Staff Controls & Automation Engineer

Responsibilities

• Control Architecture & System Design
• Architect the full control stack for pilot → demo → commercial plants, including PLCs, safety PLCs, SCADA/HMI, historian, networking, alarm philosophy, and mode/state logic
• Define a clear hierarchy linking base control, supervisory control, and advanced control (state estimation, MPC)
• Pilot Plant Automation & Implementation
• Develop structured, modular control logic in PLCs and safety PLCs, including reusable AOIs/function blocks for valves, heaters, compressors, and reactors
• Own interlocks, permissives, fail-safe behavior, alarm logic, and safety instrumented functions
• Implement robust state-based control, including state estimators to infer unmeasured internal process variables and stabilize noisy measurements
• Build inferential “soft sensors” for reactor states, product composition, and equipment health. Implement diagnostics and anomaly/fault detection
• Advanced Controls
• Over time, validate and tune advanced controllers through simulation, staged deployment, and coordinated field commissioning
• Identify multivariable, constraint-heavy loops suitable for MPC or other model-based controllers and implement MPC in a suitable environment
• Leadership & Cross-Functional Collaboration
• Work with external software vendors and other team members to build analysis and tuning tools to support R&D campaigns, long-term performance evaluation, and algorithm refinement
• Develop simulation or digital-twin models to safely prototype new control strategies
• Collaborate with process, mechanical, electrical, and operations teams to translate process requirements into robust, maintainable control logic
• Support commissioning, plant bring-up, troubleshooting, and continuous optimization
• Drive rigorous version control, documentation, and management-of-change practices

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree with 10+ years of experience designing and owning automation systems for continuous chemical or energy processes
• Strong foundation in control theory, process dynamics, multivariable interactions, and constraint management
• Practical experience with state estimation and inferential sensing
• Expertise with PLC platforms and SCADA/HMI systems
• Deep experience with interlocks, permissives, safety logic, shutdowns, and high-temperature/high-pressure/flammable gas systems
• Ability to make advanced control practical and easy to understand
• Experience with thermochemical systems, especially catalytic systems
• Experience integrating advanced control with DCS platforms (DeltaV, PCS7, Honeywell Experion, Yokogawa Centum)
• Familiarity with Python or similar tools for prototyping estimation and control algorithms
• Experience in FOAK hardware or fast-moving industrial startup environments where flexibility and autonomy are required