Senior Manager Controls and Automation Software Development

Title: Senior Manager – Controls & Automation Software Development
Location: Houston, TX (Onsite Daily)
Duration: Permanent, Direct-Hire
Work Requirements: US Citizens, GC Holders or Authorized to Work in the US.


Top Skills Required:

• Previous experience managing a team of Automation & Controls Engineers
• Hands-on technical experience in the development of PLCs and HMIs, preferably from Siemens and Omron

Job Description:
The Senior Manager – Controls and Automation Software Development is responsible for leading the Controls and Automation Development team, providing the technical leadership, engineering governance, and organizational capability required to deliver safe, reliable, and scalable drilling control systems across the company's fleet.
 
This role is accountable for engineering execution, software development processes, architecture governance, software quality, release management, engineering standards, and the continuous development of a high-performing software engineering organization. The Senior Manager leads a multidisciplinary team responsible for PLC software, HMI applications, simulation, quality assurance, and software platform development.
 
Working closely with Product Management, Sustaining Engineering, and New Projects teams, this leader ensures engineering execution aligns with business priorities while maintaining the highest standards for software quality, technical excellence, and predictable delivery.
This position reports to the Director, Controls & Automation.


Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Robotics, Automation Engineering, or a related technical discipline, or equivalent industry experience.
• Minimum of 10 years of progressively responsible experience developing industrial controls software, preferably PLC- and HMI-based systems.
• Demonstrated experience leading software engineering teams responsible for industrial automation or mission-critical control systems.
• Strong understanding of industrial communication protocols.
• Demonstrated ability to lead multiple engineering programs while managing competing priorities and delivery schedules.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Fifteen or more years of experience developing industrial control systems within drilling, rig equipment, oil and gas, or other heavy industrial automation industries.
• Previous leadership experience managing multidisciplinary software engineering organizations.
• Experience with industrial automation platforms such as Omron, Siemens TIA Portal, WinCC, Ignition or equivalent.
• Experience with HMI development, simulation environments, automated software testing, and software quality systems.
• Working knowledge of VFD systems, motion control, and industrial networking technologies.
• Experience supporting field commissioning, troubleshooting, and deployment of industrial automation systems.

Detailed Description
Engineering Leadership

• Build and lead a high-performing Controls Software Engineering organization responsible for delivering safe, reliable, and scalable control software across our drilling fleet.
• Establish a culture of technical excellence, accountability, ownership, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• Lead Technical Leads, Senior Engineers, Quality Engineering, and third-party engineering resources responsible for software development and validation.
• Develop organizational capability through structured coaching, mentorship, succession planning, and leadership development.
• Define and maintain engineering career ladders and technical competency expectations across all engineering levels.
• Develop and maintain the Principal Engineer pipeline by identifying, mentoring, and growing future technical leaders.
• Own workforce planning, future staffing strategy, and hiring plans aligned with the Controls & Automation technology roadmap.
• Establish and maintain the technical hiring bar for the organization and participate in final technical interviews for senior engineering positions.
• Lead the performance management process, ensuring evaluations are based on measurable performance, technical contribution, leadership, and organizational impact.
• Promote a diverse and inclusive work environment where employees feel respected, supported, and empowered to contribute their best work.

Technical Governance

• Establish the technical direction for the Controls Software Engineering organization while empowering Technical Leads and Principal Engineers to own detailed solution design and implementation.
• Govern software architecture through structured architecture reviews, engineering standards, and technical design processes.
• Ensure engineering teams consistently deliver high-quality software, documentation, control algorithms, and system designs that meet company standards.
• Own the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), including development standards, coding practices, testing methodologies, documentation requirements, release controls, and change management processes.
• Define and enforce software contribution standards, including code quality, modularity, documentation, maintainability, and testability.
• Own the engineering technical debt strategy by ensuring technical debt is identified, prioritized, and systematically addressed during release planning.
• Maintain active technical engagement across all engineering programs by evaluating architecture proposals, identifying technical risks, facilitating architecture reviews, and resolving escalated technical decisions.
• Champion modern software engineering practices including AI-assisted software development, automated testing, simulation, continuous integration, static code analysis, and engineering productivity tools.
• Ensure software engineering practices comply with company cybersecurity policies and secure software development lifecycle standards.
• Stay current with industrial automation technologies and software engineering best practices to continuously improve engineering capabilities.

Engineering Delivery & Release Excellence

• Own engineering execution for the Controls Software Engineering organization, ensuring commitments are delivered safely, predictably, and with high quality.
• Drive the department's platform release cadence by ensuring development across all engineering teams converges into stable, production-ready software releases.
• Own engineering planning, release planning, capacity planning, resource allocation, dependency management, and delivery forecasting.
• Conduct regular engineering delivery reviews with Technical Leads to identify execution risks, remove organizational blockers, and maintain predictable delivery.
• Make engineering Go/No-Go recommendations for software releases in partnership with Quality Engineering and Product Management.
• Establish measurable engineering performance metrics and continuously improve engineering effectiveness.
• Drive continuous improvement in software quality, engineering productivity, release predictability, and deployment readiness.
• Work closely with Product Management during field qualification, beta testing, and release validation to ensure successful deployment of new functionality.
• Establish strong communication channels with field operations and technical support organizations to capture operational feedback and continuously improve engineering deliverables.

Engineering Infrastructure & Platform

• Own the long-term evolution of Controls Software Platform, driving modular architecture, software reuse, hardware abstraction, configuration-driven deployment, maintainability, and scalability.
• Maintain governance of the company's software intellectual property and engineering assets in accordance with corporate policies.
• Oversee the Controls Engineering Laboratory, simulation environments, software qualification infrastructure, and engineering validation processes.
• Ensure engineering teams have the development environments, simulation capabilities, testing frameworks, and engineering tools necessary to deliver high-quality software efficiently.
• Lead continuous improvement of software validation, simulation, and qualification processes to reduce engineering risk and improve release quality.

Demonstrated Leadership Competencies

• Builds and Maintains Effective Relationships
• Develops Self and Others
• Builds Effective Teams
• Courageous Leadership
• Managing Vision and Purpose
• Business Acumen
• Drive for Results
• Customer Focus
• Decision Quality

About INSPYR Solutions
Technology is our focus and quality is our commitment. As a national expert in delivering flexible technology and talent solutions, we strategically align industry and technical expertise with our clients' business objectives and cultural needs. Our solutions are tailored to each client and include a wide variety of professional services, project, and talent solutions. By always striving for excellence and focusing on the human aspect of our business, we work seamlessly with our talent and clients to match the right solutions to the right opportunities. Learn more about us at inspyrsolutions.com.
 
INSPYR Solutions provides Equal Employment Opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, or genetics. In addition to federal law requirements, INSPYR Solutions complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities.

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