Lead Controls & Electrical Engineer

Sabetha, United States | Posted on 07/07/2026

The Lead Controls & Electrical Engineer is the senior technical authority for electrical design and controls within KSi’s Commercial Business Unit. Historically KSi’s systems were largely repeatable;
Commercial projects arenot — each is effectively first-of-a-kind, introducing new equipment,integrations, and requirements that cannot be copied. This role owns that engineering judgment end to end as the final design-and-programming authority for Commercial work, so technical escalations resolve within the engineering team rather than on the BU manager’s desk. It spans KSi’s traditionalPLC/HMI/SCADA stack and its emerging Python-based platform, raises the quality of electrical design output, and builds the standards, documentation,and team capability that let KSi scale novel work without single-person dependency.

• Serve as the final technical review and escalation point for automation design, electrical drawings, and controls programming on Commercial projects.
• Own engineering decisions on first-of-a-kind systems where no prior design can be copied;reason from fundamentals to scope new implementations and integrations.
• Provide design direction and technical support to the panel build, panel checkout, and startup/commissioning teams.
• Partner with the controls parts/BOM specialist on component selection, cross-referencing, andsupply-availability risk for novel designs.

• Hold day-to-day technical authority over electrical and traditional controls design and standards for Commercial projects.
• Final design authority for Commercial solutions rests with the Commercial Business Unit Manager; this role earns increasing autonomy as its approach is calibrated toKSi’s hardware and software standards.
• When working withinthe KSi Auto Bulk solution — or any solution spanning multiple business units— operate under the oversight of the Sr. Industrial Automation Engineer, whoowns that platform.
• Participate andengage in standing weekly meetings with the CTO and the Sr. Industrial Automation Engineer to keep electrical and controls standards and platform direction aligned, rather than drifting into a separate Commercial track.
• Provide technical direction and design authority to Commercial controls and electrical design staff; day-to-day people management and task prioritization remain with their direct manager.
• Own and continuously improve KSi’s electrical design output — schematics, panel layouts, I/Olists, network diagrams, and control documentation.
• Ensure compliance with UL 508A, CTE, and applicable electrical codes and certifications.
• Replace copy-paste drafting with adaptable, well-documented design standards and reusable libraries that flex to each Commercial project.
• Establish electrical CAD standards and review drawings produced by the design/drafting team,including a planned dedicated electrical design/drafting support role.
• Maintain BOMs,functional specifications, and design records.

• Design, program, and commission PLC, HMI, and SCADA solutions for Commercial systems using KSi’s established toolset.
• Build traditional control solutions that integrate and hand off cleanly to KSi’s next-generation Python-based platform; partner with the Sr. Industrial Automation Engineer (platform owner) and grow familiarity with that environment over time.
• Integrate industrial devices, instrumentation, and protocols (Modbus, Ether Net/IP, OPC UA, MQTT) to meet new and non-standard requirements.
• Troubleshoot andtune field equipment — sensors, actuators, VFDs, PID loops — to maximizeuptime and performance.
• Actively evaluate and adopt AI tools to improve engineering speed, quality, and consistency —for design, code generation and refactoring, documentation, and troubleshooting — applying sound engineering judgment to validate their output.
• Champion practical,business-driven adoption of AI and emerging tools across the Commercial engineering team, and help establish where they do and do not belong in asafety-critical controls environment.

• Mentor…