Principal Controls Engineer

About Oshkosh Aero Tech, an Oshkosh company

Oshkosh Aero Tech is a leading provider of aviation ground support products, gate equipment and airport services to commercial airlines, airports, air-freight carriers, ground handling and military customers. Oshkosh Aero Tech offers products that make a difference in people’s lives by supporting those in our communities who do some of the toughest work. They own many of the most trusted brands in the air transportation industry, including LEKTRO, Jet Aire, Jet Power, Amp TekÔ, Jetway, and more.

The Principal Controls Engineer works within engineering groups to support the development and implementation of control strategies and sub-system requirements for advanced equipment control systems. This role supports a broad range of Ogden products including aircraft ground air conditioning equipment, aircraft ground power conversion equipment, load sharing systems, and military aircraft ground support systems.

Controls work encompasses control strategy development and verification, including:

Component selection (electronic control modules, VFDs, motors, drives, engines, generators, energy storage cells, sensors, etc.)Embedded printed board systems or programmable logic controllers (Allen Bradley, Beckhoff, IFM)
HMI design, integration development, programming, communications, and applications

This role supports both new product development and sustaining engineering efforts, including modernization of legacy systems due to component obsolescence, and requires strong ownership of PLC programming, operator interface development, and hands-on troubleshooting support.

YOUR IMPACT These duties are not meant to be all-inclusive and other duties may be assigned

Perform engineering calculations, investigations, and tasks supporting control system development and implementation

Deliver results according to Oshkosh and general industry engineering standards and processes

Support more senior engineers and product leads in preparation of plans, designs, computation methods, integration and reporting

Support both new product development (NPD) and sustaining engineering efforts, including hardware and software obsolescence updates and system replication using modern components

Design, develop, and program PLC-based control systems and operator interfaces (HMIs), including:

Creation of intuitive, user-friendly displays

Alarm handling and system feedback visualization

Support integration of multiple control systems and communication across networks

Provide hands-on troubleshooting support for manufacturing and test cell operations, identifying root cause across software, hardware, and process-related issues

Support production implementation, field service support, and sustaining engineering activities across a wide variety of products

Collaborate with software engineering, internal engineering groups, and external component suppliers

Provide guidance or mentorship to entry level engineers, designers, or technicians

Support equipment sub-system controls research, development, verification and validation, testing, and production implementation

Support development of requirements including resources, equipment, estimates, test plans, and milestones

Develop and utilize test environments, including bench testing and simulated systems, to validate control strategies

Work with internal and external teams (industry consortiums, universities) on advanced control development and component development efforts

Read and interpret electrical wiring schematics, diagrams, wire tag tables, and P&IDs Generate Control Narratives with strong revision control documentation

Other duties as assigned

Regular attendance is required.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

Accredited Bachelor's degree in mechanical/electrical Engineering or related field with five (5) or more years of related experience.

STANDOUT

QUALIFICATIONS:

Eight (8) or more years of experience in controls engineering, systems integration, or a related field

Experience integrating multiple PLC-controlled systems and enabling communication across networks (SCADA or similar environments)
Strong experience in:

PLC programming (Allen Bradley, Beckhoff, IFM)
Operator interface…