Senior Staff Electrical Engineer

About Johnson Controls 

Johnson Controls, a global leader in thermal management, mission-critical building systems, energy efficiency, and decarbonization, helps customers use energy more productively, reduce carbon emissions, and operate with the precision and resilience required in rapidly expanding industries such as data centers, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, advanced manufacturing, and higher education. 

For more than 140 years, Johnson Controls has delivered performance where it really matters. Backed by advanced technology, lifecycle services, and an industry-leading field organization, we elevate customer performance, turn goals into real-world results, and help move society forward. 

Visit johnsoncontrols.com for more information and follow @JohnsonControls on social platforms. 

What you will do 

Johnson Controls is seeking a Variable Speed Drive (VSD) Subject Matter Expert to serve as a senior technical authority for the variable-speed-drive technologies applied to our YORK water-cooled chiller portfolio. 

In this highly influential role, you will provide advanced technical leadership across the complete product lifecycle, supporting Field Sales, Service, Product Technical Support, Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, and Product Management. 

The role requires not only the ability to solve difficult electrical and system-level technical problems, but also the ability to translate that knowledge into service procedures, diagnostic guidance, technical literature, training, design improvements, and long-term product reliability. 

You will also be deeply involved in new product development and product enhancement, representing serviceability, reliability, field, and customer needs throughout the engineering process. You will collaborate with engineering teams to evaluate drive architectures, review designs and supplier solutions, establish validation plans, assess test results, identify technical risks, and help ensure new products enter the market ready to perform reliably throughout their lifecycle. 

Ideal candidates would be local to our New Freedom, PA site, or willing to travel frequently to work directly with our design engineering teams, test laboratories, manufacturing locations, suppliers, and field organizations. 

How you will do it 

• Serve as the Subject Matter Expert for VSD technologies used across the YORK water-cooled chiller portfolio, providing technical leadership throughout the product lifecycle. 

• Provide advanced day-to-day technical support to global Field Sales, Service, and Product Technical Support organizations through site visits, remote troubleshooting, technical reviews, and escalation support. 

• Lead the diagnosis and resolution of complex issues involving VSD power electronics, rectifier and inverter sections, DC-link systems, IGBT or other switching devices, gate-drive circuits, harmonic filters, cooling systems, motors, controls, communications, protection, customer power interfaces, and chiller system integration. 

• Act as a senior escalation resource for challenging field issues, using operating data, fault histories, waveforms, electrical measurements, service history, test results, and engineering analysis to establish root cause and corrective actions. 

• Provide technical leadership for low- and medium-voltage drive applications, including system architecture, incoming power requirements, breaker and contactor interfaces, grounding, power quality, harmonic performance, motor compatibility, protection coordination, and safe commissioning practices. 

• Partner with Engineering, Quality, Manufacturing, Product Management, Sourcing, suppliers, and Service teams to drive product reliability, standardization, and continuous improvement. 

• Participate in new product development, supplier technical reviews, design reviews, DFMEA and risk assessments, validation planning, prototype testing, product launch readiness, and post-launch support. 

• Evaluate drive performance across expected operating conditions, including voltage variation, load transients, starting and stopping sequences, cooling conditions, communication loss, protective trips, fault recovery, and interaction with the compressor motor and chiller control system. 

• Bring the voice of the field and service organization into product development, ensuring serviceability, diagnostics, maintainability, safe work practices, replacement strategy, spare-parts support, reliability, and lifecycle considerations are addressed early in the design process. 

• Create and maintain technical service literature, including service bulletins, service letters, troubleshooting procedures, fault trees, diagnostic guidance, commissioning instructions, parameter-management guidance, training materials, and updates to internal technical knowledge systems. 

• Develop and deliver technical training and knowledge transfer to Product Technical Support, Field Service, Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, and other internal organizations. 

• Mentor engineers and technical support personnel, helping build organizational expertise in VSD technology, electrical troubleshooting, and chiller-drive integration. 

• Support structured root-cause investigations and corrective-action activities for significant product quality, supplier quality, safety, and reliability issues. 

• Analyze quantitative and qualitative field information to identify recurring issues, emerging reliability risks, supplier concerns, and opportunities for product or diagnostic improvement. 

• Represent the organization professionally during critical customer and field situations where deep technical expertise, safe decision-making, and sound engineering judgment are required. 

What we look for 

Required 

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Electrical Engineering Technology, Power Electronics, Controls Engineering, or a related technical discipline, or equivalent relevant technical experience. 

• 7+ years of experience with variable-speed drives, power electronics, motor-drive systems, or complex electrical equipment; experience with commercial HVAC/R or large-tonnage applied equipment is strongly valued. 

• Demonstrated ability to troubleshoot and resolve complex electrical and system-level technical problems involving VSD hardware, motors, controls, communications, protection, and application interfaces. 

• Strong understanding of three-phase power, AC motor fundamentals, rectifier and inverter operation, DC-link systems, semiconductor switching devices, electrical protection, grounding, and safe electrical work practices. 

• Experience interpreting electrical schematics, wiring diagrams, control sequences, fault logs, trend data, test results, and field observations to identify root cause. 

• Ability to use appropriate electrical test equipment and engineering data to characterize problems, validate solutions, and support product changes. 

• Ability to develop technical test plans and clearly document assumptions, methods, results, conclusions, and recommended actions. 

• Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to translate complex technical information for engineering, service, manufacturing, sales, suppliers, and customer audiences. 

• Ability to travel domestically and internationally up to 15%. 

Preferred 

• Extensive hands-on experience with low- and/or medium-voltage VSDs in centrifugal chillers, compressors, pumps, fans, or other large rotating-equipment applications. 

• Understanding of IGBT-based power conversion, multi-pulse or active-front-end rectification, harmonic mitigation, DC-bus systems, gate-drive circuits, thermal management, and medium-voltage isolation and protection concepts. 

• Experience with permanent-magnet and induction motors, motor insulation systems, bearing-current mitigation, cable and grounding practices, and motor-drive compatibility. 

• Experience troubleshooting nuisance trips, power-quality concerns, cooling problems, communication faults, component failures, parameter or firmware issues, and interactions between the VSD, motor, chiller controls, and mechanical system. 

• Working knowledge of water-cooled centrifugal chillers, compressor operation, refrigeration systems, and chiller control sequences. 

• Experience supporting complex field escalations and conducting formal root-cause investigations with Engineering, Quality, suppliers, and customers. 

• Experience with new-product-development processes, DFMEA, design reviews, supplier qualification, engineering validation testing, factory acceptance testing, commissioning, and product launch activities. 

• Experience authoring technical service literature, commissioning guidance, troubleshooting procedures, training materials, or technical bulletins. 

• Demonstrated ability to mentor engineers and service professionals and build technical capability across a global organization. 

Why this role matters 

Modern centrifugal chillers depend on the successful integration of high-power electrical conversion, motors, controls, cooling, protection, compressor operation, and the customer electrical system. The VSD SME provides technical continuity between Engineering and the installed base, ensuring that lessons learned in the field improve current products, influence future designs, strengthen supplier solutions, and are transferred back to the global service and technical-support organizations. 

HIRING SALARY RANGE: $120,000 - $150,000 (Salary to be determined by the education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities of the applicant, internal equity, and alignment with market data.) This position includes a competitive benefits package. The posted salary range reflects the target compensation for this role. However, we recognize that exceptional candidates may bring unique skills and experiences that exceed the typical profile. If you believe your background warrants consideration beyond the stated range, we encourage you to apply. To support an efficient and fair hiring process, we may use technology assisted tools, including artificial intelligence (AI), to help identify and evaluate candidates. All hiring decisions are ultimately made by human reviewers. For details, please visit the About Us tab on the Johnson Controls Careers site at https://jobs.johnsoncontrols.com/about-us

Johnson Controls International plc. is an equal employment opportunity and affirmative action employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, protected veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity, status as a qualified individual with a disability or any other characteristic protected by law. To view more information about your equal opportunity and non-discrimination rights as a candidate, visit EEO is the Law. If you are an individual with a disability and you require an accommodation during the application process, please visit here.