{"id":788738,"url":"https://alion.io/job/vital-lyfe-automation-and-controls-engineer","title":"Automation and Controls Engineer","company":{"id":688124,"name":"Vital Lyfe","domain":"vital-lyfe.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/vital-lyfe","size_band":"11-50","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":90,"open_postings":12,"ghost_share":0.083,"stale_share":0,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":75,"computed_at":"2026-10-29T05:49:05Z"}},"role":"Industrial Engineering","role_family":"Industrial Engineering","seniority":"senior","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Los Angeles, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":140000,"max":170000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":170000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":5,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"EtherCAT","optional":true},{"name":"MQTT","optional":true},{"name":"OPC UA","optional":true},{"name":"SQL","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-05-05T04:23:06Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-05-05","last_verified_at":"2026-10-29T17:30:25Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":177,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":0,"flags":["company_stale"],"days_open":177},"description":"About Vital Lyfe\nVital Lyfe is a tech company redefining water autonomy through innovation, creating a new category of personal water making technology built to scale where infrastructure can’t.\nWhat You'll Do\nDesign, develop, commission, and manage automation and controls projects for manufacturing, product testing, reliability testing, and end-of-line validation.\n\nHelp define Vital Lyfe’s controls strategy, including what PLC, HMI, SCADA, data acquisition, fieldbus, and factory software systems we should standardize on as we scale.\n\nArchitect, write, and debug PLC and controls code that is organized, documented, maintainable, reusable, and appropriate for high-volume manufacturing.\n\nDesign and commission automated equipment and test systems involving pumps, motors, valves, sensors, pressure, flow, thermal systems, and electrical instrumentation.\n\nKeep our factory safe and reliable by implementing compliant safety systems for automated equipment, motion systems, pressure systems, and electro-mechanical assemblies.\n\nGenerate simple HMI screens, electrical designs, documentation, schedules, and budgets that help teams operate, troubleshoot, and scale factory systems.\n\nWhat We're Looking For\nBachelor’s degree in engineering, physics, computer science, or a related technical discipline.\n\n5+ years of experience in industrial automation, factory automation, automated test systems, or controls system design and implementation.\n\nComfort working in ambiguity and making tradeoffs with incomplete information.\n\nBias toward action, ownership, and practical engineering solutions.\n\nPreferred Qualifications\nAbility to help select the right automation architecture, controls platform, and factory software tools for a fast-moving manufacturing environment.\n\nExperience with electromechanical systems, automated test stands, manufacturing equipment, reliability rigs, or end-of-line test systems.\n\nElectrical sizing of motors, cables, circuit protection, VFDs, motor starters, drives, and other motion systems.\n\nDesign of fail-safe electrical circuits using safety PLCs, safety-rated relays, interlocks, e-stops, and other machine safety devices.\n\nHands-on troubleshooting experience using tools such as multimeters, oscilloscopes, EMI probes, and industrial network diagnostic tools.\n\nProficiency understanding and creating electrical schematics, panel layouts, wiring diagrams, I/O lists, and single-line diagrams.\n\nExperience with fieldbus networks, serial communication, Ethernet communication, and industrial protocols such as EtherCAT, Profinet, Ethernet/IP, Modbus, or CAN.\n\nHands-on experience designing and commissioning high-quality electrical panels and electro-mechanical systems.\n\nKnowledge of NEC, NFPA, OSHA, UL508A, and related control system safety standards.\n\nPLC programming experience; Beckhoff TwinCAT, Rockwell, Siemens, Codesys, Omron, or similar experience is valuable.\n\nExperience with HMI, SCADA, MQTT, OPC-UA, Ignition, SQL databases, machine health monitoring, and factory data systems.\n\nExperience applying industrial software to mechanical assemblies, electrical systems, sensors, pneumatics, hydraulics, pumps, valves, and instrumentation.\n\nAbility to safely check out interdisciplinary systems prior to production implementation.\n\nStartup, pilot-line, or high-rate manufacturing experience preferred.\n\nPhysical Job Requirements - Essential Functions\nHands on work on development hardware.\n\nLong periods of standing, crouching, walking.\n\nLifting up to 50 lbs.\n\nWhy Join Vital Lyfe?\nWork on high-impact problems with global relevance\n\nHelp scale breakthrough technology in water security and climate resilience\n\nEarly ownership in a high growth, engineering led startup\n\nJoin a tight knit, mission driven team in a fast-paced environment\n\nBuild long term career equity as we grow\n\nLocation Requirement: Ability to work 100% onsite in Torrance, CA (remote or hybrid work will not be considered)\nVital Lyfe is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Vital Lyfe is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.","description_format":"text","description_chars":4335,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":5,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Equity","Hybrid work"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Home Appliances"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-12T02:41:30Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":13,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.459,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":177,"expected_fill_days":75,"reasons":["conf:1","urgency","win:tail","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-10-29T05:49:05Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":170000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/vital-lyfe-automation-and-controls-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/vital-lyfe-automation-and-controls-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-29T19:10:36Z","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":28520,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-30T00:00:00Z"}},"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":688124},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=688124"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fvital-lyfe-automation-and-controls-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%2Fvital-lyfe-automation-and-controls-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%2Fvital-lyfe-automation-and-controls-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/vital-lyfe-automation-and-controls-engineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fvital-lyfe-automation-and-controls-engineer"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":788738}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"vital-lyfe.com","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":788738},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); 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