Process Automation Engineer

Sparrow Company•Birmingham, AL

About The Position

The Process Automation Engineer is responsible for designing, maintaining, and programming existing and future electrical and automation equipment at the plant. The role supports safe, economical production of quality products by refining process designs and control systems, maintaining reliable automation infrastructure, and assisting production and maintenance with troubleshooting. It includes 24-hour coverage for PLC, SCADA, computer, and networking hardware. The engineer also supports capital projects from initiation and estimation through design, construction supervision, commissioning, and start-up, and maintains system and drawing documentation. Additional duties may be assigned by the supervisor.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering or Computer Science, with at least two years of experience in automation programming; equivalent combinations of education, training, and experience are accepted.
Familiarity with PLC programming, SCADA programming, databases, Visual Basic, networking, servers, MS Office, plant electrical systems, and instrumentation.
Thorough understanding of plant electrical and electronic equipment, including motor drives and instrumentation, and troubleshooting ability—or the ability to learn these quickly.
Ability to work independently and accept responsibility for sophisticated and expensive equipment.

Nice To Haves

Prior use of a CAD system.
Knowledge of electrical testing meters and methods.

Responsibilities

Maintain safe working conditions and practices to support a zero lost-time injury record in the area of responsibility.
Perform work in accordance with QSHE system procedures.
Work with engineering and production staff to refine process designs, control systems, and projects.
Lead the use of electrical, instrumentation, and process-control elements to produce quality products with minimal manual control and maintenance.
Design systems to collect quality-control information and production-reporting data in useful formats.
Manage the Process Change Request system, maintaining the electronic workflow for initiating, approving, and implementing requests.
Maintain reliable PLC, SCADA, and related hardware, communications, backups, and software.
Schedule automation-system maintenance and verify spare-parts availability in inventory.
Provide troubleshooting assistance to production and maintenance personnel.
Work with hub Automation to maintain company standards.
Assist plant personnel when systems malfunction or products are out of specification.
Provide 24-hour coverage for PLC, SCADA, computer, and networking hardware.
Assist RAM Engineering with capital projects, including initiation, estimating, financial approval, design, specification, directing engineering work, construction supervision, cost management, commissioning, checkout, and start-up.
Maintain PLC, SCADA, and network documentation, and red-line electrical and process drawings.
Interface with staff and contractors across sites and departments to support economical, safe production of quality products.
Perform other duties as directed by the supervisor.