{"id":3098223,"url":"https://alion.io/job/vvater-senior-automation-and-controls-engineer","title":"Senior Automation and Controls Engineer","company":{"id":692373,"name":"VVater","domain":"vvater.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/vvater","size_band":"51-200","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Breezy","truth_index":null},"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":["Austin, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":95000,"max_usd":180000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":6333},"experience_years_min":5,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Claude","optional":false},{"name":"Digital Twin","optional":false},{"name":"MATLAB","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"Self-Healing","optional":false},{"name":"STAR-CCM+","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-22T16:44:43Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-22","last_verified_at":"2026-10-29T09:18:31Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":6,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":6},"description":"VVater is America’s Next Water Company, delivering the future of purification through its award-winning Farady Reactor (CES Best of Innovation 2025, World Future Award 2025, Time Best Invention Award 2025), proprietary ALTEP (Advanced Low Tension Electroporation Process), Advanced Dissolved Air Flotation, and Micro & Nano Bubble technologies. Unlike outdated chemical, filter, and membrane systems, VVater’s electric-field breakthroughs eliminate PFAS, microplastics, microorganisms, and other contaminants with record retention times, without toxic byproducts or costly consumables.\nWith over 4.3B gallons treated and validation from global leaders, VVater is scaling into municipal drinking water and wastewater, DPR/IPR, onsite reuse for data centers, commercial buildings, and resorts, residential purification, and consumer health water, delivering a 60% smaller footprint, 40% CapEx savings, 80% OpEx savings, and 40% less energy use.\nJob Description:\nThe Senior Automation and Controls Engineer owns the physical treatment module as it becomes a controllable, manufacturable, field-ready product. You take a proven process and turn it into a packaged system: layout, piping, structure, instrumentation, and control logic, validated in a digital twin and commissioned in the field.\nYou will design the module, model and simulate it, instrument it, bring up its control logic, and stand beside it during build and commissioning. You connect the physical package to its sensors and controllers, validate the twin against real operating data to a defined tolerance, and feed field lessons back into the design. You collaborate with mechanical, electrical, process, and manufacturing teams.\nVVater moves at a fast pace to accelerate the development and adoption of cutting-edge technologies in the water industry. The right person will be energized by that pace rather than depleted by it.\nKey Responsibilities:\nAutomate treatment modules: General arrangement and layout, piping, structural, and skid or trailer packaging, including the mechanical, hydraulic, and utility packages. \nDevelop fabrication-ready packages: piping and instrumentation drawings, structural details, bills of material, and assembly documentation. \nApply DFM/DFA and tolerance analysis so modules are built the same way every time and scale from prototype to production. \nSelect and integrate instrumentation: flow, pressure, level, conductivity, pH/ORP, and the sensors each unit operation needs for safe, observable operation. \nDevelop and commission basic control logic and interlocks across PLC/SCADA/HMI; define I/O lists, control narratives, and alarm and safety logic. \nDefine the operating envelope and the automated responses that keep the module inside it, including safe-state and shutdown behavior. \nPartner with the electrical team on power delivery, panel layout, and field wiring. \nBuild and maintain the engineering digital twin of the module and validate it against bench, pilot, and field data to a defined tolerance. \nDevelop 3D CFD models (STAR-CCM+, Simcenter, or equivalent) of reactors and process units to guide hydraulic and thermal design. \nUse simulation to size and de-risk the package before it is built, and quantify how much to trust each model. \nCouple the twin to live instrumentation where it adds value, so the model and the as-built system stay in sync. \nSupport BOM creation, build, and shop assembly, and resolve fit, fabrication, and integration issues on the floor. \nLead or support Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT), Site Acceptance Testing (SAT), and field commissioning. \nTroubleshoot mechanical, hydraulic, and control issues on deployed modules and feed every field lesson back into the design and the twin. \nProvides support and system maintenance of DMS applications (SCADA, FISR, Self-Healing, Load Var Management, Powerflow, VMS, FMS, and database updates to ensure DMS matches field). \nDevelop and maintain SOPs, operating envelopes, commissioning checklists, and manuals for the modules that you own. \nConduct feasibility studies and cost analyses for automation projects. \nPerform root cause analysis to identify and address system failures or malfunctions. \nCollaborate with mechanical engineers on physical installation and with process engineers on performance intent. \nSet packaging and controls standards and build reusable templates so the whole team moves faster. \nMentor junior engineers and designers in controls integration, packaging, and commissioning practice. \nCollaborate with suppliers and vendors to source necessary equipment and components. \nCreate test environments and provide the necessary research and support required. \nQualifications: Must Have\nBS or MS in Instrumentation/Controls/Mechanical Engineering, or a closely related field with equivalent depth, and 5+ years of equipment or package-system design. \nWorking knowledge of PLC/SCADA/HMI and the integration of instrumentation and basic control logic. \nDigital-twin or model-calibration track record: building a model, validating it against test or field data, and using it to drive design or operating decisions. \nCFD proficiency (STAR-CCM+, Simcenter, or equivalent). \nStrong knowledge of Rockwell, Control Logix, Iconics, Siemens, Delta-V, Allen Bradley, WonderWare Intouch, Zenon, and others. \nDFM/DFA experience taking hardware from prototype to production. \nField commissioning experience, including FAT/SAT. \nProgramming skills in Python (preferred), MATLAB, or similar for data processing and model-to-data integration. \nHands-on fluency with modern AI tools (Claude or equivalents). \nExceptional written and verbal communication; you can explain a design and a model, and how much to trust it, to engineers, operators, and customers. \nComfort with ambiguity and the judgment to decide what to design, model, and test next without waiting for direction \n** As a part of our process to ensure a comprehensive evaluation of all applicants, assessment tests are required as part of our recruitment process. Unfortunately, should you elect not to participate in completing the assessment tests, your application will not be able to progress to the next stage or taken into consideration during evaluation.","description_format":"text","description_chars":6220,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":5,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"master","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Water Utilities"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-22T16:47:48Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 1","filings_12m":1,"filings_prev_12m":0,"green_card_filings_12m":0,"median_offered_wage_usd":142500,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-10-15T11:24:14+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)"],"filings_for_role_12m":0}],"liveness":{"score":86,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.86,"p_room":1,"age_days":6,"expected_fill_days":49,"reasons":["conf:0","win:early"],"computed_at":"2026-10-29T05:49:05Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/vvater-senior-automation-and-controls-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/vvater-senior-automation-and-controls-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-29T11:31:05Z","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":17513,"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":692373},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=692373"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fvvater-senior-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%2Fvvater-senior-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%2Fvvater-senior-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/vvater-senior-automation-and-controls-engineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fvvater-senior-automation-and-controls-engineer"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":3098223}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"vvater.com","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":3098223},"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); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. 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