Building services engineering senior technician

This occupation is found in the construction, built environment and engineering sectors, with building services engineering senior technicians employed in a variety of organisation types and sizes. 

The broad purpose of the occupation is to bring the built environment to life by connecting up the buildings we live and work in, ensuring they meet the needs of the people, plant, and services they need to accommodate, whilst providing comfort, building safety and security and efficiency through ever increasing environmental safeguarding.

Building services engineering senior technicians use their technical knowledge to deliver, or address problems with, building services systems that are to be designed, manufactured, installed, managed or maintained, within a building. The main types of building services systems are mechanical (heating, ventilation, and cooling), electrical (power, lighting etc) and public health (water services and drainage).

In these areas, building services engineering senior technicians may consider:

·         safety and security, including emergency lighting, security and alarm systems, fire detection and prevention, emergency back-up systems, inclusive access, and flow through buildings for both people and equipment, including escalators and lifts.

·         efficiency and sustainability, including the capture, supply and use of energy (electrical, mechanical, and other power systems, renewable energy systems (such as solar, wind or heat pump sources), water supply and management (including plumbing and drainage), communication networks to aid integrated systems and intelligent buildings, and façade engineering.

·         comfort and control, including heating and ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration, and lighting (artificial and natural) and acoustics.

Building services engineering senior technicians use and apply their technical knowledge, underpinned by scientific principles and theories, propose numerous suitable techniques, procedures and methods to undertake and deliver building services engineering solutions. They need to source, review, analyse and evaluate a range of information and data, perform advanced calculations, and analyse building services engineering problems to reach proven solutions.

Senior technicians will prepare, produce and present building services engineering information, designs and documentation, with regard for the practical need to install, maintain, manage or improve building services equipment and systems, and to relevant codes of practice and industry standards (for example, BSI Flex 8670, or managing information over the whole life cycle of a built asset using Building Energy Managing Systems (BEMS) or Building Information Modelling (BIM) via ISO 19650), to statutory and regulatory requirements (such as the Building Safety Act), and in compliance with health, safety and wellbeing requirements.

They use appropriate analytical and computational software, including engineering analysis software (such as CAD or Revit) or digital data modelling systems, such as Building Information Management (BIM), recognising the limitations of the techniques used and where continuous improvement may be useful.

With the need to mitigate the detrimental effects on the environment and an increased drive for sustainability, senior technicians will need to consider the whole life cycle of a built asset, ensuring building service engineering systems and projects align with United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG), respond to net-zero carbon emissions targets and are compliant with climate change acts, and environmental and sustainability policies and legislation.

Building services engineering senior technicians will also inform and manage tasks, team members and resources within their allocation, but also contribute to broader and more complex building services engineering solutions, applying appropriate project management knowledge and techniques, use quality systems and risk assessment procedures to mitigate risks, and improve safe systems of work. Senior technicians may also commission, carry out, or review site inspections or surveys, report progress against project plans, or check specified technical aspects of design, site or manufacturing activities. 

In their daily work, employees interact with their line manager, typically a senior building services engineer or site manager, to confirm programmes of work, agree individual and team responsibilities, budgets and resources, which support the delivery of wider plans across building services engineering projects; these teams could include other technicians or specialist contractors for which they may be responsible for, engineers across a range of disciplines, such as mechanical, electrical or public health engineering, from various employer types (e.g. clients, consultancies, contractors), and project managers, where their collective outputs will be used to produce building services engineering solutions that are fit for purpose, safe, secure, environmentally sustainable, and meet customer and industry specifications. 

Senior technicians will also be exposed to other professional disciplines, such as civils, lighting and acoustics engineers, surveyors, architects, planners, environmental practitioners, or legal teams. As well as liaising with internal colleagues across a variety of multidisciplinary areas, some senior technicians will also be responsible for working with customers, suppliers, manufacturers, and stakeholders or with representatives from appropriate regulatory bodies.

Building services engineering senior technicians, depending on their employer, will spend their time in an office environment, working on site, working remotely or a combination of these. There is also potential for visiting customers, suppliers, or manufacturers.

Employees are responsible for delivering building services engineering technical solutions, ensuring accuracy and quality, for which they are responsible for the technical management of, within agreed time and resource limits, compliant with health and safety regulations, to industry, regulatory and legislative standards, such as the Building Safety Bill, and to broadly defined specifications.

Senior technicians will also supervise other team members, communicating, agreeing, and managing tasks that others complete, ensuring these meet appropriate standards and specified outcomes, and that work is carried out in a safe environment and the wellbeing of those involved is safeguarded.