Penn State Job Catalog

The defined natural career progression within or between job profiles.

Facilities Automation Systems Administration

The Facilities Automation Administrator is responsible for the administration, maintenance, security, integration, and lifecycle management of Building Automation Systems (BAS), Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) platforms, Laboratory Monitoring Systems (LMS), and Operational Technology (OT) environments supporting critical facility operations; provides support for automation infrastructure, including operating systems, servers, field devices, controllers, communication networks, and specialized applications used to monitor and control building systems, environmental conditions, laboratory operations, and research facilities.

• Install, configure, maintain, and provide support for BAS, Environmental Control Systems, LMS, SCADA platforms, and related OT infrastructure
• Administer and optimize automation applications, servers, databases, controllers, field devices, and OT systems to ensure secure, reliable, and high-performing operations
• Manage and maintain automation networks, supervisory systems, human-machine interfaces (HMI), applied logic devices, and communication infrastructure supporting facility operations
• Monitor system performance, communications, alarms, and operational data; analyze trends, identify anomalies, and implement improvements to system reliability and performance
• Develop and maintain standards for system configuration, capacity planning, performance tuning, backup and recovery, business continuity, and infrastructure lifecycle management
• Design, implement, maintain, and troubleshoot integrations among BAS, SCADA, laboratory monitoring, energy management, maintenance management, and enterprise systems
• Support interoperability and communications using industry-standard protocols such as BACnet, Modbus, OPC, MQTT, SNMP, and related technologies
• Implement and maintain OT security controls, including network segmentation, access management, system hardening, vulnerability mitigation, monitoring, and secure remote access
• Monitor OT environments for security threats, suspicious activity, and operational risks; coordinate incident response, recovery, and remediation efforts with internal and external stakeholders
• Participate in security assessments, audits, and compliance activities; support adherence to organizational standards, regulatory requirements, and industry best practices
• Diagnose and resolve complex hardware, software, network, communications, and control-system issues across BAS, SCADA, laboratory monitoring, and OT environments
• Lead or coordinate incident response, outage recovery, root cause analysis, corrective actions, and system health assessments to improve operational resilience
• Evaluate, test, validate, and deploy software, firmware, operating system, and application updates; manage change control processes and maintain configuration standards and asset inventories
• Validate the accuracy and integrity of data generated by sensors, monitoring platforms, and automation systems; support predictive maintenance and analytics initiatives
• Participate in commissioning, qualification, validation, acceptance testing, inspections, audits, and accreditation activities involving automation and monitoring systems
• Develop and maintain technical documentation, including system architectures, network diagrams, standards, procedures, maintenance schedules, and disaster recovery plans
• Ensure compliance with institutional policies and applicable regulatory, safety, environmental, laboratory, and security requirements
• May supervise staff members, including hiring, development, and performance management

Level:

– Senior Supervisor

Base Description:

– Supervises direct reports, but primarily completes activities, tasks, and/or projects of a functional nature.

Level Summary:

– Demonstrates comprehensive knowledge to perform own work; spends majority of time on tasks related to own job responsibilities. May demonstrate subject matter expertise. Demonstrates intermediate to advanced planning, organizing, directing, and facilitating skills. Demonstrates the ability to coach assigned employees. Assigns and reviews completed work to verify accuracy, quality, and adherence to professional standards. Trains, coaches, mentors, and motivates staff. Anticipates potential problems, issues, and opportunities; researches and recommends solutions within defined policies. May develop creative recommendations for solving problems.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

– Typically oversees at least 2 full–time direct reports or equivalent team of part–time and/or student workers (for Professional track, performs work at the Senior Professional level or higher)

Fiscal Responsibilities:

– May validate and pay invoices
– Monitors and tracks budgets for specific area and/or grant(s)
– May assist in planning and forecasting budgets

Problem Solving:

– Encounters moderately complex problems
– Applies general precedents and practices and specialized knowledge and skills to resolve problems
– Understands benefits, limitations and impact of potential solutions
– Anticipates potential problems and recommends possible solutions within general guidelines

Independence of Action:

– Works independently on moderately complex work assignments, reviews progress, and evaluates results
– Organizes work of direct reports and sets team priorities
– Reviews the work of others to verify accuracy, quality, and adherence to professional standards

Communication and Collaboration:

– Communicates internally within working unit and the University
– Communicates with external audiences for scheduling/coordination
– May communicate with external audiences for business purposes
– Collaborates closely with team members; may interact with other staff outside of area
– Utilizes a communication style that is appropriate for a given situation
– Interprets and communicates information, ideas and instructions clearly, accurately and persuasively both verbally and in written materials intended for distribution

• Comp Grade – 13
• Minimum – $86,300.00
• MidPoint – $107,900.00
• Maximum – $129,500.00