Automation & Controls Engineer, Data Center Facilities

SpaceXSI • Southaven, MS

20h • Onsite

About The Position

The Automation & Controls Engineer will design, program, commission, and own controls for a data center facilities plant. The role involves writing robust control code, developing operator interfaces, and taking ownership of live systems by tuning sequences, addressing reliability gaps, and bringing new capacity online while the cluster is in production.

The engineer will manage facility automation projects from sequence of operations and control narratives through panel build, checkout, commissioning, failover testing, and operational handoff. The position also includes integrating equipment into site BMS, EPMS, and historian systems; designing compliant control panels and electrical interfaces; and maintaining systems after go-live through alarm rationalization, loop tuning, outage support, and continued improvements to uptime and energy performance. The role is based on site in a data center and may require long hours, nights, and weekends for commissioning, failover testing, or live plant events.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, controls, mechatronics, or a related engineering discipline.
• At least 1 year of experience in industrial controls, building or plant automation, data center facilities, or related programming; internship and extracurricular experience applies.
• Ability to work long hours, nights, and weekends when commissioning, failover testing, or a live plant event requires it.
• Willingness to work on site in the data center, including mechanical plants, electrical rooms, and data halls, for checkout and troubleshooting.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in data centers, power generation, district energy, industrial utilities, or other 24/7 process plants.
• Experience in at least one relevant discipline and interest in learning the others.
• Experience sizing and applying motors, VFDs, starters, valves, actuators, instrumentation, and circuit protection for pumps, fans, towers, and plant equipment.
• Experience designing fail-safe circuits using safety relays and safety controllers, including interlocks that must hold during power loss or controls failure.
• Hands-on troubleshooting of industrial electrical systems using multimeters, oscilloscopes, and network diagnostics.
• Ability to read and produce schematics, panel layouts, riser diagrams, and one-line diagrams; EPLAN experience preferred.
• Experience with fieldbus and Ethernet plant networks such as BACnet/IP, Modbus TCP, EtherNet/IP, Profinet, and OPC UA.
• Experience designing, building, and commissioning control panels and electromechanical systems with arc-flash, lockout/tagout, and construction-power constraints in mind.
• Working knowledge of NEC, NFPA 70E, UL 508A, and data center facility standards, and ability to apply them to control design.
• PLC programming in structured text and ladder; Rockwell Studio 5000, Siemens TIA Portal, or Beckhoff TwinCAT experience preferred.
• HMI, BMS, and SCADA development experience using Ignition, Niagara, or an equivalent platform, with focus on navigation, alarms, trends, and equipment health.
• Experience with industrial protocols used in critical facilities, including BACnet/IP, Modbus TCP, OPC UA, MQTT, SNMP, EtherNet/IP, and Profinet.
• Experience applying control software to mechanical and electrical assemblies such as sensors, VFDs, valves, and pump or fan systems, including disciplined checkout before a system carries load.
• Experience with EPMS, power metering, generator or ATS status, and historian or alarming tools used to operate a data center.
• Clear written and verbal communication, including control narratives, sequences of operations, and recommendations across mechanical, electrical, and operations teams.
• Sound judgment when working around high voltage, stored energy, refrigerants, fuel systems, and high-pressure hydronics.
• Ability to turn complex plant problems into simple, reliable control solutions.
• Enthusiasm for fast, iterative design, construction, and commissioning on a live critical facility.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and manage facility automation projects from sequence of operations and control narrative through panel build, point-to-point checkout, commissioning, failover testing, and handoff to operations.
• Architect, write, and debug structured, documented, maintainable, and reusable PLC and controller code for facility plant equipment, including chillers, pumps, cooling towers, coolant distribution units, air handlers, and heat rejection systems.
• Implement lead/lag, staging, rotation, free-cooling, and liquid-cooling control strategies that maintain capacity, efficiency, and N+1 or 2N redundancy as cluster load changes.
• Implement fail-safe interlocks, emergency power off and transfer logic, and an alarm philosophy meeting applicable codes and life-safety requirements.
• Build HMI and control-room graphics that let operators view plant state, acknowledge alarms, trend equipment health, and troubleshoot systems.
• Integrate equipment controllers into site BMS, EPMS, and historian systems so power, cooling, and environmental data are available as one operational picture.
• Design control panels and electrical interfaces compliant with applicable NEC, NFPA, and UL 508A requirements, including motor and VFD interfaces, safety circuits, and network architecture.
• Own systems after go-live, including alarm rationalization, loop tuning, sequence changes, outage support, and continuous improvement of uptime and energy performance.
• Build schedules and punch lists for controls scope and coordinate vendors, contractors, and internal teams to meet construction and live-expansion milestones.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level