Lead Controls & Electrical Engineer

About The Role

The Lead Controls & Electrical Engineer is the senior technical authority for electrical design and controls within KSi’s Commercial Business Unit. Historically KSi’s systems were largely repeatable; Commercial projects are not — each is effectively first-of-a-kind, introducing new equipment, integrations, and requirements that cannot be copied.

This role owns that engineering judgment end to end as the final design-and-programming authority for Commercial work, so technical escalations resolve within the engineering team rather than on the BU manager’s desk. It spans KSi’s traditional PLC/HMI/SCADA stack and its emerging Python-based platform, raises the quality of electrical design output, and builds the standards, documentation, and team capability that let KSi scale novel work without single-person dependency.

Responsibilities

Design Authority & Engineering Leadership

• Serve as the final technical review and escalation point for automation design, electrical drawings, and controls programming on Commercial projects.
• Own engineering decisions on first-of-a-kind systems where no prior design can be copied; reason from fundamentals to scope new implementations and integrations.
• Provide design direction and technical support to the panel build, panel checkout, and startup/commissioning teams.
• Partner with the controls parts/BOM specialist on component selection, cross-referencing, and supply-availability risk for novel designs. Authority, Oversight & Alignment
• Hold day-to-day technical authority over electrical and traditional controls design and standards for Commercial projects.
• Final design authority for Commercial solutions rests with the Commercial Business Unit Manager; this role earns increasing autonomy as its approach is calibrated to KSi’s hardware and software standards.
• When working within the KSi Auto. Bulk solution — or any solution spanning multiple business units — operate under the oversight of the Sr. Industrial Automation Engineer, who owns that platform.
• Participate and engage in standing weekly meetings with the CTO and the Sr. Industrial Automation Engineer to keep electrical and controls standards and platform direction aligned, rather than drifting into a separate Commercial track.
• Provide technical direction and design authority to Commercial controls and electrical design staff; day-to-day people management and task prioritization remain with their direct manager. Electrical Engineering & Design Standards
• Own and continuously improve KSi’s electrical design output — schematics, panel layouts, I/O lists, network diagrams, and control documentation.
• Ensure compliance with UL 508A, CTE, and applicable electrical codes and certifications.
• Replace copy-paste drafting with adaptable, well-documented design standards and reusable libraries that flex to each Commercial project.
• Establish electrical CAD standards and review drawings produced by the design/drafting team, including a planned dedicated electrical design/drafting support role.
• Maintain BOMs, functional specifications, and design records. Controls Development — Traditional and Emerging Platforms
• Design, program, and commission PLC, HMI, and SCADA solutions for Commercial systems using KSi’s established toolset.
• Build traditional control solutions that integrate and hand off cleanly to KSi’s next-generation Python-based platform; partner with the Sr. Industrial Automation Engineer (platform owner) and grow familiarity with that environment over time.
• Integrate industrial devices, instrumentation, and protocols (Modbus, Ether. Net/IP, OPC UA, MQTT) to meet new and non-standard requirements.
• Troubleshoot and tune field equipment — sensors, actuators, VFDs, PID loops — to maximize uptime and performance. AI-Enabled Engineering
• Actively evaluate and adopt AI tools to improve engineering speed, quality, and consistency — for design, code generation and refactoring, documentation, and troubleshooting — applying sound engineering judgment to validate their output.
• Champion practical, business-driven adoption of AI and emerging tools across the Commercial engineering team, and help establish where they do and do not belong in a safety-critical controls environment. Team Capability & Knowledge Transfer
• Mentor controls and electrical staff and deliberately distribute know-how so technical capability is not concentrated in a single person.
• Document designs, decisions, standards, and troubleshooting guides as a standing expectation rather than an afterthought.
• Help scope, interview for, and onboard the planned phase-two electrical design/drafting support role.
• Build the general controls and integration know-how the Commercial team needs to handle new implementations independently. Customer & Cross-Functional Support
• Provide pre-sales technical guidance and scope and estimate Commercial solutions for sales and dealer partners.
• Support startup and commissioning onsite as needed, including during peak treating season.
• Coordinate with customer IT and networking teams on hardware, network, and security requirements.
• Travel domestically and internationally as required. ​ Requirements Required:
• UL 508A: Hands-on UL 508A panel design and electrical code compliance experience.
• Electrical design: Strong schematic, panel-layout, and BOM skills with electrical CAD (e.g., AutoCAD Electrical or EPLAN).
• Controls depth: Proficiency with PLC/HMI/SCADA platforms and the ability to program from a blank sheet, not only modify existing programs.
• Industrial networking & protocols: Able to design and troubleshoot device integrations over Modbus, Ether. Net/IP, OPC UA, and MQTT.
• Equipment & instrumentation: Solid working understanding of the mechanical equipment, sensors, and instrumentation these systems control.
• Experience: 8+ years designing, programming, and supporting industrial control systems (10+ preferred), with demonstrated ownership of complex or first-of-a-kind designs.
• Leadership & communication: Sets standards, documents clearly, and mentors others — this is a technical-authority role.
• Openness to the new platform: Willingness and aptitude to grow into KSi’s emerging Python/React control platform. You do not need to know it today — you do need to be eager to learn it. Preferred, Not Required:
• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering or a related field; equivalent hands-on experience is fully accepted in its place.
• New-stack skills: Existing experience with Python, React, relational databases, or web frameworks.
• Licensure: Professional Engineer (PE) license.

Who You Are

• A builder of standards, not just a doer of tasks — you make the next project easier, not just done.
• Comfortable being the last line of technical defense and owning the call on unfamiliar problems.
• Reasons from first principles when there is no prior design to copy.
• Generous with knowledge; you mentor and document by default.

Benefits

401(k) with Match Dental Insurance Health Insurance Life Insurance Vision Insurance Paid Time Off Flexible Schedule