Controls Engineer

Program and maintain the controls on every line. Allen-Bradley ControlLogix and CompactLogix, Siemens, and the HMIs operators actually touch. You write the logic, you change it when the product changes, and you keep a version you can roll back to.

Find the fault, not the symptom. When a line goes down on a control problem, you narrow it before anybody starts swapping parts. Then you fix the cause.

Bring new equipment up. Install, wire, commission, and start up new machines, working from schematics, wiring diagrams, and manuals that are not always right.

Build what the floor can use. HMI screens people can read at a glance, alarms that mean something, and data off the line that tells somebody something. Ignition SCADA if you’ve used it.

Work next to maintenance and production. The mechanics know what the machine does at 2am and you know what it has been told to do. Most of the real fixes come out of that conversation.

Keep improving what already runs. A sensor in a better place, a sequence that doesn’t sit waiting, an alarm that fires before the jam instead of after. Small control changes are often the cheapest time we ever buy back.

• •At least 2 years on industrial automation and control systems, hands-on with Allen-Bradley (ControlLogix, CompactLogix) and Siemens PLCs.
• •You read electrical schematics, wiring diagrams, and machine manuals, and you can wire what you design.
• •You can troubleshoot a complex control problem on your own, with the line down and people waiting on you.
• •HMI development and integration, and a working knowledge of industrial networking protocols and hardware.
• •You explain what you changed to people who don’t write code, including the mechanic who meets it at 2am.
• •A bachelor’s in electrical engineering, automation, or a related field, or the equivalent in experience. Which problems you’ve solved matters more to us than where you learned to solve them.

Helps, but not required: Ignition SCADA · high-speed bottling or canning · servo and motion control · VFDs · a food or beverage plant · Spanish.

This is the wrong job if: you’d rather write the program at a desk and hand the file to somebody else to try on the machine.

$60,000 to $90,000 per year depending on experience, plus a discretionary performance bonus. PTO, medical and dental. Full-time, salaried, on-site in Fort Worth, 9am to 5pm Monday through Friday, with the flexibility a running plant occasionally asks for.

Apply About 20 minutes, including a 1 to 2 minute video you record on your phone. No cover letter.

Video call A short conversation about you: your background; your interests and career goals; your skills and experience; your general disposition and way of working.

Site visit Come see us, wear a safety vest, meet the team. 30 to 45 minutes, and part of it is hands-on: we stand at one of our lines with you and talk through how you’d track down a fault on it.

Offer To the best candidate we meet.

• •We have fun doing cool stuff. You’ll work on industry-leading alcohol innovation projects with brands people know around the world. Your friends will be impressed.
• •You’ll have real resources to build with: in-house sanitary welding, a CNC machine, and 3D printing. When a fix needs a part that doesn’t exist, we make it here.
• •Nearly every manager in this building started here at entry level. We promote from within and we cross-train on purpose, and there are tracks for individual contributors as well as future managers.

Fine print

This position works in and around an active production facility: moving machinery, forklift traffic, glass, and ethanol vapors, with noise and temperature variation. It requires standing, walking, kneeling, climbing ladders, and working in tight or awkward positions for extended periods, and occasionally lifting up to 50 pounds. This is a safety-sensitive position: lockout/tagout procedures apply, and PPE is required in designated areas. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Apply

About 20 minutes, no cover letter. You’ll upload a resume and a short phone video, so have your phone handy. The application opens in a new tab.

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