{"id":2651908,"url":"https://alion.io/job/flex-principal-electrical-controls-automation-engineer","title":"Principal – Electrical & Controls / Automation Engineer","company":{"id":1845316,"name":"Flex","domain":"flex.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/flex-com","size_band":"5000+","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Workday","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":88,"open_postings":103,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.68,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":13,"computed_at":"2026-10-16T05:45:00Z"}},"role":"Industrial Engineering","role_family":"Industrial Engineering","seniority":"lead","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Buffalo Grove, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":99900,"max":137400,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":137400},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"TCP/IP","optional":false},{"name":"Grafana","optional":true},{"name":"Power BI","optional":true},{"name":"SQL","optional":true},{"name":"VMWare","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-15T22:00:50Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-15","last_verified_at":"2026-10-16T13:01:24Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":0,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":0},"description":"Flex is the diversified manufacturing partner of choice that helps market-leading brands design, build and deliver innovative products that improve the world.A career at Flex offers the opportunity to make a difference and invest in your growth in a respectful, inclusive, and collaborative environment. If you are excited about a role but don't meet every bullet point, we encourage you to apply and join us to create the extraordinary.Job Summary\n\nPosition Summary:\nThe Principal - Electrical & Controls / Automation Engineer is a senior individual contributor and technical subject matter expert responsible for providing enterprise-level technical leadership across electrical, controls, industrial networking, PLC, SCADA, and automation systems. This position serves as one of Engineering’s highest technical authorities for complex automation and electrical systems. The Principal Engineer is expected to personally solve the organization’s most difficult technical problems while establishing technical standards, mentoring engineering and technician resources, and improving the reliability, maintainability, and performance of automated manufacturing equipment.\nKey Responsibilities:\nTechnical Leadership & Troubleshooting\nServe as the senior technical escalation point for complex electrical, controls, PLC, SCADA, networking, and automation issues across manufacturing operations.\nLead troubleshooting and root-cause analysis of difficult or recurring equipment failures that cannot be resolved through normal maintenance and engineering escalation paths.\nDiagnose complex interactions between electrical systems, PLC logic, industrial networks, drives, motion systems, instrumentation, safety systems, SCADA, and equipment controls.\nUse a structured, data-driven troubleshooting methodology to identify root causes rather than relying on component replacement or trial-and-error troubleshooting.\nProvide hands-on technical support during critical equipment failures and high-impact production events.\nIdentify systemic technical weaknesses and develop permanent corrective actions that improve equipment reliability and reduce repeat failures.\nPLC & Controls Systems\nServe as a senior technical resource for industrial electrical systems and machine-control hardware.\nTroubleshoot complex electrical problems involving control power, power distribution, motors, VFDs, servo systems, safety circuits, sensors, instrumentation, grounding, noise, and communication systems.\nTroubleshoot, modify, optimize, and validate complex PLC programs and machine-control architectures.\nIndustrial Networking\nServe as a technical authority for industrial networking and OT communications.\nTroubleshoot complex network and communication failures involving PLCs, SCADA systems, HMIs, drives, remote I/O, vision systems, instrumentation, servers, and manufacturing equipment.\nDemonstrate expert-level understanding of Ethernet/IP, industrial Ethernet, TCP/IP, VLANs, managed switches, network segmentation, routing fundamentals, addressing, communication diagnostics, and industrial network architecture.\nWork collaboratively with IT and cybersecurity teams to maintain secure, reliable connectivity between operational technology and enterprise systems.\nSCADA, HMI & Manufacturing Systems\nProvide technical leadership for SCADA and HMI architecture, configuration, troubleshooting, and integration.\nTroubleshoot communication and data-flow issues between equipment controls, SCADA, historians, databases, and manufacturing information systems.\nSupport development of standardized approaches for equipment connectivity, tag structures, alarms, data collection, and system integration.\nPartner with Digital Transformation and Manufacturing Intelligence resources to enable reliable acquisition and use of equipment data.\nReliability & Root Cause Engineering\nPartner with Reliability Engineering and factory engineering teams to identify recurring failure modes using downtime, alarm, maintenance, and equipment-performance data.\nDevelop engineered solutions that eliminate failure modes rather than repeatedly restoring equipment to operation.\nIdentify opportunities for condition monitoring, predictive diagnostics, improved alarming, and automated fault detection.\nTechnical Mentorship\nServe as a technical mentor to Controls Engineers, Electrical Engineers, Controls Technicians, Engineering Technicians, and other engineering resources.\nDevelop the troubleshooting capabilities of plant engineering teams through structured coaching and hands-on problem solving.\nTransfer knowledge from complex troubleshooting events into documented standards, troubleshooting guides, and lessons learned.\nHelp establish technical competency expectations and training requirements for controls and electrical disciplines.\nPromote disciplined engineering practices and a culture of technical excellence.\nQualifications:\nEducation\nBachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Controls or Automation Engineering, Mechatronics, or mechanical Engineering with demonstrated competencies strongly preferred.\nEquivalent combination of education and extensive demonstrated industrial controls expertise may be considered.\nExperience\nMinimum 6(+) years of progressive experience in industrial automation, controls engineering, electrical engineering, or related manufacturing engineering disciplines.\nExtensive hands-on experience supporting highly automated manufacturing equipment.\nDemonstrated history of personally resolving complex controls, electrical, networking, and automation problems.\nExperience serving as a senior technical authority, Principal Engineer, Staff Engineer, Lead Engineer, or equivalent technical SME strongly preferred.\nExperience in high-volume, highly automated manufacturing environments such as medical device, electronics, pharmaceutical, automotive, packaging, or food & beverage manufacturing preferred.\nPreferred Technical Experience:\nExperience with the following is highly desirable:\nRockwell, Siemens and Beckhoff controls platforms\nIndustrial Ethernet and Ethernet/IP\nIndustrial network architecture and troubleshooting\nGrafana and Power BI visualization platforms\nVMware or virtualized automation infrastructure\nVision systems\nRobotics\nAdvanced motion and servo systems\nManufacturing historians and data acquisition (SQL and industrial data architecture)\nMachine safety circuits and safety PLC concepts\nElectrical troubleshooting, schematics and machine-control systems\nVFDs, motors, and motor-control systems\nAutomation-system backup, recovery, and lifecycle management\nIntegration of PLC/OT systems with higher-level manufacturing systems\nLeadership Expectations:\nThe Principal Engineer is expected to demonstrate significant technical leadership and must be capable of entering a difficult manufacturing situation, rapidly understanding the system, bring technical resources together, establish a logical troubleshooting strategy, and drive the team toward root cause and permanent resolution.\nThe Principal Engineer should be recognized throughout the entire Engineering organization as a trusted technical authority-someone engineers and technicians seek out when conventional troubleshooting has failed.\nJust as importantly, the Principal Engineer must develop the capabilities of others. The objective is not to become the person who fixes every problem, but to raise the technical capability of the entire Engineering organization while personally leading resolution of its most difficult problems.\nWhat you'll receive for the great work you provide:\nFull range of medical, dental, and vision plans\nLife Insurance\nShort-term and Long-term Disability\nMatching 401(k) Contributions\nVacation and Paid Sick Time\nTuition Reimbursement\n\nApplication Deadline:\nApplications for this job position will be accepted for at least five days following the job posting start date below and continuing until the end date below or until the position is filled. This posting may close sooner due to application volume.\nJob Posting Start Date 10-15-2026 Job Posting End Date 12-20-2026\n\nThe base pay range for this position is provided below. The final base rate offered will be determined using job-related, non-discriminatory criteria, including but not limited to experience, qualifications, geographic location, education, external market data, and internal equity.\n$99,900.00 USD - $137,400.00 USD AnnualJob Category\nProduction EngineeringIs Sponsorship Available?\nNoFlex is an Equal Opportunity Employer and employment selection decisions are based on merit, qualifications, and abilities. We do not discriminate based on: age, race, religion, color, sex, national origin, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, disability, pregnancy status, or any other status protected by law. We're happy to provide reasonable accommodations to those with a disability for assistance in the application process. Please email  and we'll discuss your specific situation and next steps (NOTE: this email does not accept or consider resumes or applications. This is only for disability assistance. To be considered for a position at Flex, you must complete the application process first).","description_format":"text","description_chars":9229,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Equity","Life insurance"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Electronics Manufacturing","Power Supplies & Power Electronics","Contract Manufacturing"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-15T22:00:50Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":63,"band":"ok","label":"Likely open","p_open":1,"p_active":0.632,"p_room":1,"age_days":0,"expected_fill_days":13,"reasons":["conf:3","stale_co","velocity","win:early","comp:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-10-16T05:45:00Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":137400,"is_top_pay":false},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/flex-principal-electrical-controls-automation-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/flex-principal-electrical-controls-automation-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-16T13:19:21Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":12787,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-17T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":1845316},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=1845316"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fflex-principal-electrical-controls-automation-engineer"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fflex-principal-electrical-controls-automation-engineer"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fflex-principal-electrical-controls-automation-engineer"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/flex-principal-electrical-controls-automation-engineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fflex-principal-electrical-controls-automation-engineer"}]}