Senior Controls & Automation Lead — Drilling & Marine

Patterson-UTI; Houston (TX); On-site; USD 180,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Patterson-UTI seeks a Manager, Controls and Automation to lead development, deployment, and lifecycle support of controls and automation systems. You will directly manage Field Engineers and coordinate with development teams for Wrench and Catwalk deployments, ensuring reliability across drilling, marine, and BESS applications.

You will own sustaining support, drive technical leadership, mentor engineers, and oversee PLC, HMI, and drive-system integration across multiple projects while upholding

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering or related field; equivalent experience considered.
• 5+ years of PLC programming and HMI development experience.
• 5+ years of generator-controls and power-distribution-system experience.
• Experience supervising and developing engineering or field-service personnel.
• Proficiency with Profibus, Profinet, Modbus, and CANBUS communication protocols.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Controls and Automation function and directly manage all Field Engineers, including work assignment and performance management.
• Oversee development, testing, deployment, and maintenance of PLC, HMI, and related control-system hardware/software.
• Translate requirements into system architecture and scalable implementation plans.
• Coordinate cross-functional teams for lifecycle support and urgent software updates.
• Manage sustaining support for Wrench and Catwalk and coordinate defect tracking and releases.
• Lead root-cause analysis of failures and implement corrective actions.

Skills

PLC programming

HMI development

Leadership

Project management

Technical communication

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering

Tools

Siemens Step 7

TIA Portal

Modbus

Profinet

CANBUS

Job description

Patterson-UTI seeks a Manager, Controls and Automation to lead development, deployment, and lifecycle support of controls and automation systems. You will directly manage Field Engineers and coordinate with development teams for Wrench and Catwalk deployments, ensuring reliability across drilling, marine, and BESS applications.

You will own sustaining support, drive technical leadership, mentor engineers, and oversee PLC, HMI, and drive-system integration across multiple projects while upholding