Electrical Design Engineer 

Due to continued growth, we are looking for an Electrical Design Engineer or a Controls & Instrumentation Engineer to join our team, engaging in the design & build of bespoke control systems and instrument racks. You’ll be part of our dynamic system integration team, responsible for developing turnkey solutions in a fast-paced and consistently varying environment. Specialising in automated data acquisition, test, measurement & control systems, our customers are located throughout the UK, and occasionally overseas, and cover a broad range of industries including healthcare, energy, aerospace and R&D.

The Role

We are looking for an Electrical design engineer with an electrical or controls engineering background. You will come from a hands-on, practical engineering background and have experience in electrical/electronic design. Competent in the fundamentals of electrical design, you will also understand root causes for electrical noise and design to prevent these. You should be capable of designing for BS EN 61010, and it would be beneficial to have an understanding of relevant Safety Directives (IEC 60204 / EN ISO 13849 / BS EN 61508).

Job Purpose

You will be involved in the design, development, testing, and delivery of electrical hardware, working closely with software, systems, and project teams to produce integrated solutions that meet customer and industry requirements. The role will suit someone hands-on, results-driven, and confident working in a collaborative engineering environment. 

Key Responsibilities

The duties and responsibilities of these positions include, but are not limited to;

• Accurately and comprehensively capturing electrical designs within EPlan in a timely manner.
• Selecting the correct control and/or measurement hardware for a given application based on a customer’s specification.
• Providing timely, accurate and effective solutions to technical problems.
• Hands-on approach to building, testing, and commissioning of electrical systems.
• Installing and commissioning systems on-site.
• Providing guidance on the installation and working functionality of both software and hardware, including an explanation of configuration settings.
• Generating technical documentation to support delivery of systems, including testing plans, commissioning documentation, technical document packs, etc.
• Ensuring designs meet relevant standards (eg IEC, ATEX and safety requirements) 
• Working with cross-functional teams to deliver integrated solutions 
• Supporting design reviews relating to hardware (electrical, electronic and mechanical) designs.
• Troubleshooting problems and incompatibilities in both software and hardware.
• Support Supplier Engagement  & component integration 
• Deliver projects on time, within budget and to customer expectations
• Working with the business development team to develop proof of concepts and quotations for customers.
• Flexibility to travel throughout the UK, 30% of the time.

QUALIFICATIONS & REQUIREMENTS

Required Skills & Qualifications

• Degree in engineering, such as electrical/electronic engineering, mechatronics, mechanical, computer science or equivalent
• Strong experience, backed by the ability to design electrical/electronic systems
• Familiarity with using Eplan; however, other schematic tools will be considered, i.e AutoCAD Electrical, Solidworks Electrical
• Experience in on-site installation and commissioning
• Experience with mainstream PLCs (Siemens, Allen Bradley, etc) based control hardware or NI instrumentation
• Practical electrical debug experience
• Knowledge of CE / UKCA marking process
• Ability to learn new skills/languages/applications quickly
• Practical understanding of EMC principles

Preferred Skills 

• Knowledge and understanding of the design and implementation of safety instrumented systems
• ATEX  Knowledge: Proven experience with explosion protection standards
• Basic mechanical design skills for enclosure and panel layouts, CAD
• Knowledge and experience of NI software and hardware platforms.
• 18th edition qualified
• Ability to program or modify existing PLC or NI system software
• Experience with BS EN 61508, SISTEMA reporting, programming safety logic controllers, etc 

Core Competencies:

• A results-focused, action-oriented mentality is essential, with the ability to deal effectively with customers to deliver successful project outcomes.
• Excellent attention to detail.
• Must be able to multitask, manage time and prioritise effectively.
• Problem-solving skills to analyse the problem and think creatively to provide a solution.
• Excellent verbal, written and presentation skills.
• Working as a team player as well as working autonomously.

Location: 

• The main working location will be Sheffield, where our main office and our workshop for hardware builds are located. There will also be regular travel to customer locations UK-wide, with potential trips outside the UK with advanced warning.
• Flexibility to travel throughout the UK to customer sites, including at short notice, 50% of the time.

OTHER:

• Legal right to live and work in the UK. Valid passport for global travel 
• Must hold a full, clean, valid UK driving licence and own vehicle, happy to use for work travel to customer sites.
• Flexibility to travel throughout the UK, including at short notice, 30% of the time

Benefits:

• Competitive Salary.
• Holiday: 23 days, rising to 24 after 5 years’ service, plus optional Annual Leave buy-back scheme.
• Health benefit cash plan scheme with access to 24hour online GP services, annual monetary contribution towards medical care such as physio, dental, optician, etc.
• Employee assistance programme (EAP) offering access to advice and Counsellors for wellbeing, legal and financial.
• Workplace pension.
• Enrollment in the annual company bonus scheme, after the first year’s service.
• Employee referral scheme.
• Cycle to work scheme.

Austin Consultants are systems integrators that provide bespoke hardware engineering, software development and data science services, for a wide range of automated data acquisition, test, measurement, control and IIoT applications. As a dynamic SME, our customers are from a range of industries including automotive, academia, energy and aerospace, and are located throughout the UK, and sometimes overseas.

Due to our success, we are looking for experienced engineers to join our growing team. As an individual, you will have a driven and results-focused attitude. 

The entry point for joining as a System Engineer or Senior System Engineer will depend on your technical knowledge and proven capabilities in the relevant areas. We are looking for the right fit and are open to talking to different skill-level people. 

Some companies say ‘ Our Team’ to refer to their employees but at Austin Consultants our employees really are a team. We proactively foster a collaborative, supportive, vibrant culture. Our passionate developers, systems architects, electrical and mechanical engineers, and data scientists, work together to combine expertise in leading hardware and software to develop innovative solutions. We relish a challenge, working with new clients to deliver the right solution for the application, and working together to make sure what we do is enjoyable and everyone is heard. 

Role & Responsibilities

You will help customers across a wide range of applications and industries with a diversity of issues, from delivering small data acquisition systems or debugging existing client systems to the development and the onsite commissioning of complex control and data acquisition systems. The duties and responsibilities include, but are not limited to;

• Full lifecycle project delivery as part of a team (size of project dependent on experience) 
• Providing timely, accurate and effective solutions to technical problems.
• On-site installation and commissioning of both HW and SW systems 
• Programming memory and speed-efficient data acquisition and control applications.
• Developing intuitive graphical user interfaces.
• Selecting the correct measurement hardware for a given application based on a customer’s specification.
• Collaborate with systems engineers, product hardware and software engineers, throughout each system’s development and production life-cycle.
• Troubleshooting problems in systems that include both software and hardware.
• Delivering technical presentations and demonstrations to customers, colleagues and partners.
• Architecture design and project management through the full project lifecycle and managing internal project teams. The complexity and size of projects will increase based on an individual’s skills and capabilities.
• Working with the business development team to develop technical solutions and provide project costings based upon discussions with the client, including requirements qualification and response to RFQ’s.
• Creating technical documentation in line with our quality assurance system, including specifications, test plans and user manuals. 

Qualifications & Requirements

You must exhibit strong problem-solving, communication and business acumen skills alongside a passion for technology. It is crucial that as part of this role, you maintain a close working relationship with the team involved in building the systems to ensure that issues are quickly resolved and lessons are learnt for future projects.

Technical Skills:

• A degree in engineering, such as electrical/electronic engineering, mechatronics, mechanical, computer science or equivalent.
• Knowledge of instrumentation, control and industrial automation.
• Demonstrable experience in measurement & instrumentation design.
• Proven experience in requirements capture and writing technical proposals.
• Ability to debug and solve problems a range of systems in an efficient manner. 
• Experience with mainstream PLC brands (Siemens, Allen Bradley, etc) is preferred but not essential.
• Desire and ability to learn new skills/programming languages/applications. 
• PLC or NI instrumentation and control panel experience.

Core Competencies:

• A results-focused, action-oriented mentality is essential with the ability to deal effectively with customers to deliver successful project outcomes.
• Must be able to multitask, manage time and prioritise effectively.
• Problem-solving skills to analyse the problem following a logical and methodical approach, whilst also thinking creatively to provide a solution.
• Excellent written, oral and presentation skills.
• Enjoy working as a team player as well as working autonomously.

Other:

• Legal right to live and work in the UK.  Valid passport for global travel.
• Must hold a full clean valid UK driving licence and own vehicle to use for work travel.
• Flexibility to travel throughout the UK, including at short notice, 50% of the time.

Desirable:

• Understanding and practical experience of object-oriented principles.
• Knowledge and experience of NI hardware platforms e.g DAQmx, cRIO, PXI  and embedded systems, including LabVIEW FPGA and LabVIEW Real-Time.
• NI platform certifications e.g. CLD, CLA, CTD, CTA, CLED.
• Experience in a text-based language, Python, JAVA, C and C++ is preferred but not essential.
• Ability to draw system level diagrams in a CAD package – preferably EPlan.  

Reporting:

Reporting  to the Head of Systems

Location:

Sheffield is our main office and workshop, so ideally commutable to this location but with the requirement to travel regularly to customer locations UK wide with potentially trips outside the UK (with an advanced warning).

Application:

To apply for this position please send a copy of your CV to recruitment@austinconsultants.com

Closing Date: 31 December 2024

We are looking for an experienced control panel/prototype electrical technician/engineer to undertake the assembly and manufacture of bespoke control systems and instrument racks. You will join a growing team in a fast-paced and constantly varying environment. Our dynamic team is responsible for developing bespoke hardware and software solutions, specialising in data acquisition and automated control for customers across a broad range of industries. 

The Role

The role will involve electromechanical assembly and installation. You will be building sub-assemblies or complete systems to drawings and build procedures. The role will involve working both in-house at company offices and on-site at customer locations around the UK.

Duties will typically include:

• Panel layout and assembly.
• Assembly of 19″ rack systems.
• Wiring harness and looms.
• Wiring of control units and interface boxes.
• Mechanical assembly, typically extruded aluminium frame assemblies.
• Functional testing of works, including continuity and electrical tests, requiring pragmatic and efficient problem-solving skills.
• On-site installations, including electrical installations (single and three-phase), running and dressing cabling, including the use of height access equipment.
• Supporting the smooth operation of the workshop, including maintaining accurate stock level reporting.
• Completing testing documentation, RAMS, site visit reports and maintaining accurate records of any modifications, deviations to design specifications.

The Candidate

The successful candidate must be dynamic and pragmatic and have proven problem-solving skills. You must be able to interpret schematics/engineering drawings and set out control panels from drawings and specifications, and be able to make decisions on the best approach for each application, which often vary from project to project due to the bespoke nature of our builds and business. You will ideally be apprentice trained and qualified to a minimum City & Guilds level and have previous experience of prototype or panel wiring, assembly/mechanical fitting and on-site installations, including overseeing and planning of site works, completing the necessary paperwork, etc.

TECHNICAL SKILLS: 

Requirements:

• NVQ Level 3 in Electrical Installations or Electrical Maintenance or equivalent.
• IEE Wiring Regulations 18th edition.
• Ability to interpret schematics and engineering drawings and make informed decisions on elements such as cable selection, and effectively redline/update technical drawings.
• Ability to lay out components on a back-plate to drawings and in-line with previous builds, including completing panel fabrication to a high standard, i.e. drill/cut/punch holes for cable entry, glands, connectors, indicators, etc and other similar tasks.
• Ability to wire between components and identify with wire numbers/idents, including: 3-phase, LV power, ELV control, PLC wiring and communication bus wiring.
• Experience of on-site installations, ideally including pre-planning and quality control.
• Strong IT ability, including use of email, Microsoft Teams, completion of electronic site survey documents and ideally familiar with eView from EPlan.
• Practical electrical fault finding experience and can demonstrate a pragmatic approach to problem solving.
• Experience with mainstream PLCs (Siemens, Beckhoff, etc) based control hardware or NI instrumentation. 
• Applicants should demonstrate a sound knowledge of the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 and other relevant legislation, regulations and safe practices.
• General Health & Safety knowledge (Manual Handling, Work at Height, Asbestos Awareness, etc.)
• Flexibility to travel throughout the UK to customer sites, including at short notice, 25% of the time.

Desirable Accreditations/Certifications:

• AM2 (Achievement measurement 2).
• ECS Health and Safety (ECS Electrical JIB card).
• City and Guilds 2391 or equivalent in Electrical, Inspection and Test.
• Working at Heights: PASMA / IPAF Certified.
• Additional training can be provided if required.

Core Competencies:

• Ability to work independently or as part of a team in collaboration with customers, installation teams and subcontractors as required.
• Excellent communication skills to engage internally and externally with suppliers, partners, and customers effectively and efficiently.
• Strong time-management and organisation skills to ensure tasks are completed in line with the Schedule of Works. 
• Must maintain a high quality of workmanship and have a desire for continuous improvement and a willingness to learn.

Location: 

• Based in Sheffield but with regular onsite working at customer locations UK-wide (and potential trips outside the UK with advanced warning).

Other:

• Legal right to live and work in the UK. Valid passport for global travel.
• Must hold a full, clean, valid UK driving licence and own vehicle available to use for work travel.

Benefits:

• Competitive Salary 
• Holiday 23 days, rising to 24 after 5 years’ service, plus optional Annual Leave buy-back scheme 
• Health benefit cash plan scheme,  (access to 24-hour online GP services, annual monetary  contribution towards medical care such as physio, Dental, Optician)
• Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) offering access to advice and Counsellors for wellbeing, legal, and financial support.
• Workplace pension
• Enrollment in the Annual company bonus scheme, after the first year of service
• Employee referral scheme
• Cycle to work scheme.