Staff Process Instrumentation and Controls Engineer

Commonwealth Fusion Systems•Devens, MA

4d•Onsite

About The Position

Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) is seeking a Staff Engineer for the Plant Instrumentation and Control (PIC) team to prepare for the ARC era. The goal is to establish design, development, and construction standards, create a standard control signal processing platform, and develop norms that limit the variety of sensors, control devices, and communication protocols. This will ensure consistent and reproducible ARC I&C design, development, procurement, installation, and commissioning approaches that can be used with multiple supply and construction partners globally. The role involves working with various engineering groups to improve standards for component selection, labeling, cable codes, and documentation. It also includes developing a standard I&C architecture platform, standard control cabinet designs, and guidance documents for cabling and grounding. The position requires developing processes to limit the variety of communication protocols and device types, incorporating lessons learned from SPARC, and improving integration between CFS design systems. Additionally, the role involves defining IT/OT boundaries, developing metrology standards, monitoring PIC system performance, and establishing I&C continuous work processes for the ARC era. The engineer will also qualify instrumentation for extreme environments, oversee DCS/PLC hardware integration, provide technical guidance, design training programs, act as an I&C SME for HAZOP/LOPA studies, and ensure reliability and safety standards are integrated into designs.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree an Engineering, Process, Electrical or related field
10+ years' experience in process, chemical, electronic and/or instrumentation and control engineering
Designed, built, installed, commissioned, and operated industrial control systems with interlocks and protection functions from concept to completion under a QA program
Selected, specified, procured, installed, commissioned, and calibrated instrumentation and control components
Experience translating R&D projects into standardized, repeatable engineering processes for global expansion
Familiarity with and ability to interpret industry standards and adapt/apply them to CFS’ needs
Knowledge of current state of the art options for industrial automation and control systems
Skills in developing various diagrams and documentation to document the controls design
Skill in calculating data throughput needs, cabinet power and heat loads, and other similar calculations needed to ensure system design capabilities and limitations
Skill in developing cost estimates and schedules
Perform activities such as typing or sitting for extended periods of time
Dedication to safety to mitigate hazards that may include heat, cold, noise, fumes, strong magnets, lead, high voltage, and cryogenics

Nice To Haves

Understanding of the safety risks of the several various high energy systems in the ARC design, and how to mitigate these risks in the design of the I&C systems
Familiarity with Siemens SIMATIC S7 and Beckhoff product ranges and the in-house CFS designed (e.g. Fast controller) designs for incorporation into the I&C base architecture design
Familiarity with AVEVA, Team Center, NX, Odoo, and other various CFS systems
Experience in I&C project management, through new plant development, build, start-up, commissioning, operations, & decommissioning
Experience in I&C engineering in the power generation sector
Experience in I&C system auditing practices & procedures
Experience in I&C system design planning at regional/global engineering level
Knowledge of how to perform a FMECA
Knowledge of industry standards for project planning, management, and execution

Responsibilities

Work both within the team and with other engineering groups to establish and/or improve existing standards, norms and processes for tasks such as selecting components, labeling components and cables, cable and wire color codes, issuing documents to vendors and installers, etc.
Work with the software team and the electronics team to develop a standard I&C architecture platform for a majority of the control systems in ARC
Develop standard control cabinet designs to improve consistency for cabinet build, cabinet installation and wiring, and cabinet modifications and maintenance
Develop guidance documents for issues such as when to use individual cables versus multicore cables, selecting among various types of cable entry into cabinets, determine where and how to ground cable shields, etc.
Develop guidance and processes to limit the variety of communication protocols, sensor and control devices types, sensor and control device vendors, etc. to provide more consistency to the I&C designs
Review lessons learned from the SPARC era and determine how to incorporate them into the various standards and guidance documents to minimize repeating any adverse lessons learned and to promote any advantageous lessons learned
Work with other teams to determine the best path for creating better integration between AVEVA, Team Center, NX, Odoo, and other various CFS design, development, and documentation systems
Work with IT/OT teams to define boundaries, roles, and responsibilities for interactions between I&C / SCADA equipment and connected plant services
Develop metrology standards for ARC era & manage SPARC operational metrology framework
Monitor performance of PIC installed systems post SPARC commissioning, develop reliability insights
Develop standards framework I&C continuous work processes in ARC era, including system definition & governance, long term lifecycle planning, management of change, verification, & audit
Engineer and qualify instrumentation for high-risk or extreme environments, such as cryogenic services, high-voltage systems, or molten salt transfer
Oversee the design & integration of DCS/PLC hardware and industrial systems platforms to create a cohesive, scalable, unified automation network
Provide technical guidance to cross-functional system owners and lead multi-disciplinary teams to foster an environment of innovation and high-quality results
Design and deliver training programs for technicians and junior engineers on control systems & instrumentation to prepare regional teams for plant handovers
Act as a technical advisor to system owners, ensuring that reliability and safety standards are integrated into hardware designs from the earliest R&D phases
Serve as the I&C subject matter expert (SME) during HAZOP (Hazard and Operability) and LOPA (Layer of Protection Analysis) studies