Engineer - Controls & Automation III

BLUE ORIGIN•Seattle, WA

8d•$130,706 - $182,988•Onsite

About The Position

This role is part of Blue Origin Operations and supports the design, development, and sustainment of integrated control systems for custom, in-house-built precision machines. The machines coordinate motion, thermal, fluid, and optical subsystems to maintain micron-class positional accuracy. The position supports both an operating production fleet and the active design of a next-generation machine configuration. It is an on-site, hands-on role with responsibility spanning control-system design, commissioning, troubleshooting, and production support.

Requirements

Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent.
At least 5 years of experience with machine tool automation and industrial controls.
Prior experience with PLC programming and HMI design.
Prior experience creating, modifying, and delivering electrical schematics and P&ID drawings.
Prior experience with industrial control networks such as EtherCAT, EtherNet/IP, and Modbus TCP.
Prior experience with servo motion control, including drive sizing, tuning, and encoder feedback.
Working knowledge of machine safety requirements and their implementation in control logic.
Demonstrated ability to troubleshoot a machine in operation, not only in simulation.
Ability to earn trust, maintain positive and professional relationships, and contribute to a culture of inclusion.
Must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident, or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum.
Passion for Blue Origin’s mission and vision.
Must be able to work on site; the hardware cannot be supported remotely.

Nice To Haves

Prior experience designing and/or building custom or commercial machinery.
Prior education or experience related to Control Theory and its applications.
Prior experience implementing control solutions based on Beckhoff products and toolsets, including TwinCAT 3 and EtherCAT.
Prior experience with multi-axis coordinated motion controller platforms.
Experience with dual-motor or gantry-coupled axes, including master/slave configurations, separation monitoring, and de-skew calibration.
Experience with high-resolution linear encoder feedback, including installation, alignment, contamination control, and diagnosis of intermittent feedback faults.
Prior experience with coordinated systems where several independently steered heads share one work envelope.
Prior experience with functional safety over fieldbus, including FSoE, SIL-rated architectures, and safety logic validation.
Prior experience with sealed or controlled-atmosphere process equipment, including gas handling, purge, and containment controls.
Prior experience developing production machine software in C++ or a comparable compiled language.
Experience with large precision machine automation.
Prior experience working to best practices of NFPA 70 and NFPA 79.
Prior experience with configuration management of controller parameters and PLC code across a fleet of machines.
Experience with machine commissioning and alignment campaigns.
Experience taking a first-of-its-kind machine from prototype to repeatable production.

Responsibilities

Own the control-system architecture for a two-controller machine, including the interface and build-sequencing handshake between the motion controller and PLC.
Develop and maintain PLC software for fluid and gas systems, material handling, motion, temperature control, diagnostics, logging, HMI, and safety logic.
Develop, maintain, and tune coordinated multi-axis motion control, including electronically coupled axes, separation monitoring, de-skew, and servo tuning.
Develop and troubleshoot high-resolution encoder feedback chains and diagnose intermittent or velocity-dependent feedback faults.
Build and maintain error-mapping and calibration routines to correct position-dependent geometric and thermal errors.
Develop and maintain machine-side application software in C++ or comparable languages, including real-time and buffered execution.
Create and maintain electrical schematics, P&ID drawings, electrical cabinet layouts, and critical cable and wire-routing drawings.
Work with internal and outsourced electricians on electrical cabinet assembly.
Configure and maintain fieldbuses and fieldbus devices.
Select, implement, and tune servo motors and drives; select and implement sensors and actuators for machine operation.
Design, implement, and validate machine safety logic over fieldbus, including interlocks, emergency-stop architecture, safe-state behavior, and adherence to safety regulations and recommendations.
Develop operator-facing HMI screens and diagnostics that make relevant fault information visible to operators.
Instrument machines for data capture and develop logging and telemetry to support fault reconstruction.
Lead controls integration across mechanical, electrical, and process engineering disciplines.
Participate in subsystem- and machine-level testing, including planning, execution, data reduction, and analysis.
Perform and document root-cause analysis on controls-related field failures and drive corrective changes through release.
Support commissioning and bring-up of new machines from power-on through production release.
Support retrofits and upgrades of fielded production machines.
Maintain version control of drawings, source code, and machine configurations.
Plan and manage work in accordance with team and company goals.

Benefits

Medical insurance
Dental insurance
Vision insurance
Basic and supplemental life insurance
Paid parental leave
Short- and long-term disability
401(k) with company match of up to 5%
Education Support Program
Stock options for regular employees working at least 20 hours per week
Paid time off of up to four weeks per year based on weekly scheduled hours
Up to 14 company-paid holidays
Depending on role type and job level, potential eligibility for benefits and bonuses based on individual contributions and company results; amounts and eligibility are not guaranteed.