Sr. Automation & Controls Engineer

Build your career at Sazerac! With almost 400 years of rich history, Sazerac Company has thrived as an independent, American family-owned company with operations in the United States and around the world. Since the 2000s, Sazerac has averaged double digit growth every year! Sazerac Company produces and markets the most award-winning bourbons and whiskeys in the world, including Buffalo Trace, Pappy Van Winkle, Eagle Rare, Blanton’s, Traveller, and Sazerac Rye. Additionally, Sazerac owns many popular brands across a range of spirits, including Fireball, Svedka, Wheatley, BuzzBallz, Southern Comfort, Seagram’s V.O., Myers’s, Goldschläger, Parrot Bay, 99 Brand, and Platinum Vodka.

We’re proud of our award-winning culture and distilleries. Our Louisville office has been named one of the “Best Places to Work in Kentucky” four times, and our Buffalo Trace Distillery has earned the title of “world’s most award-winning distillery” through the dedication of our craftsmen for well over 200 years. Whether you’re a recent graduate or an experienced professional, Sazerac provides extraordinary opportunities for growth with competitive salaries and benefits in an exciting, entrepreneurial industry.

As the Sr. Automation & Controls Engineer, this role will lead and support capital project initiatives across various sites, specializing deployment of new structured automation and controls. This role provides technical leadership in developing efficient, world class, high-quality production processes, and ensures adherence to industry and regulatory standards. Partnering with cross-functional teams, this role will drive innovation in automation and controls and help shape capabilities within our global engineering agenda, develop and write company functional design standards and determine gap analysis against those standards for all locations within Sazerac. Mentor junior engineers on skill development, work processes, and navigating change.

• Provide engineering and technical expertise to support automation and controls systems, and as well as other engineering disciplines. As a member of the Strategic Operations Engineering Team, this role is expected to support any company location with a Capital Project. That may include travel to any of the Sazerac locations.
• Sets up each improvement project in PPT, ensuring all team members are added and assigned tasks completed to keep projects on time and under budget. Uses PPT to keep key stakeholders on track and informed of project updates.
• Drive toward continuous improvement, growth, efficiency and cost savings. Creates project engineering processes and standards across the network to improve continuity, timelines, quality, adherence to construction and engineering best practices, and budget adherence"
• Ensures automation and controls meet regulatory requirements including OSHA, EPA and TTB regulations. Takes immediate corrective action when needed to stay in compliance
• Participates in the PDS process, meeting expectations for reporting on learnings and using feedback from the process to ensure optimal outcomes for the role.
• Maintains safe and clean working environment by enforcing procedures, rules, and regulations. Identify and manage risks and safety aspects of the project. Ensure all contractors / employees involved on work in progress are following safe work practices. Review equipment specifications and ensure installation meets safety standards.
• Be the subject matter expert in automation and control systems used in high speed bottling, distillation, finished good storage systems. Conduct assessments on current locations and determine what gaps exist. Develop world class solutions on how to address those gaps. Design and run process simulations, performing risk assessment testing to eliminate constraints and limitations on our current systems. Develop and write functional design specifications for automation and controls, equipment, and methods. Develop TCO and other competitive bidding evaluation systems to find key partners in executing the FDS. 
• Meets and exceeds customer expectations through the support of automation and control equipment and systems to deliver product on time within budget and to meet quality specifications. Troubleshoots operating problems, evaluates the situation and coordinates resolution.
• Works with operations leadership across the network to identify automation and control systems improvements and long term development plans for each location. Develops capital projects and other types of improvement project plans and budgets. Monitors progress and  reports to operations leadership.  Identifies obstacles to project completion and executes plans to get projects back on track. Support automation and control systems capacity planning and inventory accuracy efforts. Identify, streamline, and document the processing planning processes with focus on improving efficiencies, reducing errors, and improving the quality of work.

MUST

• Ability to communicate with all levels of an org
• Strong computer skills and high comfort using technology and systems
• Ability to manage multiple projects at one time
• Bachelors Degree in Engineering related discipline
• Ability to handle multiple tasks at one time
• Willingness to travel
• 3 years relevant experience (minimum)
• Experience leading capital improvements, change management, and process improvement projects.
• Excellent knowledge of engineering within high speed bottling systems

PREFERRED

• 3 years implementation or project management experience.
• 2 years implementation or project management experience.
• Ba/bs degree in electronics, electrical, or mechanical engineering or related discipline
• 7+ years’ experience in engineering preferably within the hygienic process industries (brewing, distilling, food, pharmaceutical, health & beauty)
• Pmp, pfmp, pgmp, lean 6 sigma or other project management experience and certification

Physical Requirements

• Ability to pick up and/or move objects up to 50 pounds without assistance.
• Ability to work overtime if necessary
• Ability to work 8 hour shift
• In-person job attendance
• Strong communication skills
• Ability to read and write
• Ability to work near moving mechanical parts
• Ability to pay attention to detail
• Ability to pay attention to detail
• Noise level at work station is loud (metal can manufacturing, large earth moving equipment)

#LI-AF2

A career at Sazerac offers you the opportunity to reach your full potential as part of a creative, decisive, high-performance team. Sazerac values the needs and wants of our team members and offers inclusive benefits to attract and retain the best talent. Our culture is built upon the values of hard work, diligence and personal responsibility.

Sazerac Team Members enjoy:

• Competitive Pay
• Comprehensive Benefits from Day One including medical, dental, vision, disability, and life insurance.
• Family Coverage: Options to cover family members, including domestic partners.
• 401(k) Plan: Immediate access to a matching 401(k) plan.
• Flexible Time Away: Enjoy paid time off (PTO), holidays, and parental leave.
• Mental Health and Wellness: Access to mental health care and wellness incentive programs.
• Educational Support: Benefit from tuition reimbursement and our scholarship program for dependents of Sazerac team members.
• Fun Extras: Enjoy branded apparel, fun events, and a team member bottle purchase program.
• Training and Development: Opportunities for professional growth and development.

Benefits, salary range, and programs may vary by role or location. For roles within our commercial team - the Salary range refers to base salary only and does not include car allowance, annual bonus, fuel or cell phone reimbursement. Please ask your Talent Acquisition Partner for more information about our total rewards package. Sazerac is committed to equality of opportunity without regard to race, color, religion, national or ethnic origin, veteran status, age, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, genetic information, physical or mental disability or any other legally protected status.