Senior Automation Controls Engineer – Space Manufacturing

Blue Origin LLC; Town of Texas (WI); Hybrid; USD 151,000 - 211,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision insurance

401(k) with company match

Paid time off & holidays

Education Support Program

Job summary

Blue Origin’s Factory Automation team designs, builds, and deploys automated manufacturing systems across facilities. The Automation Controls Engineer role spans R&D, design, build, installation, and commissioning, offering growth in technical depth and ownership across the project lifecycle.

The role requires hands‑on experience with industrial controls, safety systems, and multiple automation platforms; you will diagnose root causes and craft first‑principles solutions.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or higher in Electrical, Mechanical, Mechatronics, Controls, or related engineering field.
• Minimum 4 years of hands‑on experience developing or integrating industrial controls and automation systems, including PLC and HMI programming as core competencies.
• Exposure to industrial automation platforms across robots, material handling, CNC integration, or related tools.
• Ability to interpret and review electrical and mechanical drawings.
• Experience with safety system design including functional safety devices and safety PLCs.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with applications engineers on conceptual automated manufacturing equipment and contribute controls architecture input from concept through detailed design.
• Design and support control system architectures including network topology, I/O distribution, safety systems, and communication protocols.
• Participate in the industrial controls and electrical design of bespoke automation systems.
• Analyze system behavior with first principles to diagnose root causes and develop sound solutions.
• Develop offline simulations to validate control logic, robot paths, cycle times, before hardware readiness.
• Support online debugging and commissioning of PLC, HMI, robot, and similar controls programs.
• Integrate auxiliary equipment into unified control systems and work with installation teams.
• Lead factory and site acceptance testing and assist with startup of automated systems.
• Create controls documentation: sequences of operations, I/O lists, and network diagrams.

Skills

Controls design

Automation integration

Safety system design

Reading electrical/mechanical drawings

First principles problem solving

Education

Bachelor's degree or higher in Electrical/Mechanical/Mechatronics/Controls

Tools

Plant Simulate

Process Simulate

Visual Components

KUKA.Sim

RobotStudio

AutoCAD Electrical

EPLAN

Job description

Blue Origin’s Factory Automation team designs, builds, and deploys automated manufacturing systems across facilities. The Automation Controls Engineer role spans R&D, design, build, installation, and commissioning, offering growth in technical depth and ownership across the project lifecycle.

The role requires hands‑on experience with industrial controls, safety systems, and multiple automation platforms; you will diagnose root causes and craft first‑principles solutions.