Controls Engineer

Metric Geo; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work from New York

Job summary

Metric Geo is seeking a Controls Engineer for its Thermofluids & Rotating Machinery R&D team. The role focuses on developing the control architecture for a new chiller, including motor drive, expansion turbine and surrounding loop, with strong emphasis on safety interlocks and fault handling.

Responsibilities include hardware-in-the-loop validation, transitioning controls from test cells to production, and integrating with site BMS.

Qualifications

• Written control logic for rotating machinery and commissioned it on a live machine.
• Designed interlocks to protect hardware and personnel with justification from first principles.
• Conducted HIL testing that caught issues before commissioning.
• Tuned loops on a live plant and resolved model-vs-hardware discrepancies.
• Documented control system so it can be used by others at 3am.

Responsibilities

• Own the control architecture for the new chiller and its test rigs.
• Implement safety interlocks and fault handling for critical-range fluids.

Skills

Control logic

Live machine commissioning

Interlocks design

HIL testing

Loop tuning

Documentation handover

Tools

Beckhoff

Siemens

Allen-Bradley

CODESYS

Simulink

Job description

Controls Engineer, R&D - Thermofluids & Rotating Machinery

Metric Search has been retained by a rapidly scaling AI infrastructure company to find a Controls Engineer for its Thermofluids R&D team. Our client is building and operating compute capacity at a scale the cooling industry has never had to deliver, and rather than wait on a vendor base that can\'t keep up, they are taking compressor and chiller design in-house: new machine architectures, from blank sheet to production, built thousands of times over.

What you\'ll own

• The control architecture for a new chiller and its test rigs, spanning the compressor, motor drive, expansion turbine and the loop around them.
• Safety interlocks and fault handling for a machine whose working fluid can cross its critical point within the normal operating range.
• Capacity control through motor and turbine speed rather than throttling valves, keeping the process fluid path valve-free at the design point.
• Hardware-in-the-loop validation of the full control system, proving every interlock fires before it touches real hardware.
• Taking the controls from the test cell into the production chiller, including integration with site BMS and the wider plant.

What we\'re looking for

• You\'ve written control logic for rotating machinery and commissioned it on a live machine.
• You\'ve designed interlocks where a fault means destroyed hardware or an injured person, and can justify each one from first principles.
• You\'ve run HIL testing that caught something real before commissioning.
• You\'ve tuned loops on a live plant and worked out why the model and the hardware disagreed.
• You\'ve handed a control system to people who didn\'t write it, with documentation they could use at 3am.

Nice to have:

propulsion or vehicle test controls (engine sequencing, abort and safing logic); variable-speed drives and high-speed motor control (VFDs, magnetic bearing controllers); refrigeration and chiller control (superheat, head pressure, capacity staging); Beckhoff, Siemens, Allen-Bradley or CODESYS; model-based development and HIL (Simulink, dSPACE, NI VeriStand).

Why this role

• Genuine first-of-its-kind engineering: nobody sells the machine you\'ll be controlling.
• Whatever you land gets deployed at fleet scale, not left in a lab.
• Small, senior, high-autonomy team with a clear mandate and real urgency.
• Hybrid working from New York

All enquiries are treated in strict confidence.