Process Controls Lead Engineer

We’re looking for an experienced Process Controls Lead Engineer to serve as the plant’s go-to technical expert for industrial automation, process control, and control-system reliability. Reporting to the Maintenance and Engineering Manager, you’ll lead efforts to design, integrate, commission, troubleshoot, and improve the control systems that keep manufacturing operations running safely and efficiently.

In this role, you’ll work across PLCs, DCS, HMI, SCADA, safety instrumented systems, and industrial instrumentation. You’ll lead complex controls projects, help resolve critical plant issues, and develop long-term strategies to improve safety, reliability, production capacity, energy efficiency, and overall plant performance.

You’ll also play an important role in modernizing aging systems, establishing automation standards, supporting capital projects, and mentoring engineers and technicians. This is a hands-on technical leadership position for someone who enjoys solving complex problems, working closely with Operations and Maintenance, and finding practical ways to make plant systems better.

Controls Engineering & Automation
- Develop and maintain plant-wide control-system architecture, automation standards, and engineering practices.
- Design, develop, program, and troubleshoot PLC systems used to control industrial equipment and processes.
- Support the integration, testing, commissioning, startup, and optimization of PLC and DCS systems.
- Maintain and improve HMI and SCADA systems to support effective monitoring and control of plant operations.
- Provide technical leadership for instrumentation and process control systems, including control valves, transmitters, analyzers, motor controls, variable frequency drives (VFDs), interlocks, permissives, alarms, and control loops.
- Establish consistent standards for PLC programming, HMI development, alarm management, documentation, and system configuration.
- Work with Operations and Process Engineering to improve control strategies, process stability, throughput, energy efficiency, and equipment reliability.
- Troubleshoot complex control-system issues involving field instrumentation, industrial networks, PLC/DCS logic, HMI/SCADA applications, and process conditions.
- Keep up with advances in automation technology and recommend improvements that support plant performance and reliability.
Capital Projects & Technical Leadership
- Lead the controls and automation scope for capital projects, from early planning and engineering through design, procurement, installation, commissioning, startup, and closeout.
- Develop and review control-system specifications, P&IDs, I/O lists, control narratives, cause-and-effect matrices, system architecture, and commissioning plans.
- Coordinate with contractors, system integrators, equipment vendors, and engineering consultants to deliver quality solutions.
- Review engineering designs and deliverables to ensure they meet technical requirements, project schedules, budget expectations, and operational needs.
- Provide controls expertise during plant expansions, equipment installations, process modifications, and major turnarounds.
- Partner with Operations, Maintenance, Electrical Engineering, and other technical teams to ensure new and existing systems work together effectively.
Reliability, Lifecycle Management & Cybersecurity
- Evaluate aging and obsolete control systems and develop practical upgrade, replacement, and modernization plans.
- Establish lifecycle management strategies for critical automation equipment, including system migrations, spare parts, backups, and disaster recovery.
- Assess the reliability and maintainability of legacy systems and recommend improvements to reduce downtime and maintenance costs.
- Support industrial automation cybersecurity efforts, including secure control-system architecture, user access management, network segmentation, backups, patching, vulnerability management, and change control.
- Partner with IT/OT cybersecurity teams to protect critical control systems while maintaining their availability and reliability.
- Support equipment maintenance optimization and develop strategies that improve long-term system performance.
Safety, Compliance & Continuous Improvement
- Help ensure control systems and engineering activities meet applicable safety standards, regulations, and industry requirements.
- Support the maintenance and testing of safety shutdown systems and safety instrumented functions.
- Apply established safety practices and promote a strong safety culture throughout plant operations.
- Analyze technical problems, evaluate potential solutions, and recommend improvements that support plant and business objectives.
- Apply continuous improvement and lean manufacturing principles to improve processes, equipment performance, and maintenance practices.
- Participate in an on-call or escalation rotation and provide technical support for critical control-system issues outside normal working hours when needed.
Mentoring & Knowledge Sharing
- Serve as a technical resource and mentor for Controls Engineers, Electrical Engineers, technicians, and Operations and Maintenance personnel.
- Establish best practices for controls troubleshooting, programming, commissioning, and system improvements.
- Review technical work completed by engineers, technicians, contractors, and system integrators.
- Develop training and knowledge-transfer programs to strengthen the plant’s automation and controls capabilities.
- Communicate complex technical issues clearly and turn them into practical action plans for both technical and nontechnical teams.