Edward Oxales has found the perfect fit for his skills and ambitions at Watercare – seizing the opportunity to become a control systems technologist within our digital team.

Although Edward is a qualified electrical engineer in the Philippines, he had no background in instrumentation – which is the traditional path to becoming a technologist.

But two years after stepping into the job, his manager describes him as "one of the superstars of Watercare".

Edward grew up in Mindanao and gained his engineering degree from the University of Southeastern Philippines in Davao City.

His first job out of university was working as a process engineer with Coca-Cola, which, like Watercare, also treats water.

It was Edward's mother who raised the idea of him moving to Aotearoa.

"My mother had visited New Zealand as a tourist and liked it, and she thought there'd be a lot of opportunities for me here."

On arriving in New Zealand, Edward gained a Diploma of Electrical Engineering at the International College of Auckland. Because New Zealand and the Philippines have different accreditation standards, his engineering degree wasn't officially recognised here.

"For me to work as a qualified engineer, I needed someone to train and supervise me for 200 hours, and unfortunately I couldn't find a supervisor."

Edward started a job at Griffins Foods as a machine operator, before joining Watercare in January 2021 as a process technician at the Pukekohe treatment plant.

Which is how he met Jacques Cameron, who serviced the plant as control systems team leader.

"I was looking to fill one of our roles and somebody said, 'Why don't you consider Edward?'," recalls Jacques.

"We had a chat and in a stroke of luck, I discovered he was actually an electrical engineer."

Because Edward didn't have a background in instrumentation, Jaques first needed to sell the idea to his managers.

"Most of our team either have an instrumentation diploma or degree, but the minimum is a L4 qualification or apprenticeship."

For Edward, it was an opportunity to use his skills in something closer to his field of electrical engineering – working with advanced technologies like distributed control systems (DCS), programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and supervisory control data acquisition (SCADA).

During his first few months in the job, Edward shadowed Jacques to learn the ropes.

"There is a lot to learn," says Edward.

"But the whole team is very supportive, helping to mentor me and share their knowledge and skills."

Edward will celebrate his two-year work anniversary in August, and Jaques says his performance has been outstanding.

"He's absolutely excelled and exceeded all expectations. I think people who work with him would agree he's one of the superstars of Watercare."

Based on Edward's success, the team later employed another team member, Gowtham Sakthivel, with a similar skillset.

Jacques says strong practical skills and a willingness to learn are just as important as formal qualifications.

"You can't go to university for what we do – it's absolutely something you learn on the job."

Jacques says a control systems technologist is the link between the digital team and the plant technicians.

"Or as I always say to my colleagues, we're the interface between the hardware and the software."

The five-strong control systems team supports nine wastewater and water treatment plants and 100-plus pump stations, from Waikato to Wellsford. They oversee as many as 1200 different control systems across our facilities.

"Essentially, we help automate our processes and equipment across all sites and reduce the reliance on manual work."

They play a crucial role in keeping Watercare's infrastructure running – including in a crisis.

For example, when the Beachlands Wastewater Treatment Plant was struck by lightning several weeks ago, the control systems team rapidly repaired the I/O (input/output) cards so the plant could keep running automatically, powered by generator.

"We're a bit like the 007 of Watercare!" jokes Jacques.

"Most of the time we're working in the background, just keeping everything working, but sometimes we need to swing into mission-critical mode."