Fleet Support Technician

Req ID:458647 

At Alstom, we understand transport networks and what moves people. From high-speed trains, metros, monorails, and trams, to turnkey systems, services, infrastructure, signalling and digital mobility, we offer our diverse customers the broadest portfolio in the industry. Every day, more than 80 000 colleagues lead the way to greener and smarter mobility worldwide, connecting cities as we reduce carbon and replace cars.

The job of “Fleet Support Engineers” also called “Help Desk Operators” consists in providing technical support to both the Operator (Control Room, possibly directly drivers) and Alstom teams, analyzing data coming from the smart system (on-board, trackside) and from the Operator. For this they can rely on Alstom’s most advanced tools, especially TrainTracer™ and HealthHub™ suite enabling not only trains remote monitoring but also predictive maintenance and prognosis for the highest service performances.

We can summarize their mission by four key roles:

The first role of Fleet Support Engineers is to analyze real time information available from the remote monitoring systems, especially Alstom Health Hub™, providing to the whole transport organization an accurate view of the current condition of the rolling stock and infrastructure equipment for the best Availability of the whole system.

• This real time monitoring enables immediate efficient advice to the Control Room in contact with the drivers (possibly directly to the drivers themselves) in case of system fault occurring during service, combining equipment status with technical knowledge to ensure minimum perturbation of the service.
• Remote monitoring also enables the early detection of necessary maintenance (preventive or corrective) before it becomes visible in service, allowing maximum system availability for minimum maintenance (notion of predictive and CBM: condition-based maintenance). Based on dashboards and rules generating alerts (defined from Alstom return-of-experience worldwide and/or customized) Help Desk operators can extract from “big data” the key information and create notifications destined to the maintenance teams, for intervention at the best time.

Their second role, also real time, is to analyze, filter and dispatch the failure notifications generated by the Operator (Control Room):

• Confirm necessity of Alstom intervention or reject failure notifications,
• Complete notifications with all additional data available (e.g. associated faults codes, relevant maintenance history, etc.) providing as many inputs as possible to the troubleshooters to make their intervention fast and conclusive,
• Support the maintenance planner to allocate estimated intervention time.

The third role of the Help Desk is to support the Alstom teams in improving/sustaining Reliability performance of the Rolling Stock, doing background analysis of all data collected: received via various remote systems or collected “manually” by the maintainers on the different equipment. The purpose of this is:

• Explaining spot failures,
• Looking for recurrent failures, supporting the Warranty Manager and Engineering Manager to continuously improve the Reliability performance,
• Assessing the efficiency of corrective actions related to recurrent issues, monitoring their effect especially for system Reliability. 

The fourth and last role of the Help Desk is to remotely assist Amtrak staff for the execution of the maintenance operations (preventive and corrective), during shifts not covered by the dedicated team of on-site support Engineers. This remote support may call cutting-edge technology such as augmented-reality glasses!

Because knowing perfectly how the rolling stock works is key to provide high quality and accurate support, the Fleet Support Engineers may start with several weeks/months with a “hands on” experience on the trains during the validation period preceding revenue the revenue service. This “induction” phase may lead to spend significant time on business travel, especially in the Alstom facility of Hornell, NY, in the test site of Pueblo, CO, and on the NEC (North East Corridor) between Washington, DC and Boston, MA where the first trains prototypes will complete their type tests.

During this period, the Fleet Support Engineers may have an active role for the validations, immersed in the Rolling Stock team, as “Train Control & Monitoring System (TCMS) key user”.

Reporting

The Help Desk Operators report hierarchically to the Lead fleet support engineer.

Network & Links (main ones)

Internal : Troubleshooters, Services and Rolling Stock Engineering teams, Maintenance Planner.

External : Control Room, possibly drivers.

Educational Requirements

• Engineering degree, in electrical or mechanical fields (ideally both).
• Professional Engineer (PE) qualification not required.

Technical Knowledge / Experience

• preferred 2 years in Railways environment, ideally in systems integration or maintenance.
• Minimum overall understanding of train functions is mandatory (any kind of rolling stock: LRV, metro, regional, mainline…)
• experience of Train Systems and/or Train Control.
• Knowledge of Electrical motors (DC & AC)
• Experience with CAN BUS systems & Ethernet communications.

Behavioral and Technical Skills / Competencies

•  Autonomous
•  Good communication abilities and transparency
•  Able to say 'no' and manage pressure situations.
•  Able to make decisions considering rules and using common sense.
•  Open to learn from others.
•  Languages: fluent English compulsory / appreciated: French

Job Location / Time / Mobility Requirements

• The job is initially based in New Castle, DE.
• Eventually Alstom Fleet Support Engineers may be hosted in Amtrak’s CNOC (Consolidated National Operations Center) located in Wilmington, DE.  
• Current organization is based on 3 shifts for 24/7 support.
• Short business trips to other Alstom’s sites may be required, especially for training during the first months.

You don’t need to be a train enthusiast to thrive with us. We guarantee that when you step onto one of our trains with your friends or family, you’ll be proud. If you’re up for the challenge, we’d love to hear from you!

Important to note

As a global business, we’re an equal-opportunity employer that celebrates diversity across the 63  countries we operate in. We’re committed to creating an inclusive workplace for everyone.