R&D Customer Success Automation Engineer

The opportunity
We're looking for an R&D Customer Success Engineer to join our research and development department, which is responsible for the automation logic relevant to Energy Storage, Renewable, and Energy Hub automation product families within the PGGA - Power Conversion Solutions team. The proposed role is available in the Hitachi Energy Grid Automation offices in Genoa/Milan, Italy, and in Seville/Madrid, Spain. Being part of a global team, you will interact with various stakeholders of the organization and Engineering teams worldwide.

You will play a key role at the interface between customer sites, Operations, and R&D. This position is critical in ensuring that customer-driven requirements-especially those arising during engineering and commissioning phases-are properly supported, understood, and transformed into high-quality product improvements.

The role combines deep technical expertise with a strong customer mindset, helping balance short-term customer needs with the integrity of the long-term R&D roadmap.

Your focus will be on designing, developing, and validating automation control logics integrated into our PCS automation products.

You will also support the validation of Power Conversion System software and hardware control platforms, ensuring their adequacy in meeting increasingly stringent requirements with the support of a global R&D team.

How you'll make an impact

• Customer & Operations Support: Support and contribute to the development of customer requirements coming from engineering and commissioning activities at the commercial project level. To ensure customer requirements are addressed in a structured and sustainable way. This may include software changes, enhancements, or the creation of new technical documentation.
• Level 4 (L4) Support: Act as a Level 4 escalation point for complex technical issues, working closely with your teams to analyze root causes, define solutions, and ensure robust resolution of high-impact cases
• Operations Technical Interface: Provide technical support and clarifications to Operations for advanced or recurring requests.
• Product & Platform Contribution: Contribute directly to development activities, supporting both stabilization and evolution of the platform based on real customer usage and commissioning feedback.
• Team Enablement & Technical Support: Contribute to continuous technical support activities while assisting development teams with relevant context, guidance, and field experience.

• Candidates should possess a Bachelor's or Master's degree, preferably in Automation Engineering.
• A minimum of 3 years of professional experience is required, specifically in digital control applied to the Power System Domain. Candidates must have strong PLC development experience, especially with CodeSys engineering tools.
• Demonstrated knowledge in the use of IEC 61131-3 standard PLC programming languages, including Structured Text, Function Block Diagram (FBD), and Sequential Function Chart (SFC).
• Hands-on experience with designing and implementing control loops is essential.
• Strong desire and ability to apply simulated and validated control concepts on real automation platforms.
• Candidates should have a solid understanding of industrial and electrical communication protocols, such as IEC60870-101/104, Modbus, MQTT, OPC-UA, DNP3.0, CanOpen, and IEC61850, among others.
• Outstanding proficiency with protocol simulators and packet analyzers, including Wireshark.
• Advanced understanding of network architectures and cybersecurity principles.
• Familiarity with Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS), renewable energy generation, and microgrid technologies is necessary.
• Experience with Hardware in the Loop platforms, such as Typhoon, is considered is a plus
• Knowledge of Azure DevOps and previous experience working in an agile development environment is a plus.
• Some background in scripting or programming with Python can be beneficial.
• Advanced knowledge in presentation skills and fluency in English, both written and spoken.
• Strong awareness of quality standards, processes, and tools relevant to the field.
• Proactive, flexible, and able to communicate effectively.
• Strong interpersonal and teamwork abilities.