SCADA Engineer Job Responsibilities and Skills

In this blog, you will learn the job responsibilities of a SCADA engineer and the required skills for an PLC automation engineer.

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SCADA Engineer

When it comes to industrial automation, one of the most promising technologies used in it is a SCADA system. It is a graphical display system where the user can control a process, generate reports, manage database systems, and communicate with other systems on a vast network. It requires a very good knowledge of colors, schematics, design overview, networking, and scripting.

When engineers apply for working in this system, they must know in hand what work they will do mostly. This is because SCADA system is vast and has diverse areas of work. So, in this post, we will see the job responsibilities of a SCADA engineer.

PLC Automation Engineer Skills

The skills required for a SCADA engineer as mentioned below.

SCADA engineers must have a very good knowledge in MS office tools. This is because SCADA programming is repetitive and using shortcuts in MS office reduces coding work to a great extent. Also, most of the database tools nowadays collaborate directly with MS office tools and this becomes a handy knowledge.
SCADA engineers must be familiar with SCADA systems first of all. Freshers are not a concern; but for experienced people, they must have a in-deep knowledge and must be hands on in at-least one SCADA system.
They must also know PLC programming properly. This is an additional benefit, because you can troubleshoot communication issues between PLC and SCADA and also identify why the values are not coming properly in SCADA through PLC.
SCADA engineers must have a good command over networking. Basically, SCADA systems communicate with multiple devices over a complex network and he must be familiar with various protocols like Ethernet, Modbus and also be able to identify issues in PC network settings and other similar things.
SCADA engineers must have good coding skills in languages like C, C++, Java, Visual Basic and Python. This is because SCADA mostly uses scripts in it for programming.
This is optional, but will be beneficial if the SCADA engineer has knowledge in ERP, MES and IoT. These are the fourth-generation automation tools and work on a very high level than SCADA. SCADA systems are integrated with it nowadays for a robust plant operation.
Lastly, SCADA engineers must be hands on with database management tools like SQL server, Microsoft Access etc. This is because SCADA will work with database on mostly all of the occasions and you must know how to write queries in it for extracting as well as dumping data.

SCADA Engineer Job Responsibilities

The job responsibilities of a PLC SCADA engineer are mentioned below.

SCADA engineer will be responsible for the maintenance and operations of SCADA systems in a plant. Basically, every plant is divided into many segments and each segment will have multiple SCADA systems. So mostly, he will have to look only that segment and not the whole plant, which is not possible practically for a mid-level engineer. Managers in this profile can do such vast roles.
SCADA engineers will ensure that all the security network protocols are running properly from time to time. In that sense, they must be easily able to configure servers, networks and other such equipment.
SCADA engineers must help in business development by giving necessary technical suggestions to sales team and communicate about new technologies in SCADA. If they are able to design a SCADA product such as a report tool or other such type, then it greatly helps in marketing and business growth.
SCADA engineers must help in reading technical brochures and standards, before buying a SCADA software from vendor. Understanding specifications helps in a great way in this regard.
SCADA engineers must be able to efficiently develop SCADA screens, program database tools, develop reports, and setup computer networks. If he is individually able to design the whole SCADA system, then it is a very great advantage.
SCADA engineers must maintain all license and support contract documentation. This helps in maintaining all commercial liabilities and assets in SCADA system properly.

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