Controls Engineer

Controls Engineer North Charleston, South Carolina Onsite About Red Metals Red Metals is rethinking the domestic copper supply chain at a pivotal moment in American industry. U.S. demand already exceeds domestic supply, and the gap is widening as grid modernization, the energy transition, and buildout of AI infrastructure accelerate. We are building a new model for this critical industrial layer in the United States. Conventional refining moves copper through concentrate, matte, anode, and cathode before it becomes rod. We go straight from scrap to rod in one facility, using our integrated flowsheet that brings together shredders, mills, physical AI, and molten metal chemistry. We are building our first production line in North Charleston, South Carolina: a $70M investment in the future of American-made copper. The Role We are looking for a Controls Engineer to design and build the automation infrastructure that runs our first scrap-to-rod production line. Our control systems will be a hybrid between what we build from the ground up and automation skids packaged with our equipment. Over time, we will iterate on all automation in the plant, vendor systems included, to build our own approach to copper processing. You will join our controls team and share ownership of the design, commissioning, and continuous improvement of these systems. Our controls team has a wide-ranging scope, covering electrical, instrumentation, and software domains. This role suits engineers who want to learn fast and wear many hats. As a team, we’ll work to innovate in both copper manufacturing and industrial automation. What You’ll Do - Design and architect the plant’s controls infrastructure, from the sensor level up to the data layer for process, equipment, and quality data - Develop controls logic for equipment across the line, from heavy shredding to molten metal, with code review, simulation, and structured testing before it reaches the floor - Build on our Siemens and Ignition stack, and help shape how we use it as the plant grows - Lead commissioning of in-house and vendor systems, from I/O checkout through loop tuning and production ramp-up - Design safety systems across the plant, from machine safety in copper liberation to process interlocks in molten metal operations - Write the controls standards that every line will run on, including our architecture, code structure, and documentation - Optimize our machine vision and AI controls systems and expand their capabilities with sensor fusion - Build internal tooling and automation that reduce manual work and speed up our troubleshooting and analysis - Specify and integrate sensors and instrumentation to provide real-time measurement of process conditions and product quality Red Metals Non-Negotiables 1. Bias for Action We move fast. Speed beats polish. We use every tool, especially AI, to accelerate decisions, execution, and learning. 2. Grit We do hard things because they matter. We keep pushing when others quit. 3. Ownership We own outcomes, not tasks. We see problems, fix them, and follow through across functions. 4. Signal We cut through noise. We communicate clearly and directly so decisions are fast and execution stays sharp. 5. Craft We take pride in our work. Quality, care, and precision are the standard. What We’re Looking For - Degree in Electrical Engineering, Controls Engineering, Chemical Engineering or related field, or equivalent hands-on experience demonstrating controls engineering capability - 3+ years of experience in controls or instrumentation engineering - Strong fundamentals in control systems, instrumentation, and electrical systems - Proven ability to build and run real-world control systems, from concept to production - Hands-on experience with PLCs and industrial control environments - Experience working with real process data, including data collection, analysis, and application to system performance improvement - Comfortable writing code and building tooling beyond ladder logic (Python or similar) - Comfortable working on the plant floor in an industrial environment - Ability to operate with incomplete information and make sound decisions quickly Strong Pluses: - Background in metals, recycling, mining, or heavy industry - Experience commissioning and scaling first-of-a-kind or non-standard systems - Experience building data pipelines, monitoring, and internal tools for industrial environments - Experience applying machine learning or AI tools to process optimization - Startup or early-stage experience Why Red Metals - Build a company from zero, not optimize an existing system - Direct ownership of critical process and operational decisions - Work on a problem that matters: rebuilding U.S. industrial capacity - Small team, high trust, no bureaucracy Location This role is based in North Charleston, South Carolina and requires on-site work.