Leveraging Data to Improve Engineering Solutions: Joshua Registe’s Story

At Jacobs, we operate at the forefront – helping our clients solve some of the world's biggest challenges with solutions that will shape generations and communities to come. 

In 2024, we're showcasing how our people deliver on our strategy by embedding a digital-first way of thinking across Jacobs. 

We connected with Senior Data Scientist Joshua Registe to learn about his role, how he got into the field and what he likes about working at Jacobs. 

Tell us a bit about your role as a data scientist at Jacobs. 

Being a data scientist is like being a detective – but instead of solving mysteries, you’re unraveling secrets: hidden patterns, potential relationships or anomalies within mountains of data. Doing this creates business insights that allow Jacobs to forecast events, predict conditions and make recommendations, ensuring that our decisions are data-driven. We use data in so many ways – for example, in asset management, we can use the data clients provide to optimize their processes, ensure compliance, prioritize which assets need to be replaced or maintained, and work out the best time to do this.  Similarly, if a client wants to reduce the volume of chemicals they are using to disinfect the water at a wastewater treatment plant, data scientists can help. By crunching the data, we can use it to design optimization algorithms that will empower the facility to create a new chemical dosing strategy and reduce time, cost and environmental impact.

How did you get into this field?

My career started in environmental engineering, with a focus on planning, analysis and design. As I got more involved in the science around disinfection, nutrient removal and biogas treatment, I started to realize that data analytics and management was the “secret sauce” that could lead to the best and most efficient engineering solutions in these areas. So, I took the time to upskill in the fields of programming, computing, data visualization and cloud resources in order to really grow my career and abilities as a data scientist. 

How do you keep up with the latest trends in this area?

So much is changing at a rapid pace in this field – so it’s important to stay current in terms of knowledge and skillset. I do this by engaging with global experts through blogs, podcasts and, where possible, face-to-face interactions at conferences and networking events. 

I love being able to bounce ideas back and forth with other data scientists – and it’s great to dive into the details of new concepts through participating in hackathons, workshops and open-source communities.

Tell us about one of your favorite projects.

A personal highlight has been through our partnership with Palantir, where we’ve deployed machine learning solutions across various water and wastewater treatment plants throughout the U.S.

By leveraging our product Intelligent O&M, we’re able to provide direct and predictive guidance to frontline Operations and Maintenance staff. The scale and speed at which these solutions are being deployed is truly groundbreaking and is having a huge impact on our clients and the communities they work for. For example, because of this work we’re doing, water treatment plant operators are now empowered to make data-driven decisions in real time, being proactive rather than reacting when issues occur. And we’re making a real difference through our approach. 

What do you like best about working at Jacobs?

For me, it always comes back to three things: innovation, networking and growth. 

I love working for a company that invests in new technologies and challenges me to think outside the box – and Jacobs does exactly that. It’s great to also have the opportunity to connect with industry experts, peers and global colleagues – and to be given ample opportunity to develop professionally, whether it’s through training programs, mentoring, or exciting new projects.