JOB DESCRIPTIONJOB TITLE:Engineering Manager - Automation
DEPARTMENT:Automation Engineering
SUPERVISOR:Director of Engineering - Automation
PRIMARY PURPOSEThe Engineering Manager - Automation leads the day-to-day people, capacity, and execution of the Controls Engineering team. Reporting to the Director of Engineering - Automation, the role owns assignments, utilization, workload balancing, associate development, project execution, quality, and safety. They will manage and support up to ten (10) Controls Engineers. They will partner with sales, accounting, and shop personnel to deliver safe, high-quality, cost-effective solutions to our customers.
JOB DUTIES- Lead daily activities and performance of the Controls Engineering team; align deliverables with project priorities and milestones.
- Coach and develop team members through one-on-ones, feedback, training, hiring, onboarding, performance management, and development goals.
- Perform regular employee reviews and provide recommendations for advancement and compensation adjustments to upper management.
- Participate in creation and enforcement of project execution procedures.
- Own daily resource assignments and priorities with the engineering team, balancing skills, workload, and development.
- Review and report on capacity, utilization, workload, and future demand; identify staffing and skill needs early.
- Monitor deliverables, planned versus actual engineering hours, milestones, quality, and risk; address or escalate concerns early.
- Maintain approximately 25% billable technical and project contribution through supporting resource constraints, reviews, audits, startups, and escalations.
- Ensure projects meet quality, cost, schedule and customer expectations through audits.
- Regularly review project scopes, schedules, execution, deliverables, and lessons learned.
- Support automation proposals and estimates by reviewing scope, hours, resources, commissioning needs, assumptions, clarifications, exclusions, and risks.
- Coordinate with Controls Technicians, Electrical Designers, Panel Shop, Sales, field resources, Accounting, coordinators, Sub-contractors, and other engineering groups.
- Communicate project status and coordinate with cross-functional teams on project-related items.
- Complete people-management and administrative responsibilities, including review and approval of time sheets, expense reports, and performance documentation.
- Perform other duties as assigned.
QUALIFICATIONS - EDUCATION, EXPERIENCE, SKILLS- Bachelor's degree in Electrical, Controls/Automation, Mechatronics, Computer Engineering, or a related field; equivalent experience considered.
- Professional Engineer license is preferred. Minimum five years of industrial automation or controls engineering experience in a project-based or engineered-to-order environment.
- Demonstrated leadership in planning, prioritization, resource management, coaching, performance management, hiring, team building, and communication.
- Experience with automation delivery, including estimates, risk, vendor coordination, installation, startup, commissioning, and Project Manager/customer collaboration.
- Working knowledge of PLC, HMI, SCADA, industrial networking, electrical controls, and related automation platforms.
- Experience with controls and electrical documentation, including narratives, I/O lists, panel drawings, schematics, functional descriptions, and test records.
- Understanding of engineering labor budgets, utilization, planned versus actual hours, project financials, and margin impact.
- Experience with structured controls workflows, design reviews, change control, testing, startup, commissioning, and continuous improvement.
- Understanding of key Project Management concepts including scope, schedule, and cost.
- Able to effectively and efficiently support and run large projects.
- Knowledge of control-panel design, fabrication, testing, installation, and field commissioning is preferred.
- Strong Microsoft Office, ERP, project management, and engineering/document-control system skills.
- Ability to travel to customer and vendor facilities; approximately 25% travel required.
- Collaborative, accountable, adaptable, hands-on leader aligned with a team-oriented, family-owned company culture.
