Principal, Controls SME

Hut 8; St. Francisville (LA); On-site; USD 110,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Hut 8 is seeking a Controls SME to join its Managed Services for data center infrastructure projects. You will lead operability design reviews, oversee vendor work, and drive commissioning activities to ensure reliable, testable control systems across critical facilities.

In this role you will verify turnover packages, implement change-control processes, and train Operations staff. You will collaborate with cross-functional teams to implement Hut 8 standards and drive continuous improvements in

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or trade certification in a related field.
• 7+ years of controls programming, start-up and commissioning.
• Experience in critical environments and facility operations.
• Ability to read blueprints, CAD drawings, and control diagrams.
• Turnover documentation rigor and version control.

Responsibilities

• Perform operability design reviews of controls systems.
• Provide QA/QC and vendor oversight for new construction and retrofits.
• Lead construction-phase verification and commissioning activities.
• Ensure turnover packages are complete with backups and documentation.
• Deliver training to Facility Operations staff and capture lessons learned.

Skills

Controls experience

Commissioning

Turnover docs

Vendor coordination

Education

Bachelor's degree or trade certification

Tools

SCADA

BMS/BAS

EPMS

PLC programming

Job description

Hut 8 brings exceptional people together to solve the world’s most consequential problems at the intersection of energy and technology. Today, that means building infrastructure for AI at a pace and scale without precedent. Tomorrow, it could mean powering a new era of innovation through robotics, advanced manufacturing, or an industry that does not yet exist. Whatever the technology demands, our ambition holds: to build the defining physical infrastructure company of our generation.

We look for thinkers and builders with the rigor, humility, and ownership to solve problems at this scale. They start from zero and choose truth over tradition. They back the best idea, whatever its source. They bet on themselves and embrace the hard truths that force them to grow. Our commitment is to keep the path from idea to execution short, trust them with critical decisions and the work that follows, and surround them with colleagues whose curiosity extends beyond their expertise.

ABOUT THE ROLE

The Controls SME is Managed Services' controls and automation expert, embedded in a data centerbuild. The role supports design review, vendor oversight, and commissioning to make sure thecontrol systems are operable, maintainable, and trustworthy at turnover. Controls are the facility'snervous system: when they fail or mislead, operators lose sight of everything else.

Some of the key responsibilities you should expect are the following:

Operability Design Review

Review controls designs, including BMS/BAS, EPMS, SCADA, PLC-based plant controls, CDU andcooling plant controls, and generator, UPS, and switchgear controller integration, through anoperations lens. Sequences of operations, failure-mode and fail-safe behavior, loss-of-network andloss-of-controller response, manual and local override, point lists and instrumentation adequacy,alarm philosophy and prioritization, graphics clarity, and OT network architecture and accesscontrol. Push back where the design assumes an operator will understand or recover something thesystem never tells them.

Controls QA/QC and Vendor Oversight

Provide QA/QC oversight of controls scope for new construction and retrofits: review vendorproposals and programming, directly oversee system configuration and component upgrades, andwitness factory tests. Hold controls vendors to Hut 8 standards and to the approved sequences, andmake sure every modification to a system follows change control.

Construction-Phase Verification

Walk controls installations at key milestones. Flag operability and quality issues to the MEPsuperintendent early, while they are still cheap to fix.

Commissioning

Witness Level 3-5 commissioning of controls and automation: point-to-point verification, sequence-of-operations testing, controller, server, and network failover, alarm verification, trend validation,and integrated systems testing across mechanical, electrical, and controls, including loss-of-communication and loss-of-BMS scenarios. Review programming through the commissioningprocess, drive operational findings into the Cx log with clear acceptance criteria, and verify closurepersonally.

Turnover Readiness

Verify controls turnover packages: as-built sequences of operation, point lists, control and networkdrawings, programming backups and configuration files under version control, licenses andcredentials transferred to Hut 8, alarm setpoint and priority matrices, trend baselines, sparecontrollers and critical modules, and PM program inputs such as backup routines, firmwareupdates, and panel power health. Confirm the backups actually restore.

Training

Provide technical controls training and support to Facility Operations staff, and validate thatoperator training equips the team to use the systems, not just look at them.

Program Feedback

Feed operational lessons into Hut 8 controls standards, point naming and alarm conventions, andthe next project's basis of design, and work with other Hut 8 sites and teams to carry standardsacross the portfolio.

ABOUT YOU

What we're looking for:

• 7+ years of controls experience in programming, start-up, and commissioning of complexsystems such as central plants, air handling units, and evaporative cooling and humidificationsystems. A bachelor's degree or trade certification in a related field plus 3+ years of controlsindustry experience will be considered in lieu.
• Experience in critical environments, with a working knowledge of critical facility operationsand procedure-based work.
• Theoretical and practical understanding of control equipment and systems: design,maintenance, troubleshooting, testing, and construction.
• Working knowledge of the mechanical, electrical, and life safety systems found in criticalfacilities.
• Sequence-of-operations fluency: you can read one critically, catch the gaps and failure modes,and test whether it behaves as written.
• Experience interpreting blueprints, CAD drawings, and controls diagrams.
• Turnover documentation rigor, especially programming backups, configuration files, andversion control.
• Comfortable embedded with a construction team while holding the operations line, andeffective in a highly collaborative, cross-functional environment.

Preferred:

• PLC programming experience
• IT or networking certification
• Equipment field service engineering or manufacturer representative experience.
• Demonstrated use of AI tools to improve workflows with measurable results, such as efficiencygains or quality improvements.

ABOUT THE WORK ENVIRONMENT

- Full time on-site role.