Electrical Controls Engineer - Combustion & Machine Safety Systems

Electrical Controls Engineer

Combustion Controls & Machine Safety Systems

Position Overview

We are seeking an experienced Electrical Controls Engineer to design, program, document, commission, and support industrial control systems for combustion equipment and industrial machinery.

This position combines electrical engineering, PLC programming, control-panel design, machine safety, and field commissioning. The successful candidate will be responsible for developing practical, reliable control solutions from concept through startup and will work closely with customers, project managers, engineers, technicians, panel builders, and field service personnel.

The role supports two primary business areas: industrial combustion/process heating systems and machine safeguarding systems

Key Responsibilities

Electrical & Controls Engineering

· Design electrical control systems for new equipment, system upgrades, and machine retrofit projects.

· Develop electrical schematics, wiring diagrams, I/O drawings, panel layouts, and bills of material.

· Create and maintain electrical documentation using SolidWorks Electrical.

· Select and specify PLCs, safety controllers, HMIs, VFDs, relays, contactors, power supplies, circuit protection, sensors, actuators, and other control components.

· Develop control-panel designs and support panel fabrication, inspection, and testing.

· Program, modify, test, and troubleshoot industrial PLC and HMI systems.

Develop machine sequences, interlocks, permissives, alarms, diagnostics, and process-control functions.

· Interface new control systems with existing OEM machinery and controls.

· Evaluate existing equipment when electrical documentation is incomplete, outdated, or unavailable.

· Maintain accurate engineering documentation and incorporate design revisions throughout the project lifecycle.

PLC & Automation

· Develop and troubleshoot PLC programs for industrial automation and machine-control applications.

· Develop and modify HMI applications, operator interfaces, alarms, and diagnostics.

· Troubleshoot PLC I/O, remote I/O, industrial networks, VFDs, sensors, actuators, and other control-system devices.

· Perform factory testing, I/O checkout, system testing, startup, and commissioning.

· Document PLC and HMI modifications and maintain appropriate program revisions.

Primary PLC platforms: Allen-Bradley/Rockwell and Siemens.

Combustion Controls

· Design and support control systems for industrial furnaces, ovens, burners, process heaters, and related equipment.

· Develop and troubleshoot combustion sequences, burner management functions, interlocks, permissives, alarms, and emergency shutdown functions.

· Work with flame supervision, ignition systems, fuel trains, combustion airflow, purge sequences, and temperature/process controls.

· Design systems in accordance with applicable requirements of NFPA 85, NFPA 86, and NFPA 87.

· Support combustion-system startup, commissioning, troubleshooting, and field modifications.

Machine Safety & Safeguarding

· Design and support safety-related control systems for industrial machinery.

· Integrate safety devices including light curtains, area scanners, guard-door interlocks, safety-rated RFID switches, emergency stops, two-hand controls,

safety mats, enabling devices, safety contactors, safety valves, and motion-monitoring devices.

· Develop safety-related control architectures incorporating appropriate redundancy, monitoring, diagnostics, fault detection, and reset/restart functions.

· Apply applicable requirements of the ANSI B11 series and other relevant machinery safety standards.

· Support machine risk assessments and safety-system verification and validation.

Field Support & Commissioning

· Support electrical installation, panel checkout, I/O verification, startup, and commissioning.

· Troubleshoot electrical, controls, instrumentation, and safety-system issues.

· Verify machine sequences, interlocks, alarms, permissives, and safety functions.

· Provide remote technical support to customers and field personnel.

· Travel periodically to customer facilities for commissioning, troubleshooting, and technical support.

Required Qualifications

· Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Controls Engineering, Automation Engineering, or a related technical discipline; equivalent relevant experience may be considered.

· 5+ years of industrial controls, automation, electrical engineering, or related experience.

· Demonstrated experience designing or supporting industrial electrical control systems.

· Demonstrated experience programming and troubleshooting industrial PLC systems.

· Experience developing or modifying industrial HMI applications.

· Ability to read, interpret, and develop electrical schematics, wiring diagrams, and control-system documentation.

· Strong understanding of industrial control components, including PLCs, HMIs, relays, contactors, VFDs, power supplies, circuit protection, sensors, actuators, and control wiring.

· Ability to troubleshoot electrical and control systems using schematics, PLC diagnostics, and appropriate test equipment.

· Strong analytical, problem-solving, and troubleshooting skills.

· Ability to manage multiple projects and priorities.

· Ability to communicate effectively with customers, engineers, technicians, electricians, project managers, and other stakeholders.

· Ability and willingness to travel periodically to customer sites.

Preferred Qualifications

The following experience is strongly preferred but is not required:

PLC & Automation

· Allen-Bradley/Rockwell PLC programming experience, including Studio 5000/RSLogix.

· Siemens PLC programming experience, including TIA Portal.

· GuardLogix or other safety PLC experience.

· PanelView or other industrial HMI experience.

· EtherNet/IP, PROFINET, PROFIBUS, or other industrial networking experience.

· VFD, servo, motion-control, or robotics experience.

Electrical Design

· SolidWorks Electrical experience.

· SolidWorks Electrical 2D/3D experience.

· Control-panel design and manufacturing documentation experience.

· Experience with UL 508A industrial control panels.

· Experience designing electrical systems for machine retrofits and upgrades.

Combustion & Process Heating

· Experience with industrial combustion systems, furnaces, ovens, burners, or process heaters.

· Experience with burner management systems.

· Experience with flame supervision, ignition systems, fuel trains, and combustion safety circuits.

· Previous experience applying NFPA 85, NFPA 86, and/or NFPA 87.

Machine Safety

· Experience designing machine safeguarding and safety-related control systems.

· Previous experience applying ANSI B11 standards.

· Experience with safety PLCs, safety relays, and safety-rated control components.

· Experience with presses, press brakes, shears, CNC machinery, robots, conveyors, packaging equipment, material handling equipment, or other industrial machinery.

Functional Safety

· Formal functional safety training or Functional Safety Engineer (FSE) certification.

· Experience with:

• ISO 13849-1
• IEC 62061
• Performance Level (PL)
• Safety Integrity Level (SIL)
• Safety Categories
• SISTEMA
• Safety-system validation and verification

Work Environment

This position combines engineering design work with hands-on industrial applications. The engineer may work around electrical control panels, industrial machinery, furnaces, ovens, production equipment, and other industrial systems.

Periodic travel to customer facilities is required for commissioning, troubleshooting, installation support, and technical assistance.

What You Will Do

The Electrical Controls Engineer will take ownership of control-system projects from design through commissioning, including:

Design → Electrical Documentation → PLC/HMI Programming → Testing → Startup → Commissioning → Troubleshooting → Customer Support

The ideal candidate brings strong industrial controls fundamentals, sound engineering judgment, and a practical approach to solving real-world automation and machine-control problems.