Senior Applications Engineer

Powell Industries - Houston, TX

Full-time - Mid Level

Houston, TX

Credit Intermediation and Related Activities

About the position

The Senior Applications Engineer at Powell Industries is responsible for assessing project costs and resources, analyzing specifications, and collaborating with stakeholders to ensure accurate budgeting and pricing for various projects. This role involves technical reviews, proposal generation, and market analysis to drive automation solutions, while adhering to health, safety, and environmental policies.

Responsibilities

• Become proficient in PAD solutions and offerings.
• Responsible for the technical review and understanding of the customer's requirements in their requests for proposals including system designs, single line drawings, site layouts, containerization, performance guarantees, availability guarantees, etc.
• Interact with other Powell divisions to develop cross business solutions.
• Analyze and utilize data for in-depth evaluation of current market conditions and trends to help drive the current and future automation solution offerings.
• Contribute to new and existing product specifications.
• Drive the growth of automation by helping to build and maintain long lasting relationships, inspiring trust, enhancing the client experience, and being a thorough leader with innovative automation solutions to meet customer needs.
• Assist in developing formal internal proposals including technical budget estimates and cost justification models for product line enhancements and/or cost out projects.
• Become a SME in the automation space by understanding and developing solutions utilizing products from various manufactures such as SEL, Rockwell, Siemens, and GE.
• Ensure that the company's Health, Safety & Environmental policies and procedures are constantly adhered to all aspects of Site Services.
• Independently review customer supplied specifications to assess feasibility of Powell manufacture or supply.
• Read and interpret electrical drawings to include single-lines, three-lines, elevations, control schematics, site plans and electrical enclosure layouts.
• Read and interpret network topology drawings.
• Generate accurate proposals based on the review and interpretation of customer-supplied documentation.
• Recognize and effectively communicate application concerns prior to development of proposal.
• Translate conceptual customer designs into a meaningful proposal.
• Optimize the proposed solution to best benefit Powell and our customer.
• Write effective comments to help define Powell's offering.
• Act as technical resource for Powell Sales.
• Assist Powell Sales with internal and external technical discussions and solutions.
• Perform competitive evaluation of sub vendor proposals used to complete the overall Powell offering.
• Assess risk associated with sub-vendor offering.
• Requires minimal supervision.
• May be selected to lead a project requiring contribution from multiple Application Engineers.
• Support generating new sales opportunities by providing technical support/guidance to PAD and other organizational sales teams for customer meeting and company automation initiatives.

Requirements

• B.S. in Electrical Engineering or relevant discipline
• 4+ years of experience in electrical equipment estimating, or related field
• Able to review and interpret client provided documents such as specifications, drawings and data sheets
• Strong analytical skills is required
• Basic understanding in at least two of the following is preferred: Networking and Cybersecurity, RTUs, HMIs, and SCADA Systems for Automation and Control systems, Protective Relay programming and commissioning, PLC applications for Switchgear
• Experience with Microsoft Office Suite required
• Experience with ERP system Oracle; previous experience utilizing Projects related software (ie - Primavera, Microsoft Projects, Excel and Oracle) is plus
• Previous experience developing, executing, integrating, troubleshooting, and/or commissioning projects related to relay, PLC, HMI, RTU, or control systems for power applications is preferred
• Experience with common industrial protocols such as Modbus (RTU and TCP/IP), IEC61850, DNP3, Profibus, etc. and networking is a plus
• Knowledge of 3 phase power is preferred
• Excellent customer relation, verbal, and written communication skills
• Ability to communicate clearly and professionally with all levels of an organization
• Desire to stay up to date on current industry trends and technology to improve PAD solutions/offerings.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience with common industrial protocols such as Modbus (RTU and TCP/IP), IEC61850, DNP3, Profibus, etc.
• Knowledge of 3 phase power.

Benefits

• Health insurance
• 401k retirement plan
• Paid holidays
• Flexible scheduling
• Professional development opportunities