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Commonwealth Fusion Systems is seeking a Controls Engineer to join their mission to deliver commercially viable fusion energy. The company has raised $4 billion since 2018 and is the largest fusion company in the world.
In this role, you will independently own the complete lifecycle of smaller equipment components and upgrades—from physical mounting and pneumatic/electrical integration through PLC I/O mapping and commissioning, handing off to Manufacturing Engineering. You will support production equipment on the floor by troubleshooting faults, restoring uptime, and conducting root-cause analysis with preventative fixes.
You will provide technical leadership on short-term problems within your group's scope and lead formal design reviews with cross-functional teams (equipment and manufacturing engineers). You will contribute to system architectures and electrical schematics, ensuring compliance with NFPA79/NEC/UL508A standards. Writing and debugging PLC structured text is a core responsibility, with emphasis on organized, documented, maintainable, and reusable code.
Additional responsibilities include contributing to department policies and tool development, characterizing automated processes using data-driven approaches (Cpk, Gage R&R), raising concerns with data-driven perspectives in group settings, and identifying and mitigating lower-risk items by coordinating with standard vendors.
The role requires occasional lifting up to 50 lbs, extended periods of typing, standing, stooping, and sitting. You must demonstrate dedication to safety in environments with heat, cold, noise, fumes, strong magnets, lead, high voltage, and cryogenics. Occasional travel and willingness to work nights/weekends/on-call is expected.
REQUIREMENTS:
- Bachelor's degree in engineering field (required)
- 4+ years' experience as controls engineer on electro-mechanical systems
- Proficiency in Structured Text and Ladder; working knowledge of other IEC 61131-3 languages
- Ability to apply sound reasoning and judgment on tasks and near-term project decisions, with review and support from senior engineers
- Working knowledge of control-related safety systems (ANSI/RIA15.06/OSHA compliant) and enclosure design compliant with NFPA79/NEC/UL508A standards
- Reliable and persistent work ethic, seeing tasks through to completion and staying determined in the face of uncertainty and failure
- Familiarity with manufacturing equipment and hands-on fabrication or assembly skills (e.g., rotating machinery, cable winding, soldering, pipe bending, or similar)
- Collaboration experience with job shops and external vendors
- High self-motivation and drive to execute quickly with strong troubleshooting and problem-solving skills
- Value for design for manufacturability, serviceability, and simplicity over complexity
BONUS EXPERIENCE:
- Beckhoff and Siemens controls platforms
- Ignition SCADA systems
- Integrating equipment data into SCADA/data systems (e.g., IO-Link, MQTT)
- Machine Vision
- Greenfield or brownfield startup commissioning
- CAD drafting, specifically AutoCAD Electrical
