today
today
Job description
Role Summary
As a Sr. Automation Engineer within the Central Projects & Engineering team, you play a key role in shaping and delivering automation and process control solutions across multiple bio‑energy facilities and projects. You work closely with engineering contractors, system integrators, OEM vendors and VTTI Group OT experts to ensure robust SCADA/PLC design, safeguarding, cybersecurity, and process control implementation. Your work spans the full lifecycle: concept, design, execution, commissioning, and optimization of automation systems that ensure safety, reliability, and high plant performance.
Key Responsibilities
1. Automation & Control Systems
- Design, program, and maintain PLC‑based control systems and associated SCADA/HMI environments.
- Ensure correct integration of instrumentation, gas quality analyzers, safety devices, interlocks, and ESD logic.
- Lead troubleshooting across control systems to improve plant stability and reduce downtime.
2. Process Control Strategy & Architecture
- Develop and maintain the Process Control Strategy (PCS) for bio‑energy assets.
- Create and own control narratives, Cause & Effect (C&E), alarm philosophy, and functional logic.
- Define, develop, and maintain the site-wide Process Control Architecture (networks, segregation, security layers, protocols) of all our locations (NL and UK).
3. Functional Design Specification (FDS) & Safety
- Prepare and maintain FDS, SDS, FAT/SAT documentation, commissioning plans, and test procedures.
- Participate in HAZOP, LOPA and SIL review meetings and implement safeguarding according to HAZOP, LOPA, and SIL requirements.
- Validate and support Safety Instrumented Functions (SIF), shutdown logic, and emergency response behavior.
4. IT/OT & Cybersecurity
- Work across IT and OT domains to ensure secure, resilient industrial networks.
- Define and maintain communication structures, including Modbus, OPC-UA, MQTT, Profinet, and secure remote access.
- Collaborate with cybersecurity specialists to strengthen critical infrastructure and maintain compliance standards.
5. Data Historian & Analytics
- Configure and maintain data historian systems (e.g., PI, Aveva, Ignition).
- Build dashboards and analytics that support operational decision-making, performance reviews, and reliability tracking.
- Support digitalization initiatives such as anomaly detection, predictive maintenance, and energy optimization.
6. Process Optimization
- Use operational data, trends, and plant diagnostics to identify opportunities for efficiency improvement, cost reduction, and methane yield optimization.[Rv1] [GK2]
- Provide automation expertise to troubleshoot complex process issues related to fermentation, gas upgrading, utilities, and thermal systems together with other engineering disciplines.
7. Project Engineering & Vendor Management
- Act as automation lead in CAPEX projects, coordinating with:
- Engineering contractors (FEED, detailed design, commissioning)
- System integrators (software, PLC, SCADA programming)
- OEM vendors (compressors, digesters, analyzers, upgrading equipment)
- Ensure vendor-supplied packages meet functional, cybersecurity, and integration requirements.
- Support project delivery from design reviews through commissioning and handover.
Qualifications & Requirements
Education & Experience
- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Automation, Electrical Engineering, Control Engineering, Industrial IT, Mechatronics, or equivalent.
- 5-10+ years experience in industrial automation, preferably in bio‑energy, utilities, chemicals, food processing, or waste‑to-energy.
Technical Skills
- Strong PLC programming experience (e.g., Siemens, Rockwell, Schneider).
- SCADA/HMI development and alarm management skills.
- Deep understanding of process control, instrumentation, and safeguarding.
- Experience with FDS, C&E, SIL/LOPA, FAT/SAT.
- Knowledge of IT/OT architecture and industrial cybersecurity.
- Experience with historians and data analytics.
Soft Skills
- Strong communicator with the ability to manage diverse internal and external stakeholders.
- Proactive, structured, and hands‑on problem solver.
- Capable of guiding contractors and OEM vendors in a multi‑project environment.
What We Offer
- A central role in scaling and optimizing sustainable bio‑energy assets.
- Collaboration with a wide network of engineering partners, vendors, and internal specialists.
- Opportunities for technical leadership, innovation, and cross‑site influence.
If you have built your career in strategy, transformation, or performance improvement consulting and are looking for an opportunity to drive meaningful impact within a growing industrial business, we would love to hear from you. Email: [email protected] - Shiva Ahmadi, Sr. talent acquisition VTTI/ Vida
About this role
Experience
5-10+ years
About VIDA bioenergy
Company overview
VIDA bioenergy, a privately owned biomethane producer fully owned by VTTI
Breda, Netherlands
2021
What they do
VIDA bioenergy specialises in the development, construction, acquisition, and operation of anaerobic-digestion facilities that convert agricultural and other organic feedstocks into biomethane, biogenic carbon dioxide, and organic fertiliser. The company focuses exclusively on renewable gas and circular-agriculture products rather than general renewable energy projects (source: vidabioenergy.com). Its core technology involves anaerobic digestion, where organic material is biologically broken down to produce biogas, which is then upgraded by removing carbon dioxide and impurities to yield biomethane chemically equivalent to natural gas. This biomethane can be injected into existing gas networks or used in boilers and other gas-consuming equipment (source: vidabioenergy.com).
The company’s product portfolio includes biomethane for building heat, industrial heat, and heavy transport, biogenic carbon dioxide as a secondary product, and digestate returned to agriculture as organic fertiliser (source: vidabioenergy.com). VIDA’s business model integrates energy and waste-management markets by sourcing feedstock from agricultural and livestock businesses and supplying energy customers such as gas-grid users, building heating, industrial heat users, and heavy transport operators (source: vidabioenergy.com).
VIDA’s competitive edge lies in developing a portfolio of geographically distributed biomethane plants with an independent operating model that combines start-up agility with the engineering, operational, governance, safety, and financial strength of its parent company VTTI (source: vidabioenergy.com). Its engineering scope also includes technologies such as gasification, pyrolysis, fermentation, and biofuels production, although anaerobic digestion and biomethane upgrading are the primary technologies in its operating assets (source: vidabioenergy.com).
Projects & track record
VIDA bioenergy operates the Tilburg facility in the Netherlands, designed to produce approximately 23 million cubic metres of biogas annually for renewable natural gas and organic fertiliser production (source: vidabioenergy.com). Its Bernheze plant, also in the Netherlands, began injecting biomethane into the Dutch gas grid on 28 April 2026 and is ramping up to an annual biomethane production of around 8 million cubic metres. Bernheze processes approximately 72,000 tonnes of agricultural feedstock yearly and produces about 14,000 tonnes of digestate for agricultural use (source: vidabioenergy.com).
In the United Kingdom, VIDA is developing the Glentham and Wormslade projects. Wormslade, under construction as of the latest update, is designed to process around 46,000 tonnes of feedstock annually and produce approximately 68 GWh of renewable biomethane, sufficient to heat over 5,000 homes. It also generates about 70,000 tonnes of digestate for agricultural use each year (source: vidabioenergy.com). Additionally, VIDA is pursuing a bioenergy installation at the Zevenellen business park in Leudal, Limburg, Netherlands, which is part of its development pipeline (source: vidabioenergy.com).
The company’s geographic strategy focuses on Europe, with operating and project locations in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, and plans to expand its platform to Poland (source: vidabioenergy.com).
Recent developments
The most significant recent development was the January 2025 rebranding of VTTI’s biomethane business into VIDA bioenergy, establishing a dedicated leadership team and independent brand while retaining full ownership by VTTI (source: vidabioenergy.com). The Bernheze facility’s milestone of injecting biomethane into the Dutch gas grid on 28 April 2026 marked a major operational achievement, followed by ramping up production (source: vidabioenergy.com).
Wormslade in the UK also reached gas-to-grid operation, initiating commercial biomethane injection into the UK gas grid, with plans to increase output toward full capacity during 2026 (source: vidabioenergy.com). VIDA’s sustainability framework assigns responsibility for environmental, social, and governance performance to senior leadership and a dedicated ESG Committee, incorporating safety, security, compliance training, and eight "golden compliance rules" into its operating framework (source: vidabioenergy.com).
Working there
VIDA bioenergy’s main corporate and technical base is in Breda, Netherlands, where roles include project management, engineering, mechanical engineering, operations, business development, and corporate functions such as human resources, communications, finance, governance, and ESG (source: vidabioenergy.com). The company seeks experienced professionals, with mechanical engineering roles requiring at least 10 years of expertise and reporting to senior project leadership, indicating a matrix-style environment supporting multiple assets and projects (source: vidabioenergy.com).
VIDA combines a start-up atmosphere with the professionalism, safety systems, expertise, and financial backing of its parent company VTTI. The work is international and project-based, spanning the Netherlands, UK, and potentially other European countries, with a focus on collaboration, safety, fair working conditions, and employee development (source: vidabioenergy.com).
Ideal candidates have experience in anaerobic digestion, gas upgrading, biogas, gas-grid connection, process engineering, mechanical design, EPC project delivery, plant operations, agricultural feedstock management, or energy-infrastructure development. The company’s growth phase also values commissioning, construction, permitting, commercial development, and operational-readiness expertise (source: vidabioenergy.com).
More bioenergy jobs like this
today
23d ago
23d ago