Westlake · 3 hours ago
Engineer Principal - Advanced Process Control
Houston, TX
Full-time
Hybrid
Lead/Staff
10+ years expWestlake’s Digital Office is at the forefront of digital transformation, driving operational excellence and significant enhancements in customer experience across our global manufacturing portfolio. As a Principal APC Engineer, you will lead the identification, design, implementation, and maintenance of advanced process control and optimization applications across Westlake’s Performance and Essential Materials (PEM) manufacturing plants.
ChemicalManufacturingMedical
Responsibilities
Responsible for the entire lifecycle of an APC project, including identification, design, implementation, and maintenance of APC Applications for real-time process optimization across PEM manufacturing sites
Analyze process dynamics and operation challenges, and develop advanced control strategies, including multivariable control, advanced PID, sequence control, and interlocks, etc
Proactively monitor, troubleshoot, and tune APC and base layer PID controller performance, ensuring uptime and benefit realization targets are met. Support the implementation and maintenance of the company-wide APC KPI Dashboard system
Re-evaluate and adapt control strategies in response to plant operating condition changes
Integrate APC systems with DCS, PLCs, laboratory information systems, and plant historians (e.g., InfoPlus.21 and OSIsoft PI). Support plant operations during turnarounds, commissioning, and start-up phases; perform site acceptance testing and commissioning of control systems
Ensure changes follow Westlake’s Management of Change (MOC) processes and maintain comprehensive documentation (PID loop tuning logs, APC design and implementation documentation, APC change logs, etc.)
Provide training and coaching to operators and process engineers on APC system usage and best practices
Facilitate adoption and effective use of APC solutions; report usage and performance against defined KPIs. Experienced in collaborating and communicating with a variety of stakeholders of multi-disciplines, including company/plant management team, process/production team, operation team, control team, company IT/OT team, etc., during the entire lifecycle of an APC project
Organize and/or participate in various activities to develop Westlake’s APC program, including providing training and coaching to fellow APC engineers with less experience, sharing lessons learned and best practices in company’s APC network, developing & defining companywide standards or guidelines for APC project implementation and maintenance process, etc
Participate in DCS/PLC software and hardware upgrades, alarm rationalization, and technical assurance reviews
Work closely with plant operations and engineering to identify and implement process control improvements
Collaborate with OT/IT and Data Science teams to define and execute real-time data strategies and architectures for process automation and analytics
Contribute to the development of technology roadmaps and capital plans for process-automation, control, and optimization
Support standardization and harmonization of APC practices, specifications, and KPIs across Westlake’s global PEM sites
Qualification
Required
Minimum 10 years of hands-on experience in identifying, designing, implementing, tuning, and sustaining AspenTech APC (DMC3/DMCplus/IQ) applications in refinery, chemical, or petrochemical plants; experiences of other APC platforms, such as Honeywell's Profit Suite/Forge APC platform, and Rockwell Automation's Pavilion8 MPC platform will also be beneficial
Bachelor's or Master's degree in Chemical Engineering (or related field)
Proven expertise in multivariable control and process optimization; experience in steady-state and dynamic process modeling is a plus
Strong working knowledge of process flowsheets, P&IDs, and control logic diagrams. Demonstrated capability on learning new processes and data analysis
Demonstrated ability to lead APC projects from design through commissioning and sustainment
Experience with plant data historians (OSIsoft PI, InfoPlus.21, etc.), PIMS, and integration with OT/IT systems
Excellent troubleshooting, problem-solving, and analytical skills
Effective oral and written communication skills; ability to work collaboratively across diverse teams and locations
Strong planning and organizational skills; able to manage multiple priorities and develop support roadmaps
Preferred
Experience with additional APC/optimization/modeling platforms (e.g., Aspen Watch, Aspen IQ, SPYRO, ProMV, etc.)
Experience in training and mentoring plant personnel on APC and process automation topics
Experience in coaching APC engineers with less experience, as well as developing central APC program
Working knowledge of industry standards in industrial automation, and project management
Company
Westlake
Westlake is a manufacturer and supplier of petrochemicals, polymers and building products. It is a sub-organization of Westlake Chemical Partners.
10001+ employees
H1B Sponsorship
Westlake has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (7)
2024 (6)
2023 (11)
2022 (9)
2021 (9)
2020 (8)
Funding
Current Stage
Public CompanyTotal Funding
$1.2B2025-11-04Post Ipo Debt· $1.2B
2017-01-07Post Ipo Equity
2004-08-11IPO
Leadership Team
Albert Chao
Chief Executive Officer
Jean-Marc Gilson
President and CEO
Recent News
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2025-11-04
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