Distributed Controls Systems Automation Lead

HF Sinclair•Woods Cross, UT

About The Position

HF Sinclair is seeking a Distributed Controls Systems Automation Lead in Dallas, TX or Artesia, NM or El Dorado, KS, or Tulsa, OK, or Casper, WY, or Woods Cross, UT, or Sinclair, WY, or Puget Sound, WA who will be repsonsible to provide technical leadership, tactical direction, and drives execution within the organization's Operational Technology function to optimize the lifecycle reliability and security of the equipment and systems associated with the DCS and SCADA Automation areas. Responsible for defining HFS approach to deliver secure, reliable, and competitive DCS Automation systems. Provide technical leadership for reliability performance across the fleet, support sites in proactive systemic issue elimination and major incident learnings. Build and run a program to integrate modernization activities (small and large) into the necessary capital project and operational expense budget planning cycles, resulting in a funded, risk-ranked portfolio with a governance cadence. Scope Summary: Distributed Controls Systems (“DCS”), APC, DLPC, SCADA, PLCs, and other ICS related automation systems (e.g., PCN, BPCS), including relevant communication protocols. Primary system scope: control system components: I/O, field automation components, controllers, control firewalls, servers and infrastructure services, engineering and configuration environments, operator interface platforms, advanced process control systems, MES, blending, optimization systems) Secondary system scope: this may extend to applications tightly integrated with control systems (e.g., alarm management system, data collectors for process historian) but does not include industrial applications that are important but not critical to process control.

Requirements

A minimum of 10-15 years’ technical experience in control systems engineering.
Preferrably refining or in oil and gas or energy related industries.
People leadership experience is also required.
A minimum of a bachelor’s degree in engineering or a combination of relevant years of experience and education in lieu of degree.
Ability to lead and direct the work of other associates.
A significant amount of experience in engineering, as well as experience in the energy industry, is essential.
Advanced reading and writing skills; excellent interpersonal skills and ability to effectively communicate with others.
Requires working closely with internal leadership teams, outside engineering firms, other companies, and in some case governmental agencies.
No direct supervision is required: ability to lead cross functional teams is required.

Responsibilities

Provide subject matter expertise to the fleet relating to the selection, design, installation, maintenance of, and integration to DCS, APC, DLPC, SCADA, PLCs, PCN, BPCS.
Develop fleet points of view on areas worthy of strategic and tactical considerations (e.g., virtualization, platform consolidation, external partners, business continuity, graphics standards, hardware standards)
Define and maintain standard reference architectures, protocol selection framework, preferred integration methods, and requirements for communications reliability).
Draft, review, and maintain relevant Operational Technology discipline standards and assurance checklists as part of the company’s management system and Engineering Practices.
Coordinate, perform, and report on OEMs assurance activities.
Develop and maintain a fleet view on a ten-year plan outlining all recommended upgrades, replacements, or additions prioritized based on risk ranking.
Develop, initiate, and drive coordination of fleet wide shared needs and/or capabilities
Recommend targeted actions for sites to improve quality of reporting and existing performance metrics related to system health, availability, reliability, and performance data. Create new metrics as necessary.
Optimize contractual and financial commitments required to execute modernization projects across the fleet.
Provide input into alternative ways of working to challenge how we organize resources to provide value.
Under the direction of supervisor, lead fleet programs and initiatives to achieve consistent service delivery across sites to DCS customers and stakeholders.
This requires responsibility for work stream design, execution coordination, and management reporting to drive towards a defined objective.
Lead collaboration with adjacent technical groups,key customer groups and partners.
Promote cross-site collaboration and workforce development within the DCS Automation discipline.
Lead corresponding community of practice to promote knowledge sharing and execution of best practices in support of initiatives, priorities, and objectives sponsored by the Technical Services Network.
Identify, measure, and track DCS Automation risks across the fleet to enable informed prioritization of resources.
Develop key performance, key risk indicators, and provide supporting data on a periodic basis to necessary stakeholders.
Monitor trends to promote awareness and risk identification.
Serve as a liaison to operations for projects requiring DCS Automation additions, replacements, or system integrations
Serve as a liaison for risk assessments and/or technical solutions to ensure alignment with manufacturing practices and innovation opportunities.
Serve as a technical resource for the Technical Services Network.
Support vendor relationship management process, conduct vendor service reviews, and identify vendor risks as applicable
Provide coaching for technical team members.
Periodically facilitate structured training sessions for site participants. Topics will vary within the technical discipline but should be intended to provide general awareness, alternate perspectives, potential solutions, and promote risk mitigation or value add activities.
Lead technical engagement with vendors to develop relationships, identify opportunities, and drive service quality for sites.
Special assignments or tasks assigned to the employee by their supervisor, as determined from time to time in their sole and complete discretion.