Controls Engineer

We are hiring a Junior Controls Engineer to join our small, hands-on controls and automation team. In this growth-oriented role, you will work side-by-side with our Sr. Controls Engineer on automation projects and day-to-day maintenance across all three plants, deepening your skills in a 24/7 manufacturing environment.

Responsibilities

• Support the Sr. Controls Engineer with design, build, and commissioning of control panels onsite.
• Assist maintenance and operations teams in diagnosing and implementing solutions to production issues.

SCADA & Data (Ignition)

• Develop and maintain Ignition Vision/Perspective screens, popups, templates, reports, and transaction groups.
• Troubleshoot production Ignition errors and faults.
• Configure and maintain Ignition alarming: setup, history, and event-driven email notifications.
• Manage Ignition user security roles and permissions, controlling operator access to pushbuttons and setpoints.
• Bring new equipment and instrumentation into SCADA.
• Support historian/reporting work, including SCADA production reporting and SQL-backed data logging.
• Support SCADA standards work: tag data-model cleanup, naming conventions, templates, and unified namespace (UNS) development.

Maintenance & Troubleshooting

• Diagnose and resolve equipment faults with instrumentation, control devices, and PLC/SCADA operation.
• Make wiring modifications to existing panels or work with electricians to implement changes during production and downtime.
• Apply structured root-cause analysis methods: divide-and-conquer, component isolation, backward/forward chaining, PLC and SCADA data logging, and signal/continuity tracing with electrical tools.
• Read electrical drawings and search PLC logic and SCADA to diagnose issues in electrical panels/MCCs and in the field.

Process Optimization and Improvements

• Collaborate with operations, quality, and engineering teams to identify and implement solutions to production issues and control gaps.
• Identify required electrical and programming changes.
• Coordinate hardware procurement and installation.
• Schedule programming changes with operations.
• Analyze production data and implement control improvements to enhance plant yield, efficiency, quality, and equipment uptime.
• Tune PID loops, sequence controllers, and equipment interlock operation in a production environment.
• Integrate new control and instrumentation hardware such as valves, motor actuators, VFDs, flowmeters, level, temperature, and pressure transmitters.
• Configure and calibrate devices including scales, flowmeters, level, and pressure transmitters.
• Support OT asset lifecycle work, helping migrate obsolete control systems to newer Rockwell platforms.
• Write and maintain SOP documentation.
• Train maintenance and operations staff.

Requirements

Required Qualifications

• Associate’s or Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Automation, Mechatronics, or a related field — or equivalent hands-on experience.
• 2–5 years of hands-on experience in industrial automation and controls.
• Rockwell platform: experience with Studio 5000, RSLogix 500, FactoryTalk View ME (HMI), and PlantPAx process library v4 or above.
• Ignition SCADA Vision/Perspective.
• SQL Server, SSMS, T-SQL, and Jython scripting.
• Ability to read electrical drawings for industrial control panels.
• Familiarity with industrial networks (Ethernet/IP, Modbus TCP/RTU, IO-Link).
• Familiarity with process instrumentation: ability to configure and calibrate field instrumentation.

Preferred Qualifications

• Hands-on experience deploying at least one Ignition gateway from scratch into a production environment — installation, device/OPC connections, tag database, database/historian connection, alarming, and screen development.
• Experience in food & beverage, grain handling, agricultural processing environments, or as a system integrator.
• Siemens TIA Portal.
• AutoCAD LT or Electrical for control-panel drawings.
• IFM moneo or other IO-Link software.

Skills

• Controls engineering
• SCADA
• PLC programming
• Automation
• Allen-Bradley
• Electrical troubleshooting
• Siemens PLC
• Schematic reading
• Rockwell platforms

Pay

The pay range for this position is $43.27 - $45.67/hr.

Benefits

Eligibility requirements apply to some benefits and may depend on your job classification and length of employment. Benefits are subject to change and may include:

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance.
• Critical Illness, Accident, and Hospital insurance.
• 401(k) Retirement Plan – Pre-tax and Roth post-tax contributions available.
• Life Insurance (Voluntary Life & AD&D for the employee and dependents).
• Short and long-term disability.
• Health Spending Account (HSA).
• Transportation benefits.
• Employee Assistance Program.
• Time Off/Leave (PTO, Vacation, or Sick Leave).

Schedule

This is a hybrid position based in Woodland, CA. The role is a Contract to Hire opportunity.