Electrical Controls Engineer
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
An Electrical Controls Engineer designs, develops, and supervises all aspects of electrical control systems, equipment, and machinery. May be responsible for the installation and technical support of PLC based hardware and software.
Job Outlook
There were 200 Electrical Controls Engineer job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 5725 in the United States.
In combination with other careers in the Electrical Engineer industry, which includes the Electrical Controls Engineer career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2015:
Salary
Many new Electrical Controls Engineer jobs have salaries estimated to be in the following ranges, based on the requirements and responsibilities listed in job postings from the past year.
National
The average estimated salary in the United States for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $105,239.
State
The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $110,258.
Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Electrical Controls Engineer postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $96,519.
Education and Experience
Posted Electrical Controls Engineer jobs typically require the following level of education. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list education requirements.
| Education Level | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Associate's Degree | 0% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 73.92% |
| Master's Degree | 13.34% |
| Doctoral Degree | 0.94% |
| Other | 2.71% |
Posted Electrical Controls Engineer jobs typically require the following number of years of experience. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.
| Years of Experience | Percentage |
|---|---|
| 0 to 2 years | 16.33% |
| 3 to 5 years | 49.17% |
| 6 to 8 years | 18.85% |
| 9+ years | 15.65% |
Skills
Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Electrical Controls Engineer positions expect applicants to have as well as the most common skills that distinguish individuals from their peers. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is also listed.
Baseline Skills
A skill that is required across a broad range of occupations, including this one.
- Troubleshooting (Problem Solving) (39.69%)
- Communication (33.87%)
- Operations (23.23%)
- Problem Solving (22.6%)
- Management (15.35%)
- Leadership (14.06%)
- Microsoft Office (12.91%)
- Writing (11.65%)
- Planning (9.97%)
- Microsoft Excel (9.64%)
Defining Skills
A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.
- Control System Design (10.75%)
- Electrical Engineering (59.15%)
- Control Engineering (19.52%)
- Automation (31.62%)
- Control Systems (52.17%)
- Instrumentation (34.6%)
- Project Management (26.61%)
- Programmable Logic Controllers (58.38%)
- Commissioning (21.04%)
- Human Machine Interfaces (45.84%)
Necessary Skills
A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.
- Bill Of Materials (10.31%)
- Industrial Automation (4.11%)
- Computer-Aided Design (7.48%)
- Procurement (12.05%)
- Debugging (7.62%)
- Continuous Improvement Process (10.14%)
- Chemical Engineering (8.66%)
- Control Panels (9.32%)
- Distributed Control Systems (16.41%)
- Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) (19.19%)
- Electrical Systems (10.73%)
- Oil and Gas (4.86%)
- Power Distribution (6.76%)
- NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) Codes (9.54%)
- Systems Engineering (4.84%)
- AutoCAD (31.9%)
- Ladder Logic (8.35%)
- Construction (8.86%)
- Auditing (2.01%)
- Risk Analysis (3.13%)
- Motion Control Systems (8.54%)
- Electrical Wiring (14.11%)
- Control Valves (5.21%)
- Process Control (12.81%)
- Systems Design (10.42%)
- Engineering Management (2.76%)
- Engineering Design Process (10.99%)
- Wiring Diagram (8.3%)
- Low Voltage (2.74%)
- Electrical Control Systems (10.75%)
- Mechanical Engineering (15.61%)
- Valves (Piping) (6.43%)
- Machinery (12.21%)
- Motor Control (6.73%)
- Variable Frequency Drives (10.33%)
- Sensors (8.86%)
- Programmable Logic Controllers Programming (19.06%)
- Programmable Logic Controller Control Panel (8.7%)
Distinguishing Skills
A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.
- Fieldbus (2.89%)
- Safety Instrumented Systems (2.91%)
Salary Boosting Skills
A professional who wishes to excel in this career path may consider developing the following highly valued skills. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is listed.
- Automation (94.33%)
- Safety Instrumented Systems (8.67%)
Alternative Job Titles
Sometimes employers post jobs with Electrical Controls Engineer skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:
- Controls Engineer
- Instrumentation and Controls Engineer
- Instrument and Controls Engineer
- Electrical Instrumentation and Control Engineer
- Electrical and Controls Engineer
- Electrical Control Systems Engineer
- Protection and Control Engineer
- Lead Instrumentation and Controls Engineer
- Instrumentation and Controls Designer
Similar Occupations
If you are interested in exploring occupations with similar skills, you may want to research the following job titles. Note that we only list occupations that have at least one corresponding NC State Online and Distance Education program.
- Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) Programmer
- Electrical Engineer (General)
- Manufacturing Automation Engineer
Common Employers
Here are the employers that have posted the most Electrical Controls Engineer jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.
United States
- Actalent (409)
- Black & Veatch (221)
- Jobot (191)
- Sargent & Lundy (149)
- Jacobs Solutions (131)
- CyberCoders (86)
- Coast Medical Service (72)
- Randstad (70)
- Burns & McDonnell (63)
- Pace Packaging Corporation (58)
North Carolina
- Actalent (26)
- Black & Veatch (23)
- Southern Company (18)
- Corning (15)
- Jobot (12)
- Day & Zimmermann (8)
- CyberCoders (6)
- Burns & McDonnell (4)
- Leidos (3)
- Duke Energy (3)
NC State Programs Relevant to this Career
If you are interested in preparing for a career in this field, the following NC State Online and Distance Education programs offer a great place to start!
All wages, job posting statistics, employment trend projections, and information about skill desirability on this page represents historical data and does not guarantee future conditions. Data is provided by and downloaded regularly from Lightcast. For more information about how Lightcast gathers data and what it represents, see Lightcast Data: Basic Overview on Lightcast's Knowledge Base website.