I design Human Machine Interface (HMI) applications and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems for the oil and gas industry. These applications are windows into the process and provide real-time visibility and control to the operators on-site. They also serve as reporting systems for alarms and chart generation, so our clients can abide by government regulations and perform root cause analysis when processes break down.

EDUCATION | I have an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering and am currently enrolled in a graduate degree program in Engineering Management.

HOW TO GET STARTED | People in this field of work are primarily electrical or chemical engineers. To do this work, though, you do not have to have a specific degree (or any at all but it certainly helps). The best way to get into the industry is to know someone who can set you up as a low level worker on a big project.

MUST HAVE TRAITS | The traits that people who are most successful have are organization skills, strong problem-solving abilities, an affinity for computers and technology, and the ability to continuously learn while on the job.

how I got started | In college, I had one class that used controls to monitor a cooling cycle and I enjoyed the class enough to seek out controls-related tasks in future jobs. Out of college, I worked as a design engineer in hydraulics, but was given control panel design and PLC programming tasks because of my strong computer skills. I then left that job for an HVAC controls position which is a smaller scale application of the industry I work in now. From there I was able to make the jump to oil and gas because of the breadth of my education and building controls experience. Oil and gas processes can be extremely complex with large amounts of sensors, and devices which feed information to PLCs, so they may make decisions in order to keep the process in a state of control. The HMI applications work in conjunction with PLCs so people can see how the process is behaving in real time, and in some cases, control the process through the manipulation of setpoints, and the manual on/off control of machinery. HMI design requires a high amount of general computer and networking knowledge, as well as being able to read drawings and understand how to control volatile processes.

why this job?| What inspires me about this job is the integration of technology in the control of processes. The worldwide network allows us to provide control of a remote pipeline or compressor station from a centralized, more populated, location. By creating a powerful SCADA system, we're not only able to solve the problem of control, but make it safe and provide the client with the ability to view the process from anywhere in the world, in real time. That is powerful.

why I love this job!| I love the creative aspect of the job. Although we have procedures in place to ensure quality, there still is a lot of wiggle room to get creative with the application.

my typical day| All of the work that I do is on a computer. Projects are handled by teams. A typical day will include work alone on a computer, in an HMI software program with some time spent with others on the project for clarification on certain parts of the project. Once a project is completed and tested, it is commissioned on-site. This usually consists of part of the team traveling to the site and working long days to implement the entire system. The commissioning of projects is the most exciting part of a project as we get to see the entire system come to life.

what they are | The most challenging part of my job is coordinating everyone's efforts so that the final product integrates with the other deliverables without any issues. Database management becomes key because there are multiple systems being seamlessly integrated across different platforms. The only thing that the client will see and use in the end is the HMI and so it is very important to produce a high quality and aesthetically pleasing product.

all about growth | As my career progresses, I can move into a position of a technical lead, and become more active in the front-end design of projects and the creation of proposals for new work. After another period of increasing responsibility and growth, I could become a project manager. In the oil and gas industry, it's important for the project managers to know how to do every part of a project on their own but then delegate that work to others. Project managers are integral to the success of the project from bidding it to commissioning it.

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