Controls SME, Principal

About the Role

The Controls SME is Managed Services' controls and automation expert, embedded in a data center build. The role supports design review, vendor oversight, and commissioning to make sure the control systems are operable, maintainable, and trustworthy at turnover. Controls are the facility's nervous system: when they fail or mislead, operators lose sight of everything else.

Operability Design Review

Review controls designs, including BMS/BAS, EPMS, SCADA, PLC-based plant controls, CDU and cooling plant controls, and generator, UPS, and switchgear controller integration, through an operations lens. Sequences of operations, failure-mode and fail-safe behavior, loss-of-network and loss-of-controller response, manual and local override, point lists and instrumentation adequacy, alarm philosophy and prioritization, graphics clarity, and OT network architecture and access control. Push back where the design assumes an operator will understand or recover something the system never tells them.

Controls QA/QC and Vendor Oversight

Provide QA/QC oversight of controls scope for new construction and retrofits: review vendor proposals and programming, directly oversee system configuration and component upgrades, and witness factory tests. Hold controls vendors to Hut 8 standards and to the approved sequences, and make sure every modification to a system follows change control.

Construction-Phase Verification

Walk controls installations at key milestones. Flag operability and quality issues to the MEP superintendent early, while they are still cheap to fix.

Commissioning

Witness Level 3-5 commissioning of controls and automation: point-to-point verification, sequence- of-operations testing, controller, server, and network failover, alarm verification, trend validation, and integrated systems testing across mechanical, electrical, and controls, including loss-of- communication and loss-of-BMS scenarios. Review programming through the commissioning process, drive operational findings into the Cx log with clear acceptance criteria, and verify closure personally.

Turnover Readiness

Verify controls turnover packages: as-built sequences of operation, point lists, control and network drawings, programming backups and configuration files under version control, licenses and credentials transferred to Hut 8, alarm setpoint and priority matrices, trend baselines, spare controllers and critical modules, and PM program inputs such as backup routines, firmware updates, and panel power health. Confirm the backups actually restore.

Training

Provide technical controls training and support to Facility Operations staff, and validate that operator training equips the team to use the systems, not just look at them.

Program Feedback

Feed operational lessons into Hut 8 controls standards, point naming and alarm conventions, and the next project's basis of design, and work with other Hut 8 sites and teams to carry standards across the portfolio.

What we're looking for

• 7+ years of controls experience in programming, start-up, and commissioning of complex systems such as central plants, air handling units, and evaporative cooling and humidification systems. A bachelor's degree or trade certification in a related field plus 3+ years of controls industry experience will be considered in lieu.
• Experience in critical environments, with a working knowledge of critical facility operations and procedure-based work.
• Theoretical and practical understanding of control equipment and systems: design, maintenance, troubleshooting, testing, and construction.
• Working knowledge of the mechanical, electrical, and life safety systems found in critical facilities.
• Sequence-of-operations fluency: you can read one critically, catch the gaps and failure modes, and test whether it behaves as written.
• Experience interpreting blueprints, CAD drawings, and controls diagrams.
• Turnover documentation rigor, especially programming backups, configuration files, and version control.
• Comfortable embedded with a construction team while holding the operations line, and effective in a highly collaborative, cross-functional environment.

Preferred

• Data center experience.
• PLC programming experience
• IT or networking certification
• Equipment field service engineering or manufacturer representative experience.
• Demonstrated use of AI tools to improve workflows with measurable results, such as efficiency gains or quality improvements.