Controls Engineer

Cetos Water; New York, Northern (NY, KY); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Full benefits

Equity commensurate with impact

New York City preferred

Job summary

Cetos Water is seeking a hands-on Controls Engineer to own the automation strategy from field instrumentation to software integration. You will architect and deploy PLC/SCADA platforms, develop a reusable control library, and drive the integration of high‑level software with core systems.

Responsibilities include translating requirements to electrical schematics, commissioning, and collaborating with EPCs to ensure successful deployments. Travel to pilot sites is expected.

Qualifications

• Experience in PLC programming across major platforms.
• Proficiency with HMI/SCADA such as Ignition.
• Background in fluids handling equipment.
• Ability to define control philosophies and system architecture.
• Experience drawing electrical schematics (EPlan/AutoCAD) and tuning PID loops.
• Willingness to travel to pilot and customer sites.

Responsibilities

• Architect and deploy scalable PLC/SCADA automation platforms from the ground up.
• Develop a standardized control system library to ensure code consistency.
• Integrate high-level software ecosystems with core control systems for data flow.
• Translate requirements into electrical schematics and panel designs using EPlan/AutoCAD.
• Lead commissioning and manage partnerships with external integrators and EPCs.

Skills

PLC programming

HMI/SCADA

Industrial process experience

Control philosophy

Electrical schematics

PID tuning

Tools

Allen-Bradley

Siemens

Beckhoff

Ignition

Job description

Own the control systems that turn a customer's brine into a working system.

You will own the automation strategy, from the field instrumentation up to the high-level software integration. This is a hands‑on role where you will be responsible for system architecture, PLC/HMI/SCADA development, and the electrical design that drives our process hardware.You will work directly with our process and science teams to ensure control loops, logic, and hardware are optimized for hypersaline environments. You will report to the Head of Engineering.

WHAT YOU WILL DO

• Architect and deploy robust, scalable PLC/SCADA automation platforms from the ground up.
• Spearhead control system software library development to standardize structures and drive code consistency.
• Integrate high-level software ecosystems with core control systems for seamless data flow and operational efficiency.
• Translate requirements into detailed electrical schematics and control panel designs using EPlan or AutoCAD.
• Drive hands‑on commissioning efforts and manage key partnerships with external integrators and EPCs to ensure deployment success.

WHAT YOU WILL BRING

• Proficiency in Allen Bradley, Siemens, Beckhoff, or other PLC programming environments..
• Experience in Ignition or other HMI/SCADA platforms.
• Proven track record in industrial process environments, with specific experience in fluids handling equipment.
• A strategic, big‑picture approach to defining control philosophies and system architecture.
• Demonstrated ability to create electrical schematics (EPlan/AutoCAD) and manage complex instrumentation/VFD setups.
• Hands‑on experience tuning PID loops and configuring field instrumentation for optimal performance.

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE

12 months in:

• You have architected and validated a robust, production‑ready controls library that is now successfully powering our first high‑stakes customer‑delivered pilot.
• You’ve led the end‑to‑end design integration of this pilot, establishing a modular, baseline codebase that gives us full ownership of our system’s intelligence.
• You’ve successfully bridged our core control systems with our high‑level software stack, unlocking advanced, real‑time data streaming and system control capabilities.
• You are a driving force within the research team, bridging the gap between theoretical experimentation and field‑hardened industrial reality, while actively architecting our future technical roadmap.

WHO YOU ARE

We care more about what you have built and debugged than which industry you built it in. Strong candidates may come from separations, hydrometallurgy, industrial water, specialty chemicals, or hard‑tech process development.

• 5+ years of controls engineering in an industrial setting, with experience in process equipment and ideally, fluids handling equipment
• Proven experience building and debugging automation systems from the ground up
• Experience managing the full lifecycle of control systems, from library development to field startup
• Collaborative, hands‑on, and comfortable working with integrators and EPC partners
• Willing to travel to pilot and customer sites, including remote industrial locations

COMPENSATION & STRUCTURE

• Market-based salary for the stage, with meaningful equity commensurate with impact
• Full benefits
• New York City preferred

WHY THIS ROLE

Most controls engineering jobs hand you a control philosophy someone else settled decades ago and ask you to maintain it. Here the control philosophy is still being decided, and you will decide much of it.

The loop is short. Bench result to design decision to installed equipment to field data is weeks, not years, and you will see all four ends of it. There is no layer of people between your analysis and what gets built.

Water is the binding constraint on industrial growth this decade: on mining expansion, on data center siting, on semiconductor buildout, on the energy transition itself. The infrastructure layer that unlocks it has not yet been built.