What is a Controls Technician?

The primary job of a controls technician is to monitor the control systems of automated equipment. Control technicians use specific software to verify that the controls are within set parameters. When it exceeds or falls below parameters, they troubleshoot to minimize interruptions to production. This personnel works in manufacturing, sanitation, and nuclear energy industries. He/She analyzes the procedures for equipment installation and recommends solutions to improve installation schedules and processes. He/She works with vendors to ensure prompt and accurate delivery of materials. Additionally, he/she performs duties as assigned by management.

Employers seek candidates with an associate's degree in automation technology or electrical engineering. They may provide on-the-job training. Candidates must be good communicators and detail-oriented. You must be able to interpret electrical and mechanical drawings. You must be physically fit. Control technicians earn an average salary of $61,042 per year. It falls between $43,000 and $86,000.

What Does a Controls Technician Do

There are certain skills that many controls technicians have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed dexterity, detail oriented and mechanical skills.

Learn more about what a Controls Technician does

How To Become a Controls Technician

If you're interested in becoming a controls technician, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 36.0% of controls technicians have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 3.7% of controls technicians have master's degrees. Even though some controls technicians have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Learn More About How To Become a Controls Technician

Controls Technician Job Description

A controls technician is a key part of any factory. They design, build, and evaluate manufacturing machinery and systems, as well as fix and maintain them, and often take steps to further upgrade their processes.

Learn more about Controls Technician Job Description
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Controls Technician Career Paths

As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a controls technician can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as electrician, progress to a title such as foreman and then eventually end up with the title manager, project management.

Controls Technician

Average Salary for a Controls Technician

Controls Technicians in America make an average salary of $53,345 per year or $26 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $75,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $37,000 per year.
Average Controls Technician Salary
$53,345 Yearly
$25.65 hourly
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Roles and Types of Controls Technician

The role of a controls technician includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general controls technician responsibilities:

  • Provide leadership to direct and coordinate activities such as repairs, preventive maintenance, predictive maintenance, alterations, improvements
  • Improve bottling line efficiency through changes to automated controls utilize technical skills in troubleshooting, adjusting,
  • Plans, develops, schedules and implements all in-plant electrical control installations, working closely with mechanical / electrical engineers

There are several types of controls technician, including:

Technician

Role:

To be a technician, you have to know your stuff. Some may refer to you as an expert in your field or maybe people will know you as skilled in an art or craft. Then again, you may just be needed to look after technical equipment.

Your workload as a technician will vary, depending on what you're trained in. You may be needed to set up a new computer system or maybe you'll need to fix an electricity problem. Either way, you'll probably only need to work 40 hours a week.

The degree of education required for this job depends on what you're specific skillset is. Some technicians only need a high school diploma, others may want to complete an associate's program or earn a certificate to help their employment opportunities. There's definitely something for everyone in the field of technicians.

  • Average Salary: $38,045
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Electronics Technician

Role:

Wherever there is electricity, you will find an electronic technician. In places where there is lighting, heating, computers, machinery, or public transport, sooner or later they show up.

Electronic technicians know everything about circuits, amplifiers, resistors, switches, and regulators. They design electronic devices and components, maintain electronic systems, and install electrical equipment.

Choosing to be an electronic technician might be the best decision of your life. Electricity is magic, there is never enough of it. The amount of electricity used in the U.S. alone today is 13 times the quantity needed in 1950, and this tendency is not about to reverse anytime soon.

The average hourly pay of an electric technician is $21.31. You can do the math. If not, you might want to look for another profession, keep browsing those job posts.

  • Average Salary: $46,660
  • Degree: Associate Degree

Engineering Technician

Role:

Equipment, construction and design all have one thing in common. They all need to be inspected and tested by engineering technicians. Once you've done that, then it's time to type up a report of what you analyzed.

Occassionally, you'll be able to help draw up blueprints and plans for products and equipment. If you like coloring inside the lines, this job may be perfect for you. While you won't be coloring inside any lines (probably), you will get to draw very straight lines which can be aesthetically pleasing.

Engineering technicians can usually get by with just a bachelor's degree. That's enough to appease the average employer.

  • Average Salary: $60,273
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree
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States With The Most Controls Technician Jobs

Mouse over a state to see the number of active controls technician jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where controls technicians earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.

Average Salary: Job Openings:

Number Of Controls Technician Jobs By State

RankStateNumber of JobsAverage Salary
1California2,152$55,432
2Florida1,401$46,715
3Texas1,376$47,605
4New York983$59,209
5Illinois847$63,136
6Georgia845$53,553
7Virginia837$52,222
8North Carolina743$52,982
9Pennsylvania681$50,621
10Michigan653$52,457
11Massachusetts636$56,711
12Ohio636$49,633
13Colorado588$49,908
14Wisconsin578$52,569
15New Jersey515$59,336
16Indiana508$56,109
17Maryland499$53,029
18Arizona491$48,269
19Minnesota488$49,546
20Washington463$57,499
21Missouri399$51,576
22Tennessee393$49,692
23South Carolina374$51,320
24Alabama366$46,010
25Connecticut344$58,574
26Iowa311$47,166
27Utah271$52,380
28Kentucky227$48,253
29Oregon226$46,531
30Louisiana197$51,634
31Oklahoma185$53,823
32Arkansas183$46,584
33Kansas176$43,700
34Nevada152$57,618
35Nebraska148$54,090
36Maine147$56,954
37New Mexico144$53,201
38West Virginia141$51,256
39Mississippi136$48,649
40New Hampshire132$57,446
41Delaware108$55,860
42Alaska103$63,037
43Hawaii86$67,362
44Idaho80$54,374
45Montana80$52,961
46North Dakota71$45,164
47Vermont66$55,358
48Rhode Island65$57,037
49South Dakota55$52,521
50Wyoming36$57,506

Controls Technician Education

Controls Technician Majors

Electrical Engineering
21.0 %
Electrical Engineering Technology
14.9 %
Business
13.0 %

Controls Technician Degrees

Associate

38.0 %

Bachelors

36.0 %

High School Diploma

12.8 %

Top Colleges for Controls Technicians

1. Michigan Technological University

Houghton, MI • Private

In-State Tuition

$15,646

Enrollment

5,736

2. Central Connecticut State University

New Britain, CT • Private

In-State Tuition

$10,616

Enrollment

9,325

3. Northwestern University

Evanston, IL • Private

In-State Tuition

$54,568

Enrollment

8,451

4. Purdue University

West Lafayette, IN • Private

In-State Tuition

$9,992

Enrollment

33,495

5. New Mexico State University

Las Cruces, NM • Private

In-State Tuition

$6,686

Enrollment

11,139

6. Wayne State University

Detroit, MI • Private

In-State Tuition

$13,097

Enrollment

17,114

7. California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

Pomona, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$7,353

Enrollment

24,841

8. Pennsylvania State University

University Park, PA • Private

In-State Tuition

$18,454

Enrollment

40,108

9. University of Houston

Houston, TX • Private

In-State Tuition

$8,913

Enrollment

37,291

10. California State University - Long Beach

Long Beach, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$6,798

Enrollment

31,503

Top Skills For a Controls Technician

The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 8.2% of controls technicians listed plc on their resume, but soft skills such as dexterity and detail oriented are important as well.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Controls Technician Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Controls Technician templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Controls Technician resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

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Controls Technician diversity

Controls Technician Gender Distribution

Male
Male
84%
Female
Female
16%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

  • Among controls technicians, 16.0% of them are women, while 84.0% are men.

  • The most common race/ethnicity among controls technicians is White, which makes up 60.6% of all controls technicians.

  • The most common foreign language among controls technicians is Spanish at 52.0%.

Online Courses For Controls Technician That You May Like

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1. Access Controls

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Welcome to Access Controls! The Access Controls Course provides information pertaining to specify what users are permitted to do, the resources they are allowed to access, and what operations they are able to perform on a system. Access Controls help managers limit and monitor systems use at a user level or group membership. You will understand the different access control systems and how they should be implemented to protect the system and data using the different levels of confidentiality,...

2. Access Control Concepts

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Welcome to course 3 of 5 of this Specialization, Access Control Concepts. In Course 1, we introduced access control concepts. Now, we will take a more detailed look at the types of access control that every information security professional should be familiar with. We will discuss both physical and logical controls and how they are combined to strengthen the overall security of an organization. This is where we describe who gets access to what, why access is necessary, and how that access is...

3. Control Systems: From Mathematical Modelling to PID Control

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Learn the mathematics that will allow you to model and control any engineering system. Make machines do what you want!...

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Best States For a Controls Technician

Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a controls technician. The best states for people in this position are Hawaii, Illinois, Alaska, and New Jersey. Controls technicians make the most in Hawaii with an average salary of $67,362. Whereas in Illinois and Alaska, they would average $63,136 and $63,037, respectively. While controls technicians would only make an average of $59,336 in New Jersey, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.

1. Maine

Total Controls Technician Jobs: 147
Highest 10% Earn:
$80,000
Location Quotient:
1.47

$56,954

Avg. Salary

View 147 Controls Technician Jobs In ME

2. Alaska

Total Controls Technician Jobs: 103
Highest 10% Earn:
$77,000
Location Quotient:
1.64

$63,037

Avg. Salary

View 103 Controls Technician Jobs In AK

3. Illinois

Total Controls Technician Jobs: 847
Highest 10% Earn:
$91,000
Location Quotient:
0.94

$63,136

Avg. Salary

View 847 Controls Technician Jobs In IL
Full List Of Best States For Controls Technicians

How Do Controls Technicians Rate Their Jobs?

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Top Controls Technician Employers

Most Common Employers For Controls Technician

RankCompanyAverage SalaryHourly RateJob Openings
1Fluor Corporation$70,977$34.1249
2Pactiv$68,994$33.1728
3Bechtel Corporation$68,757$33.0633
4PepsiCo$66,030$31.7555
5General Mills$64,409$30.9731
6ITT$62,633$30.1145
7Tyson Foods$62,489$30.0438
8Ericsson$59,931$28.8164
9Trane$56,774$27.3053
10USAF Police Alumni Association$54,253$26.08101
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Controls Technician Videos

Career Advice on becoming an Assembly Technician by Andrew H (Full Version)

Becoming a Controls Technician FAQs

What Is A Plc Controls Technician?

A PLC controls technician designs, programs, repairs, and maintains programmable logic controller (PLC) systems used within manufacturing and service industries ranging from industrial packaging to commercial car washes and traffic lights.

Have more questions? See all answers to common architecture and engineering questions.

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Updated April 6, 2023