Industrial Electrician - Controls / PLC Technician (Red Seal)
Vanguard Power Ltd. | Chilliwack, BC
A plant maintenance manager calls at 06:40: the line is down, the PLC shows a fault, the operator has already tried cycling power. You are the person who walks in with the drawings and a meter, finds the cause rather than the symptom, writes the report before you leave, and calls the next morning to confirm the fix held. Between calls you are in the Chilliwack panel shop wiring and point-to-point checking panels, programming and commissioning PLC and HMI systems on water, wastewater, fueling and process projects, and setting up VFDs and instrument loops. If you are a Red Seal electrician who would rather read ladder logic than pull wire, this is the job.
About Vanguard Power Ltd.
Vanguard Power Ltd. is a British Columbia-based industrial electrical contractor. Our work includes water and wastewater treatment plants, pump and lift stations, traffic infrastructure, CNG, LNG, hydrogen and petroleum fueling stations, water parks and recreational facilities, and industrial power distribution, instrumentation, and controls projects across BC and Alberta. Our field teams work on live operating facilities, shutdowns, and technically demanding installations that require people who think critically, plan ahead, and take ownership of their work - without needing to be told what to do next.
The Role
You keep industrial customers' equipment running and bring new control systems to life. On service calls you diagnose and repair industrial electrical and control faults, decide the diagnostic approach and repair method inside what the customer authorized, make equipment safe, and tell the customer in plain language what was found, what was done and what remains - then write the report the same day. In the panel shop you wire and check control panels to drawing and CSA requirements, redlining as you go. On projects you program and configure PLC and HMI systems to the approved sequence of operations, run I/O and loop checks, set up VFDs and starters, verify safety circuits, run functional tests with the customer present and hand over programs, backups and as-builts. The Director of Technical Operations holds technical authority for controls across the company; you do the work. You decide program changes inside the approved sequence and like-for-like parts on your own. You never bypass a safety circuit, never change a sequence, interlock or safety function without the Director's approval, never quote a price or promise a date, and never perform extra work the customer or PM has not authorized - you make safe, flag it and recommend.
What You'll Do
- Attend service calls across Vanguard's service area: confirm the authorized scope on arrival, diagnose methodically from drawings, sequence of operations, I/O status and measurements, repair or safely isolate, and review the report with the customer before leaving
- Program, configure, test, back up and document PLC and HMI systems to the approved sequence of operations, with every program touched backed up to the company project folder the same day
- Wire and fabricate control panels in the Chilliwack panel shop to drawing, CSA and CEC requirements, with point-to-point checks before the panel leaves and redlines kept as changes are made
- Troubleshoot motor-control, VFD, instrumentation and automation faults to root cause - a repeat call for the same fault is a job not finished
- Support commissioning: I/O and loop checks, motor rotation and bump tests, VFD and soft-starter parameters, safety-circuit verification, functional testing with the customer's representative, punch-list closure on controls scope
- Write a service-call report for every call before leaving site - customer, equipment, fault, cause, work performed, parts, time, recommended follow-up - and send it the same day
- Enter time daily against the correct project, service call or shop job; reconcile parts used so the customer is invoiced for what was installed; keep test equipment calibrated and software current
- Review open calls weekly with the Director of Technical Operations, flag drawing conflicts and extra work in writing, and teach apprentices assigned to controls, panel and troubleshooting work
- Take part in the after-hours on-call service rotation [SUBJECT TO DISCUSSION - rotation and call-out terms not yet defined]
Travel
[VANGUARD EXPECTATION] Regular travel to customer sites throughout Vanguard's service area in a company vehicle, and to project sites as assigned - including out-of-town and camp-based projects across BC and Alberta when the controls scope requires it - is a condition of employment. Based out of the Chilliwack panel shop between calls and assignments.
What You Bring - Must Have
- Demonstrated industrial controls experience: PLC and HMI programming and troubleshooting on at least one major platform (Allen-Bradley / Rockwell, Siemens or comparable), motor control and VFD setup, and industrial instrumentation
- Control panel wiring and fabrication to drawing, including CSA and CEC panel requirements
- Proven field troubleshooting on industrial electrical and automation systems - reading control narratives, ladder or structured-text logic, schematics and I/O drawings
- Able to work alone on a customer site, communicate clearly with customer personnel, and write a complete service-call report the same day
- Valid BC driver's licence with a clean abstract; able to take part in an on-call / after-hours rotation [SUBJECT TO DISCUSSION - rotation and call-out terms not yet defined]
- Several years of industrial electrical experience after certification, a meaningful portion in controls, PLC and troubleshooting rather than construction installation only
Nice to Have
- AutoCAD or AutoCAD Electrical for producing and correcting panel and control drawings
- Industrial networks (EtherNet/IP, Modbus, Profinet or similar), VFD commissioning, instrumentation loop checks and tuning
- Platform certifications or training (Rockwell, Siemens or comparable); FSR certification an asset
- Experience in food processing, manufacturing, water/wastewater, forestry, agriculture or similar process industries, working with customer maintenance teams
- Electrical safety / arc-flash, lockout, confined space, fall protection and aerial lift certifications current
Who Succeeds in This Role
The Technician who does well here tells a plant manager plainly that the interlock stays in and why, and offers the proper fix - and isolates equipment that is not safe to run even when the customer wants it running. They lock out and verify on the five-minute check because they are usually the only Vanguard person on site and how they work is the company's standard in the customer's eyes. They walk a customer through a fault from the drawing rather than from trial and error, notice the failing contactor beside the one they are replacing and write it up as a recommendation instead of quietly replacing it or quietly ignoring it. They call the customer the next morning to confirm the fix held, write the report so the next Technician could pick up the call cold, and file the program backup the same day rather than carrying it on a laptop. When a program change of theirs breaks something, the customer hears it from them first, with the fix. They are reachable through the working day when calls are open, and they leave every panel cleaner and better labelled than they found it.
What We Offer
- Compensation: to be confirmed based on experience and certification level.
- A written role package on day one: what you decide on a call, what needs the Director's approval before you change it, what you flag to the customer, and what is never yours - including the line between you and the Foreman when you are on a project site
- Controls work with depth - PLC and HMI programming, VFDs, instrumentation and loop tuning, panel building, commissioning on live facilities - and a Director of Technical Operations as your technical authority and mentor
- A defined performance scorecard - same-day reports, backups filed, phone response, sequence changes approved before made, first-visit resolution, repeat calls, panel quality, customer feedback - reviewed against logs rather than impressions
- One agreed platform or skills course a year (PLC platform certification, instrumentation, motor control, networking or AutoCAD) and a monthly skill goal set with the Director
- A company vehicle for service work, a Chilliwack panel shop as your base, and a growing industrial service book where a call done well becomes a repeat account
Work Environment and Schedule
Based out of the Chilliwack panel shop between calls and project assignments; day-to-day location follows the service schedule across Vanguard's service area, with project assignments including out-of-town and camp-based sites when the controls scope requires it. Full hands-on trade work in industrial plant environments - ladders, lifts, confined spaces, elevated work, noise, heat and wet process areas - with arc-flash PPE and site safety compliance at all times; the work is hands-on wiring, testing and troubleshooting through a full shift and on call-outs. Reachable by phone during working hours and while on call per the Communication Standard; participates in the after-hours on-call rotation
