That Tech Pod · 2026-06-02 · 30 min
What does it take to modernize the systems that keep water flowing, wastewater moving, and nine million New Yorkers served every day? In this episode, we sit down with Robert "Max" Maxfield, Chief Systems Architect at AITHERAS and the architect behind New York City's SCADA modernization efforts for the Bureau of Wastewater Treatment. Max takes us inside the world of critical infrastructure, where downtime isn't an inconvenience, it's a public risk. From managing decades-old industrial systems and balancing modernization against reliability, to defending essential services against cyber threats, Max shares what it really takes to operate technology that most people never think about until it fails. We also explore the realities of AI in critical infrastructure, the cybersecurity challenges facing utilities, the surprising longevity of legacy systems, and how Max's passion for motorcycles, racing, and building machines shapes his approach to engineering. It's a conversation about technology, risk, resilience, and why sometimes the most important systems are the ones nobody notices.
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