Pipeline Automation Engineer
Posting Start Date: 11/4/26
Job Location (Short): Billings, MT, USA, 59101
Pipeline Automation Engineer
The Opportunity
• Pipeline Automation Engineer at a growth-oriented downstream energy company
• Competitive salary with a strong comprehensive benefits package
• Based in either Billings, Montana (preferred), or Houston, Texas, this position supports pipeline, terminal, storage, truck-loading, rail, and related logistics assets in Montana, Wyoming, Washington, and other assigned locations. Limited travel to Hawaii and Houston may also be required.
• Reporting to the Logistics Engineering & Integrity Manager, you'll provide technical engineering support for the automation and control systems used across Par Pacific Logistics (Mainland).
Key activities include:
Automation and Control Systems
• Design, configure, program, test, commission, maintain, and troubleshoot industrial automation and control systems used in pipeline, terminal, storage, loading, and related logistics operations.
• Support supervisory control and data acquisition systems, programmable logic controllers, remote terminal units, human-machine interfaces, servers, workstations, historians, telemetry, industrial networks, and automated field equipment associated with product movement, measurement, loading, alarms, and shutdown functions.
• Develop and modify control logic, graphics, alarm configurations, data points, communications interfaces, calculations, and reports in accordance with approved standards and change-control requirements.
• Provide timely technical support for control-system failures, communication interruptions, unreliable signals, application issues, and other automation problems that affect safe or continuous operations.
• Analyze operating and system data to identify recurring problems, control-system performance concerns, and opportunities to improve reliability, operator effectiveness, and equipment availability.
Reliability and Lifecycle Management
• Develop and support maintenance, inspection, testing, backup, recovery, patching, upgrade, and obsolescence-management practices for assigned automation and operational technology systems.
• Monitor system health and availability, investigate failures, complete or support root cause analyses, and implement corrective actions that reduce repeat events and operating risk.
• Maintain recoverable system backups, configuration baselines, software, firmware and license records, spare-parts recommendations, and restoration procedures for critical systems.
• Evaluate lifecycle risks and develop practical replacement priorities, cost estimates, and implementation plans; coordinate maintenance, upgrades, and cutovers to control risk and minimize disruption.
• Use SAP, PCMS, SCADA tools, and other approved systems to maintain assigned work, equipment, inspection, configuration, and technical records.
Projects Commissioning and Change Management
• Lead or support automation portions of maintenance and capital projects from concept and scope development through design, testing, commissioning, start-up, and turnover to operations.
• Develop technical scopes, functional requirements, design criteria, control narratives, equipment specifications, cost estimates, schedules, and bid-evaluation information; review related vendor and engineering deliverables.
• Plan and perform factory acceptance testing, site acceptance testing, loop checks, functional testing, commissioning, start-up support, and post-start-up performance verification.
• Follow applicable Management of Change processes and ensure automation changes receive required technical, operational, safety, cybersecurity, and regulatory review before implementation.
• Provide technical direction to contractors, integrators, vendors, and consultants; verify that work meets approved scope, company standards, safety requirements, documentation expectations, and acceptance criteria.
Safety Regulatory Compliance and Operational Technology Security
• Perform work in accordance with company safety requirements, approved engineering practices, site procedures, and applicable federal, state, and local requirements.
• Support compliance activities applicable to assigned pipeline and logistics assets, which may include PHMSA requirements under 49 CFR Parts 192 and 195, control room management, DOT Operator Qualification requirements, OSHA standards, environmental permits, and company operating requirements.
• Support control room management and alarm management by maintaining accurate SCADA information, alarm setpoints and descriptions, change records, controller displays, point-to-point verification, and other required documentation.
• Participate in hazard reviews, risk assessments, pre-start-up reviews, incident investigations, audit preparation, regulatory inspections, and corrective-action development involving automation or control systems.
• Partner with information technology and cybersecurity resources to protect operational technology systems through approved network architecture, access controls, secure remote access, patching, backup and recovery, vulnerability response, and incident-response practices. Promptly escalate suspected cybersecurity events, unauthorized changes, or system vulnerabilities.
• Exercise stop-work authority and promptly communicate conditions that could affect employee safety, environmental protection, product integrity, regulatory compliance, cybersecurity, or continued operation of an asset.
Documentation Data and Technical Standards
• Maintain accurate drawings, control narratives, network diagrams, logic documentation, alarm records, point lists, equipment information, test results, procedures, backups, and system-change history using consistent standards across assigned assets.
• Verify the accuracy of data exchanged among SCADA, historians, measurement systems, reporting tools, SAP, PCMS, and other approved applications; prepare technical reports and recommendations for operating and business leaders.
• Protect system credentials, configurations, security information, proprietary data, and other sensitive technical or commercial information in accordance with company requirements.
Collaboration and Technical Support
• Work with operations, control center personnel, maintenance, engineering, integrity, safety, environmental, scheduling, information technology, vendors, and contractors to resolve issues and plan work.
• Communicate technical information clearly and develop or support training, job aids, operating guidance, troubleshooting procedures, and knowledge-transfer activities for employees who use or maintain automation systems.
• Provide technical support during system failures, abnormal operating conditions, planned outages, commissioning activities, and emergency response when automation expertise is required.
• Identify opportunities to standardize systems, improve reliability, reduce manual work, strengthen security, and improve the quality and availability of operating information.
• Perform other duties and accept additional responsibilities as assigned.
Note: This description is intended to give you a general overview of the position. Additional responsibilities and opportunities may be identified based on current business needs.
Qualifications
To meet the basic qualifications for this role, you will have legal authorization to work permanently in the United States for any employer without requiring a visa transfer or visa sponsorship.
Additional qualifications include:
Required:
• Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering, automation or controls engineering, chemical engineering, or another closely related engineering discipline.
• At least five years of relevant experience supporting industrial automation, control systems, instrumentation, or operational technology in pipeline, terminal, midstream, refining, petrochemical, manufacturing, utility, or another process-industry environment, including hands-on PLC, RTU, SCADA, or HMI work.
• Working knowledge of industrial communications and networks, data acquisition, system backups, operational technology cybersecurity, and engineering documents such as schematics, control narratives, input and output lists, network diagrams, and test procedures.
• Experience supporting automation projects, system changes, commissioning, start-up, troubleshooting, and root cause analysis in an operating industrial environment.
• Ability to manage assignments across multiple facilities, respond to changing priorities, work independently with general direction, and recognize when an issue requires additional expertise or escalation.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills and the ability to work effectively with operations, maintenance, engineering, information technology, cybersecurity, contractors, vendors, and business leaders.
• Valid driver's license with a driving record that meets company requirements.
• Ability to travel regularly to assigned logistics sites in Montana, Wyoming, and Washington and occasionally to Hawaii, Houston, or other company locations, including nonstandard hours when project or urgent operating needs require support.
• Ability to obtain and maintain any training, qualification, medical clearance, security access, or regulatory status required for assigned work.
Preferred:
• Experience supporting automation and control systems for hazardous-liquid pipelines, terminals, storage facilities, loading racks, pump stations, rail or transload facilities, or related midstream assets.
• Experience with Rockwell or Allen-Bradley PLC platforms, or comparable industrial controllers; SCADA or HMI platforms; and common industrial protocols and telemetry technologies.
• Experience with pipeline measurement, custody transfer, tank gauging, leak detection, alarm management, historian applications, or loading-control systems.
• Working knowledge of PHMSA pipeline safety and control room management requirements, DOT Operator Qualification programs, and industry standards applicable to pipeline automation and control systems.
• Experience with operational technology cybersecurity, control-system network architecture, secure remote access, vulnerability management, backup and recovery, and cybersecurity incident response.
• Experience using SAP, PCMS, maintenance-management or document-control systems, and managing integrator or contractor work through commissioning and operational turnover.
• Professional Engineer licensure, ISA Certified Automation Professional certification, Global Industrial Cyber Security Professional certification, project-management certification, or comparable relevant credential.
