Electrical Engineer

MCA - Alpolic; Chesapeake (VA); On-site; USD 95,000 - 119,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive benefits

Benefits begin on DAY 1!

Learning & development programs

Job summary

MCA - Alpolic is seeking an Electrical Engineer to lead plant-level engineering for electrical power, controls, and automation in a continuous manufacturing environment. The role partners with maintenance, production, HSE, IT, vendors, and contractors to troubleshoot chronic failures, design upgrades, and improve asset reliability.

Design, program, and support PLC/HMI platforms (Allen-Bradley, Mitsubishi, Siemens), develop documentation, and ensure safe, compliant installations.

Qualifications

• Industrial electrical and control systems experience.
• Strong troubleshooting and upgrade design capabilities.
• Experience with PLCs, HMIs, drives, and field devices.

Responsibilities

• Design, specify, modify, and support electrical/control systems.
• Program and troubleshoot PLC/ HMI platforms.
• Lead or support equipment upgrades, installations, and commissioning.
• Coordinate with cross-functional teams for safe, compliant projects.
• Develop and maintain documentation and standards.
• Support safety, risk, and compliance activities.

Skills

Electrical engineering

Controls engineering

Automation

PLC programming

SCADA/OT coordination

Tools

Allen-Bradley PLC

Mitsubishi PLC

Siemens PLC/HMI

Ignition SCADA

Job description

Company: MCA - Alpolic Job Description: The Electrical Engineer provides plant-level engineering for electrical power, controls, automation, and equipment-reliability needs in a continuous manufacturing environment. The role partners daily with Engineering, Maintenance, Production, HSE, Quality, Information Technology, vendors, and contractors to safely troubleshoot chronic failures; design and execute upgrades; improve equipment availability; and ensure electrical and controls systems are documented, maintainable, secure, and aligned with company standards. The position combines hands‑on field support with disciplined engineering analysis, project execution, commissioning, and technical stewardship of production assets and facility systems.

Electrical, Controls, and Automation Engineering

Design, specify, modify, and support industrial electrical and control systems, including power distribution, motor‑control equipment, PLCs, HMIs, variable‑frequency and DC drives, instrumentation, sensors, industrial networks, and machine‑safety interfaces. Develop control narratives, functional requirements, I/O lists, panel layouts, schematics, network architecture, bills of material, and installation work packages appropriate to project scope. Program, configure, troubleshoot, and improve Allen‑Bradley, Mitsubishi, and Siemens PLC/HMI platforms and associated drive systems. Support legacy systems while developing practical migration and obsolescence plans. Support SCADA and operational‑technology systems, including Ignition integration, historian/data requirements, Ethernet/IP communications, managed switches, device addressing, time synchronization, and coordination across IT/OT boundaries. Perform disciplined diagnostics using electrical drawings, PLC logic, trend data, drive fault history, network diagnostics, and field measurements. Change one variable at a time when practicable and preserve rollback capability. Maintain validated backups of PLC, HMI, drive, SCADA, and network configurations. Control access and changes in accordance with company requirements.

Reliability and Maintenance Support

Partner with electricians, mechanics, planners, and production personnel to troubleshoot breakdowns, analyze equipment and component failures, and restore equipment safely and efficiently. Lead or support root‑cause investigations for recurring electrical, controls, communication, and process‑equipment failures. Translate findings into prioritized corrective actions with defined owners and verification of effectiveness. Improve preventive and predictive maintenance tasks for electrical assets, controls hardware, motors, drives, panels, field devices, and network infrastructure. Recommend condition‑monitoring methods and replacement intervals based on risk and failure history. Review CMMS history, downtime data, alarms, work orders, and spare‑parts usage to identify reliability opportunities and bad actors. Develop critical‑spare recommendations and technical specifications; support vendor selection, repair‑versus‑replace decisions, and lifecycle planning for obsolete or supported equipment. Provide technical escalation support during significant equipment events and participate in the on‑call rotation or planned weekend work after appropriate orientation and training.

Projects, Installation, and Commissioning

Develop project scopes, alternatives, estimates, schedules, risk assessments, and technical justifications for capital and expense projects. Lead or support equipment upgrades, installations, and modifications from concept through startup, including design reviews, procurement support, factory or site acceptance testing, commissioning, punch‑list closure, and turnover to operations and maintenance. Coordinate multidisciplinary work involving mechanical systems, process requirements, electrical installation, controls integration, networking, utilities, and production constraints. Ensure projects include appropriate machine guarding, interlocks, alarms, maintainability, safe access, energy‑isolation provisions, and required documentation before final acceptance. Monitor project cost and schedule; review technical quotations, purchase requisitions, change orders, invoices, and contractor deliverables within assigned authority. Plan cutovers and startups with clear prerequisites, contingency plans, backups, rollback points, communications, and post‑startup monitoring.

Safety, Risk, and Compliance

Integrate safety into design and troubleshooting activities through hazard review, risk assessment, management of change, pre‑startup review, safe‑work planning, and verification of safeguards. Follow and reinforce lockout/tagout, electrical safe‑work practices, arc‑flash requirements, energized‑work restrictions, line‑of‑fire controls, PPE requirements, and machine‑startup procedures. Immediately escape any condition that may affect a safety function, required interlock, protective device, environmental control, or stable process control. Do not leave undocumented bypasses, jumpers, temporary addressing, or temporary network equipment in service. Support incident investigations, cause mapping, corrective‑action development, regulatory or management‑system audits, and closure of electrical or engineering findings. Ensure contractor work is properly scoped, permitted, coordinated, monitored, and completed in accordance with site safety and technical standards.

Documentation, Standards, and Team Capability

Create and maintain accurate electrical one‑lines, schematics, panel drawings, loop diagrams, network drawings, device/IP registers, software revision records, equipment files, and as‑built documentation. Apply document control and revision practices so field systems, drawings, code, and configuration records remain aligned. Develop troubleshooting guides, technical procedures, standards, job plans, and training materials for electricians and maintenance personnel. Coach technicians in systematic troubleshooting, PLC/HMI navigation, drive diagnostics, electrical drawings, controls documentation, and safe work practices without substituting for required qualification or authorization. Communicate technical risks, options, recommendations, and project status clearly to both technical and non‑technical stakeholders. Participate in continuous‑improvement, reliability, capital‑planning, and manufacturing‑systems roadmap activities. Perform other related duties as assigned. Other duties as assigned by department manager.

Pay Transparency

The salary range for this position is $95,300 - $119,100. Factors such as scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate's work experience, education/training, job‑related skills, internal peer equity, as well as market and business considerations may influence base pay offered. This salary will be subject to a geographic adjustment (according to a specific city and state), if an authorization is granted to work outside of the location listed in this posting.

Competitive Benefits

• Benefits begin on DAY 1!
• Employee Assistance Programs
• Curated Self‑Paced Learning & Development Programs for all Employees