Controls Engineer Maintenance

Title:

Controls Engineer – Equipment Maintenance

Department:

DC Equipment Maintenance

Position Summary:

The Equipment Maintenance Controls Engineer is responsible for supporting the reliability, performance, and continuous improvement of manufacturing equipment and automated systems. This position provides technical expertise in electrical controls, PLCs, robotics, HMIs, drives, sensors, and industrial automation while partnering closely with Maintenance, Engineering, and Production.

The role focuses on reducing equipment downtime, improving equipment reliability, troubleshooting complex control-system issues, supporting preventive and predictive maintenance activities, and implementing equipment and controls improvements that support safe, efficient, and consistent manufacturing operations.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities:

• Troubleshoot and resolve complex electrical, controls, automation, and equipment-related failures on manufacturing equipment.
• Diagnose PLC, HMI, servo, variable-frequency drive (VFD), sensor, communication, safety-circuit, and industrial control-system issues.
• Provide technical support to Maintenance Technicians during equipment breakdowns and recurring equipment problems.
• Analyze equipment failures and chronic downtime issues to identify root causes and implement permanent corrective actions.
• Develop, modify, troubleshoot, and maintain PLC and HMI programs as required.
• Support industrial robots and automated material-handling systems, including troubleshooting programming, communication, interlock, and peripheral-equipment issues.
• Maintain backups and appropriate documentation for PLC programs, HMI applications, drive parameters, robot programs, and other critical controls configurations.
• Identify opportunities to improve equipment reliability, cycle time, uptime, maintainability, and overall manufacturing performance.
• Support equipment installations, upgrades, retrofits, commissioning, and production launches.
• Assist in establishing preventive and predictive maintenance requirements for electrical and controls systems.
• Partner with Maintenance and Engineering to improve recurring equipment problems and reduce unplanned downtime.
• Develop and update electrical drawings, controls documentation, troubleshooting guides, and equipment technical documentation.
• Provide technical training and coaching to Maintenance Technicians on controls, electrical troubleshooting, and automation systems.
• Work with equipment manufacturers, integrators, and outside contractors to resolve technical equipment issues and complete improvement projects.
• Support spare-parts identification and critical controls-component standardization.
• Ensure equipment modifications maintain appropriate machine-safety functionality, including guarding, safety circuits, interlocks, emergency stops, and related controls.
• Follow applicable company safety procedures and electrical-safety requirements during troubleshooting and maintenance activities.
• Participate in continuous improvement, root cause analysis, and equipment reliability initiatives.
• Perform additional duties and projects as assigned.

Qualifications (Preferred):

• 2+ years of experience in industrial controls, automation, equipment engineering, or manufacturing maintenance preferred.
• Experience troubleshooting automated manufacturing equipment in a high-volume production environment strongly preferred.
• Experience supporting equipment reliability and reducing recurring downtime preferred.
• Automotive, die-casting, machining, assembly, or similar manufacturing experience is beneficial