Control systems engineer

This occupation is found in cross sectors such as aerospace, automotive, maritime defence, logistics, oil, gas and other processing Industries. Employers may be directly involved in these activities or as a service provider, original equipment manufacturer or approved solutions provider in large or small to medium organisations providing services such as systems integration, service, maintenance and repair or technical consultancy. The control systems contain software algorithms which monitor information about the activities under control, make decisions based on this information, and then instruct machines or equipment to modify their activities, ensuring that they are performed as required and in a controlled, safe and repeatable manner. Each control system is unique to a plant and typically consist of complex combinations of electrical or electronic hardware and dedicated software. They typically use mechanical, electrical and fluid power to drive physical machines (for example conveyors, lifters and part handling machines) or process equipment units (for example distillation columns and separators).

Within the product manufacturing industry, control system engineers are concerned with the control of automated production processes to manage the interaction of machines or robotics with the products being assembled or parts being utilised for assembly. The process manufacturing industry is concerned with the measurement and control of factors such as pressure, flow and level etc. of products in a process plant.

This occupation will give employers the ability to maintain, update, modify and continually improve their operational capacity and capability.

The broad purpose of the occupation is to be able to plan and lead projects and other relevant programmes of work that involves process improvement, problem solving and maintenance including complex fault finding activities in order to optimise control systems. Depending on the nature and size of organisation Control System Engineers may also be involved in the system design or the installation, testing and commissioning of any new or modified systems.

A control systems engineer is a multi-skilled role specialising in engineering systems that are used to monitor and control manufacturing or process operations, working across a range of equipment such as Programmable Logic Controllers, Human Machine Interfaces, Robots and Industrial Networks in discreet or process manufacturing environments. The use of physical tools, software tools and test or diagnostic instruments, are fundamental to carrying out tasks associated with designing, testing, building, installing, pre commissioning, commissioning and maintaining or servicing of control systems and any associated equipment.

In their daily work, an employee in this occupation interacts with a multi-disciplinary team for example as a leader or member of a specialist project team, maintenance, installation or commissioning team that will work alongside other stakeholders for such as design engineers, manufacturing engineers, quality engineers, production engineers, cost engineers or procurement managers. Typically this occupation is plant based with some office work. Some sectors may require the control system engineer to work outside, such as in a processing plant.

An employee in this occupation will be responsible for ensuring the optimisation of control systems, equipment integrity, reliability, availability and compliance with relevant standards and or directives. Supporting outages, shutdowns and maintenance or servicing activities and providing specialist problem solving, technical back up and support for other engineers. Monitoring of the operation of these systems can be carried out either within in-situ control rooms or in certain cases remotely such as via web based, digital, GPRS based mobile communications.

Control systems engineers will also be responsible for identifying and supporting opportunities for cost savings, efficiency and business improvement. A control systems engineer will work both autonomously and as part of a team reporting to a senior manager or director, depending on the programme of work, projects undertaken and organisation size. They will exercise considerable judgement and autonomy for the work they undertake coupled with a high-level of personal decision making and influence, setting out recommendations and potential options to the employer or customer.