Principal PLC Engineer

About the role:

The Principal PLC Engineer is the senior-most technical expert within Divcon’s PLC Engineering team. This is a high-impact individual contributor role responsible for setting the technical direction, standards, architecture, and quality expectations for PLC engineering across the team.

The Principal PLC Engineer reports to the PLC Engineering Manager. The PLC Engineering Manager owns people management, staffing, performance management, and delivery oversight, while the Principal PLC Engineer owns technical excellence, engineering standards, complex technical decision-making, and advanced coaching across the PLC Engineering function.

This role is expected to have deeper PLC engineering expertise and may serve as a dotted-line technical coach for Associate PLC Engineers, PLC Engineers, Senior PLC Engineers, and Lead PLC Engineers.

Key Responsibilities:

Technical Authority & Architecture

• Serve as the senior-most technical authority for PLC engineering standards, architecture, programming practices, and complex technical decisions.
• Set and maintain PLC programming standards, code review expectations, documentation requirements, reusable code libraries, templates, naming conventions, and best practices.
• Lead architectural decisions for new, complex, high-risk, or highly visible projects.
• Define scalable PLC control strategies, redundancy approaches, I/O structures, network design principles, alarm strategies, and system recovery methods.
• Serve as the final technical escalation point for complex PLC programming, troubleshooting, commissioning, integration, and field issues.
• Stay current on major PLC platforms, automation technologies, control system trends, and relevant innovations that can improve Divcon’s engineering capabilities.

Standards, Governance & Quality

• Own the technical quality bar for PLC engineering deliverables across the team.
• Establish and improve code review processes, design review practices, technical validation methods, and project turnover standards.
• Conduct or oversee technical reviews at key project milestones.
• Ensure PLC solutions are reliable, maintainable, scalable, supportable, and aligned with Divcon standards and customer requirements.
• Drive continuous improvement in how the PLC Engineering team programs, tests, documents, commissions, and delivers PLC solutions.
• Partner with SCADA, SCA, field, commissioning, project management, and other engineering counterparts to ensure technical consistency at integration points.

Highest-Risk Project Contributions

• Take ownership of the most technically demanding, complex, ambiguous, or highest-risk PLC engineering challenges.
• Provide technical complexity assessments during project scoping, estimating, and planning.
• Support project teams in defining control strategies for large-scale data center, central plant, HVAC, mechanical, electrical, and critical infrastructure systems.
• Guide resolution of severe or time-sensitive technical issues during start-up, commissioning, customer acceptance, and post-deployment support.
• Advise Lead PLC Engineers on technical approach, architecture, project risk, and issue resolution.

Mentorship, Coaching & Team Development

• Provide advanced technical mentorship to Lead PLC Engineers, Senior PLC Engineers, PLC Engineers, and Associate PLC Engineers.
• Act as a dotted-line technical coach for the PLC Engineering team while remaining outside the people-management chain.
• Partner with the PLC Engineering Manager to identify skill gaps, define development priorities, and build structured technical development plans.
• Lead or organize internal technical training sessions, code walkthroughs, architecture reviews, lessons-learned sessions, and best-practice discussions.
• Create an environment where engineers feel comfortable bringing forward difficult technical problems, design questions, and escalation needs.
• Support onboarding and technical ramp-up for new PLC Engineering team members.

Cross-Functional & Client-Facing Technical Leadership

• Represent Divcon’s highest level of PLC technical expertise in client-facing meetings, design reviews, technical escalations, and strategic discussions.
• Partner with project managers, engineering managers, SCADA engineers, SCA engineers, field technicians, commissioning teams, vendors, contractors, and system integrators to ensure seamless delivery.
• Translate complex technical issues into clear recommendations for both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Influence technical decisions without relying on formal management authority.
• Help build Divcon’s reputation for technical excellence in PLC engineering, critical infrastructure controls, and data center automation.

Qualifications:

Required

• 10+ years of hands-on PLC programming, controls engineering, or industrial automation experience; 8+ years may be considered for exceptional candidates with strong technical depth.
• Deep expertise with Rockwell / Allen-Bradley Studio 5000 and related automation tools.
• Expertise in at least one additional major PLC platform, SCADA platform, or industrial automation ecosystem strongly preferred.
• Proven experience designing, programming, troubleshooting, and commissioning complex PLC control systems in industrial, mission-critical, or large-scale facility environments.
• Demonstrated ability to solve complex, time-sensitive technical problems in the field.
• Experience developing or governing PLC programming standards, reusable code libraries, architecture patterns, documentation practices, and code review processes.
• Experience mentoring, coaching, or technically leading engineers at multiple levels.
• Strong understanding of industrial communication protocols such as Ethernet/IP, Modbus TCP, BACnet/IP, OPC-UA, and related integration methods.
• Strong documentation habits and commitment to repeatable, maintainable, scalable engineering practices.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to influence engineers, managers, clients, vendors, contractors, and cross-functional partners.

Preferred

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Automation Engineering, Software Engineering, Mechatronics, or equivalent experience.
• Experience in data centers, hyperscale infrastructure, mission-critical facilities, central plants, or high-availability environments.
• Experience with redundant PLC architectures, high-availability control systems, controller failover strategies, and resilient automation design.
• Familiarity with Ignition SCADA, Kepware, HMIs, historian configuration, OPC connectivity, BMS, EPMS, and facility integration platforms.
• Experience in a systems integrator or engineering services environment.
• Exposure to OT cybersecurity, functional safety standards, commissioning standards, or regulated critical environments.
• Industry certifications such as Rockwell Automation, Siemens, ISA, Ignition, or related automation credentials.

Physical Requirements:

• Sit and/or stand for extended periods (typically 6-8 hours per day) while performing computer-based tasks and facility support tasks.
• Use hands and fingers to operate standard office equipment, including computers, keyboards, mice, telephones, scanners and printers.
• Occasionally stand, walk, bend, stoop, or reach to access filing cabinets, retrieve documents, or attend meetings.
• Lift, carry, push, or pull light objects and materials weighing up to 20-25 pounds (e.g., boxes of files or office supplies).
• Have sufficient vision (with or without correction) to read computer screens, printed documents, and small print; and sufficient hearing to communicate effectively by phone and in person.
• Work in a typical indoor office environment with moderate noise levels from office equipment, conversations, and occasional interruptions.