Controls Engineer

AtmosZero is building the next generation of industrial steam infrastructure. Our flagship product, Boiler 2.0, is a modular industrial steam heat pump designed to help manufacturers reduce operational risk, improve flexibility, and modernize steam generation over time. Rather than forcing facilities to choose between reliability and sustainability, AtmosZero enables a practical path toward future-ready steam systems that integrate with existing operations and scale with customer needs.

AtmosZero · Loveland, Colorado (onsite) · Full-time · Senior Engineer I

Reports to: VP, Engineering

Why this role exists

Industrial steam runs manufacturing across food, pharmaceuticals, specialty chemicals, and other essential industries, yet most steam is still produced by combustion-based boilers. AtmosZero is replacing that legacy equipment with an electrified platform designed for practical deployment in existing boiler rooms.

Boiler 2.0 is a modular industrial heat-pump system that produces steam using electricity. We are moving the platform from development hardware into repeatable customer delivery, with a 1 MW customer system now driving controls implementation, integration, testing, and commissioning readiness.

The controls challenge spans process sequences, compressor and drive interfaces, distributed instrumentation, protection logic, HMI and SCADA, industrial networking, data infrastructure, and live-system troubleshooting. This role adds the hands-on capacity to complete the 1 MW system and turn first-unit learning into a reusable controls platform for future systems.

Level and scope

We are hiring an experienced engineer who can own major portions of an industrial controls system from requirements through commissioning. The role is intentionally hardware-close: you will move between design documentation, PLC code, HMI and SCADA configuration, panels, field devices, test equipment, and operating data.

• Controls Engineer (5+ years). You own controls implementation and issue resolution for assigned systems and subsystems, while helping establish the architecture, software standards, diagnostics, and commissioning methods needed for repeatable product delivery.

If your experience does not follow a conventional path but you have commissioned complex industrial equipment and can demonstrate strong controls judgment, apply anyway.

What you will do

Deliver the 1 MW controls system

• Complete PLC programming, sequence implementation, controls integration, and system-level testing for the 1 MW Boiler 2.0 platform.
• Develop and verify startup, normal operation, shutdown, maintenance, fault, trip, and recovery behavior, including interlocks, permissives, alarms, timeouts, and protective responses.
• Own controls issue resolution during panel checkout, I/O checkout, build, factory acceptance testing, commissioning, and early operation.

Build the controls architecture and software platform

• Develop modular, state-based control software using consistent equipment modules, control modules, interfaces, naming, and version-control practices.
• Configure Siemens PLC and distributed I/O hardware, industrial networks, drives, IO-Link devices, instrumentation, and third-party equipment interfaces.
• Create reusable code libraries, simulation and test utilities, diagnostic tools, and deployment practices that reduce commissioning effort and replication risk.

Develop HMI, SCADA, data, and remote-support capabilities

• Build and maintain operator interfaces for commissioning, local operation, troubleshooting, and service, with clear alarm and abnormal-condition presentation.
• Integrate local and centralized data collection, historian functions, trends, event logging, dashboards, and remote monitoring while maintaining appropriate separation between customer and internal networks.
• Turn operating and commissioning feedback into improved diagnostics, alarm rationalization, service workflows, and product reliability.

Integrate across disciplines

• Partner with process and thermal engineers to translate the theory of operation, P&IDs, operating envelopes, and protection requirements into tested controls behavior.
• Partner with electrical engineering and panel suppliers on schematics, I/O architecture, device selection, networking, panel checkout, cable and signal issues, and field changes.
• Work with manufacturing, test, and field teams to define acceptance criteria, test procedures, troubleshooting methods, and controlled software releases.

Mature the product

• Maintain controls design specifications, software descriptions, sequence diagrams, I/O maps, alarm and interlock lists, network architecture, test records, release notes, and troubleshooting guides.
• Support DFMEA, design reviews, safety reviews, change control, and root-cause investigations, and drive controls actions to verified closure.
• Convert first-unit learning into released standards, templates, work instructions, and commissioning packages for subsequent systems.

What success looks like in your first year

• In your first 90 days you understand the system architecture and codebase, can execute controlled software changes, and are contributing directly to 1 MW integration and test readiness.
• By six months you own major portions of the 1 MW controls implementation and can independently drive commissioning issues from symptom through verified closure.
• By twelve months the controls modules, standards, documentation, and commissioning tools you developed are being reused on subsequent systems, with fewer integration defects and faster issue resolution.

What we need from you

• Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, controls engineering, computer engineering, computer science, mechanical engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• 5+ years of relevant experience developing and commissioning industrial control systems for complex equipment or processes.
• Hands-on proficiency with IEC 61131-3 PLC programming, including Structured Text and at least one of Ladder Logic or Function Block Diagram.
• Experience with Siemens PLCs and TIA Portal, including integrated hardware configuration, communications, and troubleshooting.
• Experience developing industrial HMI or SCADA applications and implementing alarms, trends, historian tags, user access, and operator workflows.
• Experience with industrial instrumentation, analog and digital I/O, drives, motor controls, field devices, and networked equipment.
• Demonstrated ability to commission and troubleshoot live industrial hardware using drawings, P&IDs, software diagnostics, test instruments, and operating data.
• Ability to produce clear, controlled engineering documentation and communicate effectively across mechanical, process, electrical, software, manufacturing, and field teams.
• Comfort with the ambiguity and pace of a startup building physical hardware, where design, build, and test may occur in parallel.

What would help

We do not expect anyone to have all of this. The first three are the ones we would most like to see.

• Experience with Ignition, including edge or local gateways, centralized gateways, historian configuration, dashboards, and remote-support use cases.
• Experience with Siemens S7-1500-series controllers, WinCC, Weidmuller UR20 I/O, IFM IO-Link devices, Modbus TCP, Profinet, OPC UA, and industrial Ethernet.
• Experience applying ISA-88 concepts to modular, state-based machine or process control and ISA-101 principles to HMI design.
• Experience with refrigeration, heat pumps, boilers, steam systems, turbomachinery, process equipment, or comparable thermal-fluid systems.
• Experience with functional protection logic, alarm rationalization, machinery safety, and standards such as NFPA 79, NFPA 70, UL, or CE requirements.
• Experience with control-panel design review, wiring diagrams, loop diagrams, network diagrams, panel checkout, FAT, SAT, and field commissioning.
• Experience with software version control, coding standards, simulation, automated or bench testing, release management, and change control for industrial controls.
• Experience supporting production equipment, remote fleets, customer sites, or field-service organizations.
• Experience moving a controls platform from prototype development into repeatable production.

Compensation and benefits

Base salary range: $125,000 - $180,000/year

Equity: Stock option grant

Benefits: Medical, dental, and vision coverage; retirement plan; paid time off and holidays; parental leave.