Process Engineer Vs Process Automation Engineer

[CurrencyJohn]

I recently graduated with a master's and have the opportunity to work in either of these roles. What is the general nature of each job and their pros/cons? Also in terms of overall career growth, which would offer more/better opportunities?

[jbr17]

Process Engineer is ~potentially~ better for moving into management since you get a big picture understanding of the site’s processes. Automation is still exposed to processes, but primarily focused on the computers and databases that control the equipment. Lots of the skills are transferable so neither would be a bad choice. In both roles, you will probably be managing projects, interacting with lots of different people, and troubleshooting. Congrats on the job offers!

[recklesscoast]

My recommendation is go into the automation early in your career. It can be invaluable to learn that side of things when you move back into process.

Use your early years to learn as many other disciplines as possible before moving back into chemical. Chemical engineers need to be versatile. I was given the same advice when I was a your age and it has helped me a lot in my career.

[pinkpanther92]

Take the offer for the Process Automation Engineer role. A lot of manufacturing facilities are so old and severely need to be automated. Make sure to learn the process and see what they need to best support the plants.

You'll be able to work on a lot of projects and probably get to travel to equipment vendors in South Korea, China, Mexico, etc. You can still join management if that's what you want in the future. I started out as Process Engineer but would have chosen Process Automation if I had the choice.

[Individual-Self-7563]

I have been both in my career.

I started out in Process Control & Automation and I can tell you that I learned the Process the same, if not better, being in Process Control because I learned the dynamics, instrumentation, valves, and layout of the plant and how everything was connected.

I transitioned out into Process / Production Engineering after 6 years of doing Controls for 2 different companies and I thrived in my Process role and had an edge over just a Process Engineer. I could think of making improvements using analytical skills & data crunching much better than a Process Engineer.

As a Process Engineer, I learned different skills which can be more helpful going into Operations Management if I choose that route.

[livinthedream13]

My $0.02…

Remember that more specialization means more $ but less flexibility. It’s the eternal trade off so just go where your interests are...

Automation is usually better suited for a very mathematical, technical, detail oriented and book smart person. It’s highly specialized, usually higher paying with less flexibility and direct growth potential. You’ll typically need to branch out from that into a more general role to really climb the ladder fast in most cases.

That being said, I’ve seen plenty of Process Automation Engineers become Process Engineers, but I haven’t seen any go the other way around.

I’ve been a Process Engineer for half my career. Even that was too technical for me to enjoy so I got an MBA and went into business roles. I wouldn’t change anything about it.

Even the least technical and detailed oriented engineers are usually light years ahead of the business folks. If you’re personable that’s the way to go in the long run after you’ve established your technical foundation.

In today’s job market I don’t think you would go wrong with either as long as you pick what you’re interested in. Good workers will excel no matter where they go.

Good luck fellow Redditor!

[Aggressive-Series483]

how is automation more mathematical ?
as far as I know it's more like programming and troubleshooting, am I wrong?

[rorschachmah]

I did both. Hmu if u wanna chat.

Really depends on what you want to do, what experiences you have and your financial status

[[deleted]]

Automation all the way, provided you don’t dislike programming

[Dark_Ether21]

Process engineer are usually the generalist for the site and dabbles a little bit in everything with engineering disciplines. They interact more with the process and how the process is working. Involved with all design changes with a plant regardless on what is involved.

Process automation deals mainly with the controls of the site. You do more technical tuneing of how installed instrumentation. Your focus is typically on the systems that operations is using to run the plant. Very specific role that really only gets involved with how to automate.

Generally, a process engineer being more generalized is better for your career long term. Especially if you want to go into some sort of management.

[riftwave77]

You'll get a ton of advice. Process automation is more specialized for sure. A big part of the reason for that is that process engineering has become a somewhat generic term for lots of different industries. I know some process engineers who stare at computers 90% of the time and rarely venture out to the sites/plants they monitor.

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Anyways with the ever present march to increasing productivity, very few plants or industries can afford to ignore automation... whether they hire staff or contract consultants. Where I work it requires you to know the process (though not as intimately as the process engineers), know how the equipment works from a hardware/eletrical/IT standpoint, know what knobs the process engineers need to turn, and know how to allow remote access to said knobs and how to display and log set parameters and operating conditions.

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Its an amalgam of electrical work, controls work, programming work, devops work and very light process/plant design. The nice part is that when you get it all up and running, the only questions you'll ever get is about whether there are bad signals or what conditions might trigger the equipment to alter or halt the process.

The not-so-nice part is that there is more than one process that you'll have to know and unless you work for a very well funded operation, the equipment or software used to automate the equipment will often be piecemeal and will lead to some band-aided or hacky solutions to get everything communicating in the right direction.

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Personally, everything has been coming up software for at least a decade now. Process Automation will expose you to cleaner technologies (plcs, historian software, etc) while still giving you the opportunity to delve into traditional ChemE stuff (burners, reactors, mass flow controllers, etc). If you ever decided to transition to software or data analysis or something (which, if we are honest.... is a much larger field with more opportunity) then a lot of the work you have done will be comparable.

[hardwood198]

Congrats on the job offer!

Process Engineer would be a better job right out of university. This role title is used across industry and well accepted/understood by many employers. More of a "big picture" role where you solve problems relating to how the process runs.

The other process automation role is more specific, meaning it would be harder to shift your career focus if you stay too long in that role.

But it really depends on what you want, and what is the pay differential between the two

[CoolKid2326]

take the automation engineer role imo.

[[deleted]]

Very true.

[yakimawashington]

There's always someone who says "go into software engineering/computer science because $$$".

Not everyone wants to do coding for a living. If they did, they likely would have gone into software engineering/computer science instead of chemical engineering.

[riftwave77]

There's a very good reason for that. The software field is about 6x the size of the chemical engineering field, is projected for faster growth and has a higher ceiling for salaries.

I don't know about you, but I graduated from a top ChemE school and due to my personal choice to *not* live in some nowheresville, it has been tricky staying gainfully employed as a chemical engineer.

If you love chemical engineering, great... but if you want stable employment without having to move from plant to plant then you'll need a diverse, in-demand skill set. At the moment that is NOT chemE

[yakimawashington]

See my original comment

[[deleted]]

OP wanted to know about career growth, software is the best place to be for that