What are the responsibilities and job description for the Controls Technician position at Luxco, Inc.?
THE OPPORTUNITY
The Controls Technician works with the Distillery Controls Engineer administering, maintaining, and upgrading the Distributed Control Systems (DCS), and Operational Technology (OT) systems, providing support for these systems throughout the plant. This role is responsible for the implementation and commissioning of changes to support operational excellence while maintaining cybersecurity integrity of the plant’s virtualized OT environment, ensuring system stability, disaster recovery readiness, and operational continuity. The position supports large-scale DCS hardware and software upgrades, capital projects, and system improvement initiatives, contractors, and budgets to ensure timely and cost-effective project completion. Provides support with troubleshooting, programming modifications, system enhancements, and documentation management while collaborating cross-functionally with Process Engineering, Production, Maintenance, and Quality teams.
What You Will Be Doing
Control System Support
If the above speaks to you, we’re excited to learn more about you! At MGP, we know that our people are our greatest strength. At Lawrenceburg, we are extremely focused on our 2026 Safety initiative, and we hope you want to be a part of that. With different perspectives and unique ways of thinking, our employees are as varied as our products. We believe that inclusivity strengthens the organization and champions a company culture that is evolving to reflect all of us. Culture results from our behaviors, our personal commitment, our curiosity, how we collaborate, and the ways we courageously share our perspectives and expect others to do the same. Each of us can make a difference by fostering thinking and actions that empower us to connect, belong, and grow together. MGP offers exceptional medical, dental, vision, short- and long-term disability, life insurance, 401(k) Match and PTO.
All successful candidates for this position will be required to submit to a criminal background check and drug test as well as physical assessment. Candidates will also be required to achieve a qualifying score on a pre-employment mechanical assessment.
The Controls Technician works with the Distillery Controls Engineer administering, maintaining, and upgrading the Distributed Control Systems (DCS), and Operational Technology (OT) systems, providing support for these systems throughout the plant. This role is responsible for the implementation and commissioning of changes to support operational excellence while maintaining cybersecurity integrity of the plant’s virtualized OT environment, ensuring system stability, disaster recovery readiness, and operational continuity. The position supports large-scale DCS hardware and software upgrades, capital projects, and system improvement initiatives, contractors, and budgets to ensure timely and cost-effective project completion. Provides support with troubleshooting, programming modifications, system enhancements, and documentation management while collaborating cross-functionally with Process Engineering, Production, Maintenance, and Quality teams.
What You Will Be Doing
Control System Support
- Investigate and Analyze control system issues including software, hardware, communication, and instrumentation issues.
- Work with Production, Process Engineering, Quality, and/or Maintenance in the completion of continuous improvement projects and capital expansion projects with a primary focus on the debugging / improvement of the control system programming.
- Support the long-term goals of upgrading aging infrastructure to stay within the serviceable life of the controls equipment as well as staying abreast of new technologies.
- Provide after-hours support as needed whether remote or onsite to accomplish plant goals.
- Perform routine maintenance and support of both physical and virtualized equipment located throughout the facility
- Ensure physical layer reliability of both the fiberoptic backbone networks and local copper distribution networks.
- Work with the Distillery Controls Engineer to maintain regular backups of the entire system implementing both ready-to-deploy backups and disaster recovery efforts.
- Serve as the Liaison between the Maintenance department and the Electrical and Controls Engineering department by regularly participating in morning tool-box meetings, planning meetings, day to day activities, performing plant floor work and annual shutdown planning, coordination and execution.
- Provide leadership and hands-on support for a team of contract electricians to maintain 24x7 distillery operations in accordance with company policies and local regulations
- Assist in the planning and scheduling of preventative and corrective electrical/instrumentation maintenance activities across the site including annual shutdown activities.
- A safety minded individual who possesses an associate’s degree (Required) in either: Electrical Engineering, Electrical Engineering Technology, or Master Electrician Military Electrical Training, or related field.
- 2 to 5 years’ experience in plant operations, preferably in distillation and grain processing environment.
- Training on the various plant control systems to include DCS programming, HMI screen development, input/output wiring and control system equipment setup, and troubleshooting.
- Training in various types of instrumentation and control devices.
- Experience working with Maintenance Management System software (SAP Preferred) for entering and tracking and completing reactive and preventive maintenance work orders.
- OSHA, Food Safety, and GMP training and/or working experience.
- Working knowledge of the NEC and NFPA-70E is required. Experience with DISCUS and NFPA-70B is preferred.
- Experience programming in Siemens PCS7, APACS, and/or TI-505 environments along with HMI integration in WinCC or AIMAX, as well as operating controls systems within a virtualized environment
- Demonstrated experience with troubleshooting control systems, especially DCS based systems operating in a virtualized environment.
- Knowledge of process instrumentation and applications.
- Experience with project development and implementation. Working experience with I/O control devices and various software packages for device configuration, Installation and maintenance experience of electrical equipment in Hazardous Areas.
- This position requires strong technical expertise in industrial control systems, instrumentation, virtualized environments, and regulatory standards, along with the ability to respond to critical operational issues, including after-hours support, to maintain plant reliability and performance.
- Eagerness and willingness to learn on the plant floor while interacting with personnel with varying levels of experience and knowledge.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills
- Strong technical aptitude and experience in troubleshooting mechanical systems and processing equipment.
- Strong multi-tasking skills.
- Strong system management skills to prioritize maintenance activities, improvements, and maintaining the system lifecycle of computerized/automated equipment.
- Strong computer skills including CMMS (SAP Preferred), AutoCAD, Microsoft Office including Word, Outlook, Excel, and Visio.
- Includes frequently used office equipment, computer software programs, manuals, books, or other written resources, hand tools, power tools, two-way radios, and other tools/equipment/resources; Includes use of sanitation equipment and lab/field equipment.
- Electrical measurement meters and programming devices. Control system programming software including DCS APACS system 4MATION, 505 SoftShop programming for TI 505 series programmable controllers, TA Engineering AIMAX WIN software for operator interface development, Simatic Manager, VMware, PCS7 software, configuration software for Eaton PanelMate flat panel operator screens, MTS level gauge configuration software, AMS software for instrumentation calibration and record keeping, AutoCad for electronic documentation of control systems and project footprint layouts.
- Fork truck, JLG man lift, electrician’s hand tools and Arc Flash and other required PPE
If the above speaks to you, we’re excited to learn more about you! At MGP, we know that our people are our greatest strength. At Lawrenceburg, we are extremely focused on our 2026 Safety initiative, and we hope you want to be a part of that. With different perspectives and unique ways of thinking, our employees are as varied as our products. We believe that inclusivity strengthens the organization and champions a company culture that is evolving to reflect all of us. Culture results from our behaviors, our personal commitment, our curiosity, how we collaborate, and the ways we courageously share our perspectives and expect others to do the same. Each of us can make a difference by fostering thinking and actions that empower us to connect, belong, and grow together. MGP offers exceptional medical, dental, vision, short- and long-term disability, life insurance, 401(k) Match and PTO.
All successful candidates for this position will be required to submit to a criminal background check and drug test as well as physical assessment. Candidates will also be required to achieve a qualifying score on a pre-employment mechanical assessment.