System Engineer

NCC Automated Systems

Location

Souderton, PA

Department

Engineering

Reports To

Engineering Manager

Position Summary

The Systems Engineer is responsible for the engineering and integration of automated material handling and packaging systems from initial application concept through detailed engineering and project execution. This role applies a start-to-finish systems approach, ensuring upstream and downstream processes, product characteristics, equipment capabilities, operating conditions, utilities, and customer requirements are understood and incorporated into the final solution.

The Systems Engineer partners with Applications Engineering, Project Management, vendors, customers, and internal engineering teams to deliver safe, reliable, efficient, and maintainable integrated systems.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

System and Process Engineering

• Analyze the complete customer process, including upstream and downstream operations, rather than focusing only on NCC’s immediate scope of supply.
• Understand how product reaches the NCC system, how upstream equipment operates, and how system stops or interruptions affect product and production flow.
• Develop and refine process flow diagrams and sequences of operation.
• Evaluate product presentation requirements, including rate, temperature, orientation, spacing, accumulation, metering, transfers, inspection, labeling, and sanitation.
• Define shutdown, clearing, recovery, restart, overflow, rejection, and product reintroduction requirements.
• Identify bottlenecks, failure points, capacity limitations, and opportunities for alternatives or redundancy.
• Perform system-level risk analysis and identify integration concerns early in the engineering process.

Product and Packaging Analysis

• Review customer product and packaging specifications and validate their suitability for the proposed application.
• Evaluate actual and potential variations in package dimensions, squareness, material composition, stiffness, thickness, construction, and condition.
• Consider the effects of machine setup, time, temperature, humidity, environment, and material variability on package performance.
• Establish acceptable product and package tolerances for reliable system operation.
• Evaluate package conditions including glued, heat-sealed, taped, shrink-wrapped, open, or damaged packaging.

Application and Equipment Engineering

• Evaluate and select appropriate equipment, including conveyors, case packers, erectors, sealers, printers, labelers, inspection equipment, metering devices, transfers, accumulation equipment, and automated handling devices.
• Review equipment footprint, function, orientation, nominal and ultimate rates, belt speeds, product spacing, pack pressure, transfers, utilities, and operating limitations.
• Evaluate operator access, maintenance access, operator stations, and consumable loading and staging requirements.
• Evaluate environmental and sanitation requirements, including food-processing, wash-down, non-wash-down, sanitary, and food-contact applications as applicable.
• Review customer preferred vendor lists, mechanical and electrical specifications, application requirements, and NCC engineering standards.
• Review vendor exceptions, exclusions, and non-conformities for project impact.

System Layout and Design

• Develop and review system layout drawings using AutoCAD.
• Determine equipment placement, elevations, operator and maintenance access, utility clearances, and material flow.
• Design conveyor functions for transport, accumulation, gapping, zero-pressure accumulation, metering, orientation, and justification.
• Engineer product transfers using appropriate solutions such as dead plates, roller transfers, nose belts, pushers, plows, and powered transfers.
• Identify and number conveyors, equipment, and devices using established NCC drawing conventions.
• Maintain appropriate AutoCAD layers for conveyors, equipment, devices, utilities, floor-level equipment, and elevated equipment.
• Ensure all drawing entities are created in model space, with borders, dimensions, legends, and general notes maintained in paper space.
• Maintain current vendor equipment blocks and carefully manage embedded blocks, duplicate block names, and revision-controlled drawing content.

Controls and Utility Coordination

• Identify and document system devices, including photo eyes, proximity switches, level sensors, pressure switches, limit switches, solenoids, stops, pushers, powered transfers, plows, motors, and disconnects.
• Coordinate preliminary device tags, wire-number placeholders, I/O designations, and final numbering with Electrical Engineering.
• Identify plant utility requirements, including power, compressed air, and Ethernet connections.
• Identify secondary power, pneumatic, and communication connections within the NCC system.
• Review equipment and system Lockout/Tagout requirements, utility access, plant air connections, filtration, regulation, and safety dump requirements.
• Coordinate device layouts, I/O requirements, schematics, and system functionality with Electrical Engineering.

Project Engineering and Execution

• Participate in formal project handoff reviews with Applications Engineering, Project Management, and Project Engineering.
• Review the process flow, system layout, sequence of operation, estimating workbook, equipment specifications, purchased components, conveyors, devices, and special functions.
• Confirm product flow requirements, including speeds, rates, accumulation, percentage of empty space, metering, overflow, rejection, reintroduction, and catch-up rates.
• Refine the sequence of operation based on the approved process flow, completed system layout, and device layout.
• Maintain project engineering actions and support the Action Registry Log or other assigned tracking tools.
• Review vendor drawings and documentation for compliance with system and project requirements.
• Identify scope gaps, engineering conflicts, non-conformities, and project risks and communicate them to appropriate stakeholders.
• Support system troubleshooting, commissioning, and project execution as required.

Qualifications

Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Systems Engineering, Mechatronics, Industrial Engineering, or a related technical discipline preferred.
• An equivalent combination of technical education and relevant automation or system integration experience may be considered.
• Experience in automation, conveyor systems, material handling, packaging equipment, or industrial system integration preferred.
• Experience integrating multi-equipment automated systems and working with OEM or third-party equipment vendors is highly desirable.
• Experience in food, packaging, manufacturing, distribution, or similar automated production environments is beneficial.

Technical Skills

• Proficiency with AutoCAD and industrial system layout development.
• Strong understanding of conveyor systems, automated material handling, packaging processes, and equipment integration.
• Ability to interpret customer specifications, process flow diagrams, technical drawings, and vendor documentation.
• Understanding of sensors, motors, pneumatic devices, industrial controls, electrical interfaces, and utility requirements.
• Working knowledge of throughput, accumulation, metering, product spacing, transfers, and production flow.
• Ability to understand, develop, and refine sequences of operation.
• Familiarity with Lockout/Tagout principles and industrial safety requirements.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications, including Excel.

Core Competencies

• Systems thinking and end-to-end process analysis

• Technical documentation

• Mechanical and technical aptitude

• Cross-functional collaboration

• Problem solving and analytical thinking

• Project and priority management

• Attention to detail

• Customer-focused engineering

• Risk identification and mitigation

• Clear verbal and written communication

• Equipment and process integration

• Accountability and ownership

Key Expectations

The successful Systems Engineer will approach each project as an integrated system rather than a collection of individual pieces of equipment. The engineer is expected to understand what happens before product enters the NCC system, how product and packaging variability may affect performance, how NCC equipment interacts with upstream and downstream operations, and how the complete system responds during normal production, shutdown, restart, accumulation, recovery, and abnormal conditions.

This role requires an engineer who looks beyond stated specifications, validates assumptions, anticipates variation, and designs for real-world operating conditions.

NCC Automated Systems is an equal opportunity employer. This job description is intended to describe the general nature and level of work performed and is not an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities, or qualifications.

Job Description

Additional Information