Sr. Lead Controls Engineer – Libraries & Standards

Xylem is a Fortune 500 global water solutions company dedicated to advancing sustainable impact and empowering the people who make water work every day. As a leading water technology company with 23000 employees operating in over 150 countries Xylem is at the forefront of addressing the worlds most critical water challenges. We invite passionate individuals to join our team dedicated to exceeding customer expectations through innovative and sustainable solutions.

Role: Sr. / Lead - Controls Engineer Libraries & Standards

Location: Vadodara / Chennai (Global collaboration)

Function: Controls / Industrial Automation

Type: Technical Role
Travel: Up to 15 percent (Domestic and International)

About the Role

Xylem is a Fortune 500 global water solutions company operating in over 150 countries. This role is a senior technical leadership position responsible for defining and governing standardized PLC software libraries used across global platforms.

The candidate assists the Global Technical Leader (Chief Engineer) with the architecture development governance and lifecycle management of reusable PLC libraries and HMI standards across Rockwell and Siemens ecosystems. The role ensures consistency quality backward compatibility and global adoption across regional engineering teams.

Must Have Skills and Responsibilities

Global Collaboration and Technical Leadership

• Collaborate with global technical leaders and business units to execute standardization roadmaps for PLC / HMI / VFD / SCADA / Industrial Edge & Intelligence / Sensors & Networking.
• Drive consolidation of control strategies and templates across regions and product lines.
• Evaluate and introduce new tools and practices such as simulation elite coding techniques documentation tooling and PLC-oriented CI/CD where applicable.
• Participate in management of Supplier relationships including enforcement of negotiated corporate pricing.
• Influence and guide teams through technical leadership rather than direct authority.

Automation Library Architecture and Lifecycle Ownership

• Architect develop and maintain standardized PLC & HMI libraries (AOIs / FBs UDTs Faceplates / Global Objects) for global reuse.
• Lead / guide adoption of PLC / HMI libraries by our global Business Units often helping them to restructure their legacy code into our library format.
• Define and enforce software architecture standards including naming conventions parameter models diagnostics error handling scalability and performance.
• Own versioning and release governance including semantic versioning backward compatibility deprecation policies and release documentation.
• Manage defect and enhancement backlogs with structured triage prioritization and regression testing.
• Experience applying ISA and IEC standards to control system design and documentation.
• Familiarity with PLC testing approaches including simulation hardware-in-the-loop and structured regression testing.
• Experience developing HMI or SCADA standards aligned with PLC libraries including faceplates alarms diagnostics and navigation patterns.

Standards Tooling and Best Practices

• Establish PLC coding guidelines and development workflows including branching strategies code reviews testing approaches and release gates.
• Develop reusable utilities and accelerators such as starter projects simulation stubs test harnesses and example implementations.
• Promote modular and maintainable design aligned with ISA and IEC principles.

Enablement Documentation and Mentorship

• Maintain preferred parts lists and guidance to foster staff creation of appropriate Bill-of-Materials
• Create high-quality technical documentation including application notes integration guides interface definitions and troubleshooting playbooks.
• Develop enablement and training assets such as quick-start guides sample projects and instructional material.
• Provide technical mentorship and remote support to global engineering teams adopting the standards.

Good to Have (Preferred)

• Exposure to scripting or tooling languages such as Python C SQL or Excel VBA for automation testing or documentation.
• Exposure to IEC 62443-aligned OT cybersecurity practices including network segmentation zone and conduit concepts asset management and industrial firewalls.
• Experience with ITOT convergence architectures using DMZs VLANs and industrial gateways such as OPC UA or MQTT.
• Familiarity with IIoT smart manufacturing and digital transformation initiatives.
• Understanding of industrial data historians and visualization tools such as OSIsoft or AVEVA PI System and PI Vision.

Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering Instrumentation and Controls Automation Engineering or equivalent.
• 8-12 Years of PLC software development experience with strong focus on modular and reusable architectures.

Tools and Platforms

• Rockwell Studio 5000 / Logix Designer FactoryTalk View SE and ME
• Siemens TIA Portal WinCC WinCC Unified
• Version control systems (Git-based workflows)
• Defect tracking requirements management and documentation tools

Guidance of Others

This role provides technical guidance mentorship and indirect leadership to global control system engineering teams. Strong communication skills and the ability to influence and guide others are essential.

Why Xylem

This role offers the opportunity to shape global control software standards at scale improving reliability consistency and time-to-market for solutions that address critical water challenges worldwide. Xylem values inclusion collaboration and technical excellence in delivering sustainable impact.

Join the global Xylem team to be a part of innovative technology solutions transforming water usage conservation and re-use. Our products impact public utilities industrial sectors residential areas and commercial buildings with a commitment to providing smart metering network technologies and advanced analytics for water electric and gas utilities. Partner with us in creating a world where water challenges are met with ingenuity and dedication; where we recognize the power of inclusion and belonging in driving innovation and allowing us to compete more effectively around the world.