division and other Divisions at the Air District to create and evaluate air pollution emissions inventories and exposures using data processing and analysis tools, such as SQL, R, and Python. The Air Quality Engineer I/II works with other Air District staff to develop methods to integrate emissions estimates into modeling systems processing streams. This position will assist with the development of emissions estimates for complex categories and the creation and review of programming scripts to streamline database queries. The position will also evaluate and apply computer models to simulate motor vehicle and off-road equipment use and calculate on-road and off-road mobile source emissions. Experience conducting air dispersion modeling and health risk analysis a plus. Recent graduates are encouraged to apply for this position.

Examples of Duties for this Position:

Uses a computer terminal and a variety of software and programs to make engineering calculations, enter and retrieve data and to monitor and correct data entry; investigates and corrects data errors.

Supports toxic risk screening and risk assessment analyses; calculates toxic emissions, determines and applies appropriate air dispersion model inputs, supports calculation of maximum concentrations and assessment of risk.

Participates in calculating, reviewing, correcting, and documenting the emissions inventory; evaluates accuracy of source emission calculations and methodologies.

Uses emissions models, geographic information systems, and relational database to prepare and modify large data files on inventory input to air quality models.

Responds to industry, public and District inquiries regarding emission calculation methods in person, by telephone and in writing.

Develops and recommends procedures to calculate and forecast pollutant emissions.

May coordinate assigned engineering projects.

Education and Experience

A typical way to obtain the knowledge and skills is:

Air Quality Engineer I: Equivalent to graduation from a four-year college or university with major coursework in environmental, chemical, mechanical or petroleum engineering or a closely related field and two years of experience in mechanical, industrial, chemical, petroleum or related process engineering.

Air Quality Engineer II: In addition to the above, two years of air quality environmental engineering experience.

Desirable Qualifications and Skills

• Experience with emissions data management of criteria pollutants, greenhouse gases, and toxics air contaminants from stationary and mobile sources.
• Experience with emissions estimation and processing tools, such as EMFAC, SMOKE, MEGAN, and CalEEMod.
• Experience with Linux scripting and with data analysis tools (e.g., R, Python, and PowerBI).
• Experience in regulatory air dispersion modeling (e.g., AERMOD), exposure/health risk assessment, and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) is a plus.

Interested individuals must submit a completed BAAQMD application, responses to the supplemental questions, and highly encouraged, but not required, chronological resume. Applications are accepted online only. Interested individuals must submit a completed official BAAQMD application and the answers to the Supplemental Questionnaire no later than 5 p.m. on Thursday, July 31, 2025. Please visit our website at www.baaqmd.gov/jobs to apply.

Resumes are not accepted in lieu of the required application materials. Postmarks, faxes, and E-mailed applications will not be accepted.

Except as requested in this announcement, do not include any additional documents, such as letters of recommendation, performance evaluations, work samples, etc. They will not be considered or returned.

Supplemental Questionnaire Instructions:
Individuals who apply for this position must respond to each of the supplemental questions. The responses to the supplemental application questions will be used in accordance with the procedures indicated under the Selection Criteria in the vacancy announcement. Your responses should be as detailed as possible.

Instructions:

• Please limit your responses to one page per question.
• Do not combine your responses, or reference your application, resume, or any other requested documentation that you have included with your application packet to answer a question.
• For each question regarding experience, you must provide: the name of the employer where you gained your experience, your job title, length of time in years/months performing the specific function, and detailed examples that illustrate your duties and responsibilities.

Please be advised that the information you provide will be evaluated "as is" and incomplete applications will likely receive lower ratings. Therefore, it is very important to provide a concise, organized, and easy to follow response to each question.

SELECTION CRITERIA:
Selection may be based upon a competitive examination consisting of a written exercise, interview, or combination of the two. Depending on the number of qualified applicants, an application screening and/or panel interview may be used to determine the most qualified applicants.

The Air District may hire from this recruitment process to fill future vacancies occurring within the next 18 months.

Updates regarding your status in the recruitment will be sent via email, unless you indicate a different preference on your application.

Persons with disabilities who may require reasonable accommodations during the application and/or selection process should notify the Human Resources Office at (415) 749-4980.

The Air District is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

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