What are the responsibilities and job description for the Controls Engineering Leader position at The J.M. Smucker Co.?
Your Opportunity as the Lead Engineer
“In this role, you’d serve as a key technical leader within the plant, particularly around power and control systems. It’s very hands-on—supporting equipment reliability, troubleshooting issues, and helping ensure systems are operating safely and efficiently within your area, whether that’s Bakery or Sandwich Making.
You’d also play an important role in developing technicians, so lots of mentoring and coaching and empowering your team to be confident to make decisions on their own as well as optimizing systems and driving continuous improvement to meet reliability and performance targets.”
Location: McCalla, AL
Work Arrangements: Monday–Friday with flexibility to support operations during occasional evenings, nights, or weekends, based on operational and business needs.
In This Role You Will
What we are looking for:
We are bold, kind, strive to do the right thing, we play to win, and we believe in a strong community that thrives together. Our culture is rooted in our Basic Beliefs, and we believe in supporting every employee by meeting their physical, emotional, and financial needs.
Stay connected with us on LinkedIn®
We're an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, age, national origin, disability status or protected veteran status.
“In this role, you’d serve as a key technical leader within the plant, particularly around power and control systems. It’s very hands-on—supporting equipment reliability, troubleshooting issues, and helping ensure systems are operating safely and efficiently within your area, whether that’s Bakery or Sandwich Making.
You’d also play an important role in developing technicians, so lots of mentoring and coaching and empowering your team to be confident to make decisions on their own as well as optimizing systems and driving continuous improvement to meet reliability and performance targets.”
Location: McCalla, AL
Work Arrangements: Monday–Friday with flexibility to support operations during occasional evenings, nights, or weekends, based on operational and business needs.
In This Role You Will
- Serves as primary administrator and troubleshooter for plant power and control systems and is a key member of plant technical leadership.
- Builds and maintains a sustainable system for plant E&I skill development. Coaches the area E&I Coordinator on skill assessment and development of operating and E&I technicians within the department. Works with the site Controls Engineering Manager to build and maintain sustainable process and machine control onboarding and ongoing development systems for plant Process Engineers, Interns and Area Leaders.
- Works with the site Controls Engineering Manager to develop power and control standards and ensure application of the standards in their area of responsibility.
- Knows, communicates, and ensures technician compliance to local and national regulator codes (NFPA 70, NFPA 70e, NFPA 79 and OSHA 1910). Is also responsible for ensuring equipment and safe practice compliance in their area of responsibility.
- Responsible for validation of the MES data from PLC into Proficy. Support plant PEs in conditioning PLC data to accommodate effective data analysis including application development.
- Owns the validity and ongoing system for maintaining the site sustainability metering equipment (power monitors and usage flow meters). Owns using the power monitoring data and developing plans to reduce overall consumption and costs.
- Provides expertise in the design and implementation of machine control and process automation applications, such as: control strategies, HMI design, MES applications and KPI development.
- Works Controls Engineering Manager, department management and technicians to identify losses, and develop plans and strategies to eliminate them, in the areas of safety, quality, reliability and cost.
- Owns parts or whole Key Elements for systems related to power and control system such as electrical safety (LOTO, Electrical PPE, Energized work permits, low voltage qualification, etc.) and Quality/CCP compliance (checkweighers, metal detectors, vision systems, ingredient flows, temperatures, etc.).
- Works closely with engineering and operations leaders on selection and installation/start-up of new equipment. Becomes the technical expert on new equipment and ensures the training of others with regard to control systems.
- Serves as project manager for initiatives ranging from E&I focused projects to complete capital projects.
- Provides power and controls engineering support on capital initiatives in their area of responsibility.
- Provides support throughout other parts of the plant as needed on a daily basis.
- Learns and applies advance control, simulation and process modeling technologies to analyze and improve overall process and packaging operations.
What we are looking for:
- BS in Engineering or another Technical degree preferred, Associates Degree Required
- Minimum of 4 years of relevant controls experience is required
- Minimum of 1-2 years required of experience leading, supervising, or managing others is required, >5 years preferred
- Minimum of 5 years manufacturing experience is required
- Mechanical and electrical experience in food manufacturing is preferred
- Ability to effectively engage, lead, and build capability on the floor
- Ability to work and manage within a team environment
- Strong knowledge of machine and/or process control hardware, instrumentation and software including Allen Bradley PLC and Rockwell FactoryTalk platforms
- Working knowledge of NFPA and OSHA guidelines related to electrical equipment and practices
- Understanding of technical systems and terminology
- Experience learning and integrating new technologies
- Experience leading the installation of equipment in food manufacturing environment
- Demonstrated results in manufacturing maintenance utilizing maintenance systems
- Experience with plant systems software (Proficy, Project Management, eAM, etc.)
- Self-motivated and able to motivate others
- Strong organizational, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills
- Effective presentation, verbal, and written communication skills
- Proficient in Microsoft Suite applications
- Excellent interpersonal skills
- Some travel may be required for plant start up
- Willingness to work off-shifts or weekends as needed
- Willingness to relocate for future opportunities
We are bold, kind, strive to do the right thing, we play to win, and we believe in a strong community that thrives together. Our culture is rooted in our Basic Beliefs, and we believe in supporting every employee by meeting their physical, emotional, and financial needs.
Stay connected with us on LinkedIn®
We're an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, age, national origin, disability status or protected veteran status.