System Design Engineer

Control Systems Engineer

Location: Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Schedule: Full time, on site

Salary: $110,000 base plus profit sharing (historically taking total comp into the $140k to $150k range in strong years

A specialist control and information systems integrator in Baton Rouge is hiring a senior controls engineer to run projects end to end across PLC, HMI, panel design, and drives work.

This is a small business, around ten people, that has been operating for three decades. They are CSIA-certified, a licensed PE firm, and run a full UL 508A panel shop on site. The engineering team is a tight group of senior people who each own their own projects, from concept and design through to factory acceptance, on-site commissioning, and ongoing client support. There is no large matrix of specialists to hand things off to, every engineer is part technical lead, part project manager.

The hiring company is unusual in two ways. First, they do both controls and electrical power, so the work includes drive systems, motor control centres, and VFDs alongside PLC and HMI development. Drives are in the company DNA, this is where the business started. Second, the owner is one of the most AI-forward leaders in the integrator space. They are actively using LLM tooling to accelerate engineering, rebuilding internal products in days rather than months, and positioning the business around AI agents, digital twins, and the next wave of industrial robotics. An engineer joining now gets to help shape what that looks like.

What you'll do

You will work primarily on the Rockwell stack: RSLogix and Studio 5000, ControlLogix and CompactLogix, in production environments across baking, cement, water and wastewater, plastics compounding, and distribution and material handling. HMI and SCADA work will be on FactoryTalk, AVEVA, or Ignition depending on the project.

Day to day, that means designing or adapting UL 508A panels, programming PLCs and HMIs, designing industrial Ethernet/IP networks, specifying VFDs and drive assemblies, running factory acceptance tests, and travelling to client sites for commissioning and startup. You will own your own projects, set and hold to budgets, and be the face of the company in front of plant managers.

This is not a shift role. Travel sits at around 5%, mostly regional Louisiana and Gulf-area client visits for FATs, commissioning, and startup.

What you'll need

At least five years of controls engineering experience, ideally at a systems integrator. Strong Rockwell PLC programming background. Real depth in at least one major HMI or SCADA platform (FactoryTalk, AVEVA, or Ignition). Ethernet/IP and industrial networking competence. The ability to read, mark up, and adapt control panel and ladder schematic drawings.

You do not need to tick every box. If you have programmed Rockwell from scratch in a production environment, owned a project from design through commissioning, and you are comfortable representing your company on a client site, that is the core profile.

Helpful but not required: drive systems experience (VFDs, DC drives, built-up assemblies), AutoCAD, P.E. licence or a path toward one, and active use of AI tooling in your engineering work.

A valid US driver's licence and clean driving record are required (this is strictly enforced). Existing right to work in the US is strongly preferred.

Why this role is worth considering

This is a small, stable, long-tenure business that has been profitable for three decades and is actively repositioning itself for the next ten years. The engineers who join tend to stay because the work is technically broad, the bonus actually pays, the company is owner-led with no private equity overhead, and there is real freedom to do the job properly.

Reasons engineers join include:

• Full project ownership, design through startup, on real industrial work
• Both controls and electrical power exposure, including drives and MCCs
• A genuine path to bonus, with historical payouts of $40k to $50k in strong years on top of base
• Active AI tooling adoption, with air cover from the top to use modern tools
• A future-facing technical roadmap including digital twins, AI agents, and humanoid robot integration
• Support for further education and P.E. licensure for engineers who want it
• A small, low-politics team where individual contribution is visible

The working setup

This is an on-site role in Baton Rouge. The team is hiring locally first. Relocation support is available for the right fit, including moving truck and limited moving costs, but the company is honest that relocations into Baton Rouge work best when the engineer or their family already has some connection to the area.

The kind of person who will do well

You are an experienced controls engineer who has owned full project lifecycles, not just narrow slices. You handle yourself well on a client site. You are professional, steady, and curious. You are interested in where industrial automation is going, not nostalgic for where it has been. You want to be in a small team where what you do matters.

This will not be the right role for a DCS-only engineer from a large petrochemical or oil and gas plant who has not worked with PLC and HMI environments. It will not suit someone who needs a deep specialist support team behind them. And it is not a fit for someone who only wants remote or hybrid work.

If you have the Rockwell and HMI depth, want full project ownership in a small team that is leaning hard into AI and modern tooling, and Baton Rouge works for you, it is worth a conversation.