Control Systems Engineer

Westlakes Recruit are currently recruiting for a Control Systems Engineer. Candidates can be based in either Derby, Warrington, Bolton, Sunderland, Glasgow, or Bristol and will be engaged on a permanent basis.
Role Purpose
Provide engineering expertise in the design, development and verification of control systems used in nuclear facilities. The role covers programmable logic controllers (PLCs), distributed control systems (DCS), safety-related I&C functions and supporting systems such as SCADA/HMI. The engineer ensures that control system implementations are safe, compliant and fully traceable to nuclear requirements throughout the project lifecycle.
Key Responsibilities

• Develop control system architectures and functional designs that support plant operation, automatic sequences, interlocks and protection functions.
• Produce technical documents including control philosophies, functional requirements, logic descriptions, cause and effect diagrams and interface specifications.
• Configure and programme PLC, DCS or specialised control platforms in compliance with nuclear lifecycle expectations and relevant standards.
• Collaborate with EC&I, process, mechanical, safety and human factors engineers to ensure consistent system behaviour across interfaces.
• Integrate control logic with SCADA/HMI systems, historians, networks and field instrumentation.
• Apply good practice in alarm handling and annunciation, aligning with EEMUA 191 and site alarm strategies.
• Perform verification and validation tasks including peer review, simulation, software testing, FAT, SAT and commissioning support.
• Develop test specifications and ensure that test coverage aligns with requirements, functional hazards and safety classifications.
• Maintain configuration control, software versions, coding standards and technical baselines within nuclear quality frameworks.

Essential Skills and Experience

• Control systems engineering experience in a regulated industry, ideally nuclear, defence, energy or similar.
• Experience producing control philosophies, logic diagrams, sequence descriptions and similar deliverables.
• Ability to interpret P&IDs, process narratives, safety functional requirements and mechanical schematics.
• Strong understanding of PLC/DCS programming methods, including structured text, ladder logic, function block and sequential function charts.
• Experience with verification, testing, simulation or model-based approaches for control logic validation.
• Knowledge of nuclear I&C lifecycle requirements, safety classification and applicable standards such as IEC 61513, IEC 60880, IEC 61508 and IEC 61226.
• Familiarity with alarm management principles and experience applying EEMUA 191.

Qualifications

• Knowledge of nuclear new build control architectures, reactor island control systems or balance of plant systems.
• Experience with digital twin concepts, advanced simulation or MBSE approaches.
• Experience with cyber security requirements for nuclear I&C systems.
• Chartered Engineer status or working towards it.

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