Controls Engineer — Industrial Automation

General Motors Company; Iowa; On-site; USD 90,000 - 135,000; Full time

Job summary

General Motors is seeking Controls Engineers to design, integrate, commission, and sustain industrial automation systems across manufacturing operations, including vehicle assembly, powertrain, robotics, and plant-floor networks.

This role emphasizes safety, quality, and continuous improvement, applying GM standards to deliver robust control solutions and drive manufacturing excellence.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Controls Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Mechatronics, Computer Engineering, Automation Engineering, or related discipline.
• Experience with industrial controls, automation, manufacturing equipment, systems integration, or related engineering.
• Ability to read electrical schematics, controls architecture, equipment layouts, and related documentation.
• Demonstrated analytical, troubleshooting, problem‑solving, and decision‑making skills.
• Ability to work effectively with cross‑functional teams, suppliers, plant personnel, and distributed engineering organizations.
• Strong written and verbal communication, organization, planning, and project execution skills.
• Commitment to a safe, inclusive, and collaborative work environment.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, integrate, commission, validate, and sustain industrial controls and automation systems used in manufacturing operations.
• Translate manufacturing, equipment, safety, quality, delivery, and production requirements into practical controls solutions.
• Develop or review controls hardware and software designs, including PLCs, HMIs, robots, drives, safety systems, industrial networks, machine vision, error proofing, and plant-floor interfaces.
• Support equipment and process development from early concept, investment studies, and supplier design reviews through build, offline testing, installation, commissioning, production launch, and steady‑state support.
• Collaborate with Manufacturing Engineering, Product Engineering, plant operations, maintenance, quality, safety, information technology, suppliers, and other cross‑functional teams.
• Troubleshoot complex equipment and process issues, perform root‑cause analysis, and drive corrective actions through closure.
• Review supplier deliverables and support equipment buyoffs, system integration, reverification, acceptance testing, and production readiness activities.
• Apply GM standards, templates, engineering tools, and standardized work to improve safety, quality, cost, timing, maintainability, and commonality across programs and facilities.
• Coordinate project scope, timing, risks, issues, technical deliverables, and stakeholder communications.
• Document designs, decisions, lessons learned, and standardized work; share knowledge with engineers, suppliers, and plant teams.
• Contribute to continuous improvement, technology development, emulation, simulation, digital manufacturing, and factory‑of‑the‑future initiatives as applicable.
• Provide technical direction, mentoring, training, or work coordination for less‑experienced engineers and project resources as appropriate to the role.

Skills

Analytical problem‑solving

Troubleshooting

Cross‑functional collaboration

Communication

Project execution

Safety & inclusion

Reading electrical schematics

Education

Electrical/Controls Engineering degree

Tools

Rockwell/Allen‑Bradley

Siemens

PLC/HMI/Robot technologies

Industrial Ethernet/Fieldbus

Job description

General Motors is seeking Controls Engineers to design, integrate, commission, and sustain industrial automation systems across manufacturing operations, including vehicle assembly, powertrain, robotics, and plant-floor networks.

This role emphasizes safety, quality, and continuous improvement, applying GM standards to deliver robust control solutions and drive manufacturing excellence.