Process Controls Engineer

Company

INEOS Phenol

Interested in joining a winning team? A team whose employees share ownership of the business and are empowered to make a difference?

This role requires formal knowledge and certification in several process controls and safety systems. Each certification requires bi‑annual refresher training to remain current on the systems. It requires an understanding of network design and the associated hardware/infrastructure. It must be capable of setup, configuration, and maintenance of supporting systems such as alarm management, data historian, asset management, etc. This role requires a broad understanding of industrial communications protocols and programming languages.

It requires a strong understanding of control theory, process dynamics, and instrumentation and how they can be applied in the control of chemical processes. It requires an in‑depth knowledge of the process, facility installation, and operating conditions to evaluate and optimize control schemes and sequences.

This role routinely provides guidance to operations personnel on process control and optimization and to maintenance personnel on troubleshooting. It directs contractors and consultants when required to support large projects and TARs. It schedules and oversees the preventive maintenance required for the system hardware and the testing required for the safety interlocks, which requires support for the operations and maintenance departments.

Coordination of these activities across multiple departments requires high levels of planning, organization, and control. After completing these activities, this position evaluates the data and documents the findings. Any items that need further attention are tracked to completion. All information is maintained with a high level of detail for tracking the long‑term integrity of the system hardware and instrumented safety systems and also to support audits (INEOS, insurance, OSHA, etc.)

when required.

This position continuously communicates with the operations, maintenance, and engineering departments in the development of process control improvements, troubleshooting process controls issues, and training on process control systems and philosophies. It can convey technical information to both non‑technical and technical stakeholders. It listens to input from others to fully understand process issues or to incorporate operational experience into the configuration of control concepts and sequences.

When implementing new control schemes, it works closely with operators to ensure understanding of the control concept and, at times, persuades them that it will be an improvement in the long term. It schedules and implements the interlock testing and preventive maintenance on the automation hardware systems and coordinates these activities with both the maintenance and operations departments to ensure resources are available and tasks do not interfere with facility operation.

This coordination requires significant communication, understanding, persuasion, and compromise to complete the scope of work on time without impacting operation.

The primary responsibility of this position is to ensure the integrity and reliability of the DCS/PLC control systems, Emergency Shutdown system, Data Historian, and Alarm Management system. It requires expert knowledge to design and implement the infrastructure to protect against cybersecurity threats and ensure reliable performance. All configuration and parameter changes are developed, simulated, inputted, and tested without error. It develops a long‑term preventive maintenance and testing plan to ensure ongoing reliability of the system hardware and safety interlocks.

The design and implementation are performed independently except for critical designs and system changes, which are also reviewed by additional knowledgeable resources to validate the design or change. This position has a great deal of autonomy and should be held by a highly experienced person with awareness of limits and extreme attention to detail.

This position…