Senior Motion Control Systems Engineer

Kairos Power•Albuquerque, NM

1d•Onsite

About The Position

Kairos Power is seeking a Senior Motion Control Engineer to join its Plant Control Systems team. The role leads programming, electrical design, and integration of motion-control, mechanical-handling, and motor-driven equipment—including cranes, hoists, manipulators, lifts, positioning systems, conveyors, and remotely operated equipment—for an advanced nuclear power plant. The engineer specifies and integrates motors, drives, instrumentation, safety functions, operator interfaces, and plant-control-system interfaces. The role develops equipment controls for a nuclear environment, emphasizing safety, defined functional boundaries, documented requirements, verification, configuration control, and rigorous testing throughout the equipment lifecycle, from requirements and design through commissioning and operation. The engineer provides technical leadership, mentors less-experienced engineers, leads complex design activities, and independently resolves significant technical issues. The position does not include direct personnel-management responsibility. Work includes developing and reviewing system requirements, electrical and control designs, software, interfaces, supplier submittals, and test documentation; coordinating with multidisciplinary teams; and supporting procurement, testing, installation, commissioning, troubleshooting, and lifecycle maintenance. Some travel may be required, up to 10%. The role is based onsite at the company’s Alameda, California headquarters and involves office and manufacturing/industrial environments, including noisy and fast-paced settings and required PPE when applicable.

Requirements

Bachelor’s or master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Controls Engineering, Mechatronics, or a related engineering discipline.
At least 4 years of progressively responsible experience in control-systems engineering, industrial automation, instrumentation and controls, or a related field.
Experience developing control logic using IEC 61131-3 languages or equivalent standards.
Experience serving as a responsible engineer, system owner, technical lead, or lead designer for complex electrical, controls, or mechanical-handling equipment.
Experience with motion-control applications or equipment such as cranes, hoists, manipulators, lifts, conveyors, positioning systems, remotely operated equipment, or robotics.
Experience with system requirements, design documentation, supplier coordination, technical reviews, testing, commissioning, troubleshooting, and design-change implementation.
Strong knowledge of motion-control architectures and associated motors, drives, mechanical components, feedback devices, sensors, and instrumentation.
Ability to perform or review motor, drive, mechanical-load, electrical-protection, grounding, shielding, cable-selection, and power-quality analyses.
Experience programming PLCs and motion controllers using ladder logic, structured text, function blocks, sequential-function charts, or equivalent methods.
Experience with industrial-control platforms such as Rockwell Automation, Siemens, Emerson, ABB, GE, or equivalent.
Experience with DCS, HMI, SCADA, remote I/O, instrumentation, control panels, historians, supervisory controls, and industrial communications.
Familiarity with industrial communication protocols such as Ethernet/IP, Modbus, OPC, Profibus, Profinet, fiber-optic networks, or equivalent technologies.
Ability to develop and interpret electrical schematics, wiring diagrams, panel layouts, control narratives, P&IDs, logic diagrams, cause-and-effect matrices, I/O lists, and test procedures.
Familiarity with machine-safety practices and devices, including safety PLCs, safety relays, emergency stops, interlocks, overload protection, limit switches, safety-rated feedback, brake monitoring, and safe torque-off functions.
Working knowledge of low-voltage electrical design, including control power and interfaces from 480 VAC through 24 VDC.
Familiarity with configuration management, requirements traceability, independent review, software quality practices, controlled implementation, and lifecycle documentation.
Familiarity with applicable IEEE, IEC, NEMA, NFPA, ISA, ASME, OSHA, and project-specific requirements.
Knowledge of control-system requirements management, design verification, and requirements-traceability practices.
Ability to develop, review, and evaluate control-system test plans, procedures, acceptance criteria, and results.
Ability to coordinate and resolve multidisciplinary technical interfaces, evaluate technical alternatives and risks, and document engineering decisions.
Demonstrated technical leadership, sound engineering judgment, ability to manage complex assignments independently with limited supervision, and ability to resolve complex technical issues.
Strong written, graphical, and verbal communication skills; attention to detail; and commitment to safety, quality, documentation, verification, traceability, and configuration control.
Ability to collaborate with engineering, operations, maintenance, quality, safety, suppliers, and commissioning teams, and to proactively collect, manage, and transfer knowledge.
Occasional schedule flexibility and seldomly extended hours may be required to support launch and critical project timelines.
Must be authorized by the Department of Energy to access Part 810-controlled information to work in the facility; certain foreign nationals may require a DOE export-control license.

Nice To Haves

Professional Engineer (PE) license or eligibility for licensure; PE license is described as highly desirable.
Nuclear power plant, advanced reactor, radiological facility, power-generation, utility, heavy-industrial, manufacturing, process-plant, or EPC experience.
Additional certifications such as NETA or CMCP.

Responsibilities

Serve as responsible engineer, system owner, or technical lead for assigned motion-control, electrical-control, motor-drive, and mechanical-handling systems.
Develop and maintain requirements, functional specifications, interface-control documents, design descriptions, calculations, drawings, equipment data sheets, and verification records.
Translate plant operating, equipment, environmental, maintenance, and safety requirements into electrical and control-system designs.
Define operating modes, local and remote control functions, manual and automatic operation, sequences, equipment protection, fault response, alarms, interlocks, permissives, trips, and safe-state behavior.
Specify and integrate motors, drives, starters, gearboxes, brakes, feedback devices, sensors, instrumentation, safety devices, control panels, and related equipment.
Perform or review motor sizing, torque-speed, duty-cycle, thermal, load, inertia, drive, braking, cable, protection, grounding, shielding, and power-quality analyses.
Develop or review electrical schematics, panel layouts, wiring and termination drawings, I/O and loop diagrams, control narratives, functional logic diagrams, cause-and-effect matrices, and test procedures.
Develop, configure, review, and test PLC, motion-controller, DCS-interface, HMI, SCADA, and related control software using established development, peer-review, testing, release, and configuration-management practices.
Define equipment and plant-control interfaces for commands, status, feedback, alarms, diagnostics, permissives, trips, safety signals, monitoring, data collection, event logging, and maintenance diagnostics.
Integrate assigned equipment with plant controls, supervisory systems, industrial networks, remote I/O, operator interfaces, and approved cybersecurity architectures; support appropriate separation among equipment controls, plant controls, protection systems, and other safety functions.
Review supplier designs, calculations, drawings, software, test procedures, and technical submittals for compliance with project requirements.
Support supplier evaluations, procurement specifications, design reviews, inspections, test witnessing, factory and site acceptance testing, load testing, installation, commissioning, startup, and turnover.
Develop or review acceptance criteria, test plans, procedures, reports, and resolution documentation for design changes, nonconformances, and corrective actions.
Support troubleshooting, operability evaluations, root-cause analysis, corrective actions, reliability improvement, and lifecycle management of assigned systems.
Maintain traceability among requirements, design outputs, interfaces, software implementation, and verification activities; evaluate and implement design changes under applicable change-control processes.
Coordinate control-system interfaces with process, mechanical, electrical, nuclear, operations, cybersecurity, and other disciplines; perform or support design verification and technical reviews.
Mentor engineers and contribute to technical standards, reusable designs, control libraries, test methods, lessons learned, and training.
Develop, configure, review, test, and implement industrial control software, including control logic, sequences, equipment controls, permissives, interlocks, alarms, diagnostics, and fault-response functions.
Develop or support HMI and supervisory-control functionality, software test environments, code peer reviews, and controlled software installation, commissioning, turnover, and lifecycle maintenance.
Lead technical reviews, design discussions, troubleshooting, and resolution of complex control-system issues; review other engineers’ work and provide technical guidance without formal personnel-management duties.
Perform other duties as assigned.