Senior Controls Technician

The role

The Senior Controls Technician supports the reliability, uptime, and continuous improvement of manufacturing controls systems. This role involves troubleshooting complex automated equipment and partnering with engineering teams to improve system architecture and readiness for scale.

What you will do

• Maintain, troubleshoot, and restore complex automated manufacturing equipment.
• Support production uptime through rapid diagnosis of electrical, controls, network, and automation faults.
• Perform controlled minor updates to PLC/HMI logic, parameters, alarms, recipes, and operator interfaces.
• Support controls checkout, commissioning, validation, and handoff for new or modified equipment.
• Improve maintainability by documenting faults, root causes, corrective actions, procedures, and troubleshooting guides.
• Identify recurring controls issues, weak architectures, obsolete components, and support gaps.
• Other duties as required.

Required qualifications

• 5+ years of experience supporting industrial automation, controls, or production equipment in a manufacturing or industrial environment.
• High school diploma or equivalent.
• Strong hands-on troubleshooting ability with PLC/HMI-controlled equipment, electrical controls, instrumentation, sensors, drives (VFD and Servo), industrial networks, electrically and pneumatically co
• Ability to read and understand electrical schematics and process diagrams.
• Experience supporting robotics and SCADA/HMI platforms used in automated manufacturing environments.
• Ability to safely troubleshoot energized industrial systems following lockout/tagout, electrical safety (NFPA 70E), arc-flash, machine guarding, and site safety procedures.
• Ability to document troubleshooting steps, root cause, corrective actions, procedures, and minor controls changes.
• Ability to work assigned schedules including day, swing, night, rotating, overtime, weekend, or on-call coverage.
• Ability to lift up to 49 pounds unassisted.
• Ability to stand and walk during shifts up to 12 hours.
• Ability to regularly bend, lift, stretch, and reach below the waist and above the head.

Nice to have

• technical degree
• apprenticeship
• military technical training
• formal controls training

Benefits

• Medical, Dental, and Vision plans for employees and their families
• 31 Days of PTO (21 vacation days and 10 sick days)
• 10 Paid holidays, plus company-wide winter break
• Up to 5% employer 401(k) match
• Short term disability, long term disability, and life insurance
• Paid parental leave and support (up to 16 weeks)
• Annual wellness stipend

About the company

Helion is a fusion power company based in Everett, WA, with the mission to build the world's first fusion power plant. The company has raised $1.5 billion from investors to propel its mission forward.