Staff Controls & Automation Engineer

Job description

### **Company Overview** Mainspring Energy is revolutionizing power generation with the world’s most flexible and adaptable local power generation technology, the Mainspring Linear Generator. Commercial, industrial, and utility leaders are choosing Mainspring over traditional options like engines, turbines, and fuel cells to quickly and reliably deliver local power for EV charging, commercial facilities, data centers, and grid-scale operations. The Mainspring Linear Generator is fuel flexible, ramps up and down to meet demand, and utilizes a flameless reaction with near-zero NOx emissions. Backed by top-tier investors including Khosla Ventures, Bill Gates, American Electric Power, Lightrock, and General Catalyst Mainspring designs, manufactures and delivers its products to customers across the U.S. today, and we’re quickly scaling for international expansion. Inspired by our vision of the affordable, reliable, net-zero carbon grid, Mainspring is rapidly expanding within the $816B global electricity equipment market, and we’re hiring the best talent to meet growing customer demand around the globe. We welcome a broad range of backgrounds, experiences, and talents to bring fresh perspectives and ongoing innovation to our customers. We are looking to build relationships with people who share our values: **Pragmatic Optimism.** Building a new category of world-class power generation requires the optimism of ambition and creativity, balanced with practicality to solve problems efficiently. The challenges that arise are opportunities for growth. **Excellence without Ego.** We bring expertise and commitment to creating the best customer experience, from sales to deployment and service, just as we apply deep technical rigor to building and delivering world-class products. We strive for excellence and behave as leaders with the humility to acknowledge our challenges, both collectively and as individual contributors. **Proactive Collaboration.** The integration and cross-disciplinary nature of Mainspring’s business requires intentionally seeking out others who bring different skills, perspectives, and priorities. Our culture of inclusion and respect extends beyond our team to interactions with our partners and customers. More information can be found at [](http://www.mainspringenergy.com/) ### **Job Overview** As a **Staff Controls and Automation Engineer**, you will be the technical lead for the entire lifecycle of control and execution systems, from initial concept to scalable manufacturing deployment. This involves architecting intelligent manufacturing systems and managing them through feasibility assessments and production. A key focus is on developing automation solutions that effectively balance demanding deterministic control needs with modern software engineering practices. This includes emphasizing modular design, utilizing version control, conducting code reviews, and enforcing disciplined change management to significantly improve the development, testing, and deployment of control software. While the role is grounded in traditional industrial automation, there is a strong drive for this modernization. ### Key Responsibilities - **System Leadership and Scaling:** Lead the design, development, and deployment of control systems, ensuring they are scalable for the manufacturing environment - **External Collaboration and Quality Assurance:** Directly engage with external contractors, system integrators, and equipment vendors to engineer and build automated equipment. You must collaborate with both internal and external teams to guarantee adherence to equipment standards - **Testing and Compliance:** Mandate and oversee the execution of Factory Acceptance Tests (FATs) and Site Acceptance Tests (SATs) to secure the delivery of compliant, high-quality control systems - **Project Management and Mentorship:** Oversee multiple concurrent projects and provide essential technical guidance and mentorship to junior engineering staff ### Required Qualifications - A Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent practical experience in automation - 7 - 15 or more years of hands-on experience with control systems within an industrial automation or manufacturing equipment environment - Extensive, practical experience in PLC programming and troubleshooting, with proficiency in Beckhoff (required) ,Codesys ,Schneider Electric , Allen Bradley - Demonstrated expertise in supporting existing automated manufacturing equipment or production lines, including in-line troubleshooting of electrical systems, control panels, field devices, and safety interlock circuits - Proven capacity to collaborate with external contractors and equipment vendors for the design, build, installation, and commissioning of future manufacturing automation - Robust practical electrical troubleshooting proficiencies, encompassing the ability to read, interpret, and review electrical schematics, diagrams, and blueprints - Experience independently executing and supporting SCADA/HMI systems (such as Ignition Perspective, Siemens WinCC, or Rockwell FTView ME) - Experience integrating robotics (e.g., FANUC) and vision systems (e.g., Keyence and Cognex) ### Preferred Qualifications - Experience in the design and programming of MES data transactions and PLC product tracking - Experience configuring Operational Technology (OT) networks (e.g., managed network switches) and functional safety programming (e.g., ProfiSafe, CIP Safety, or FANUC) - Experience with advanced programming languages (Python, MATLAB), and version control software for the extraction of insights and the implementation of system control modifications