Controls Technician
Posted Jun 18, 2026 · We last checked this listing on Oct 6, 2026
Likely interview questions for this role
Written from this job description, not a generic list. Each one notes what the interviewer is really checking.
About your past
Walk me through the last time a machine went down on the floor and you had to figure out what was wrong. What was the actual problem and how did you find it?
What they are checking: real hands-on troubleshooting experience versus theoretical knowledge
Describe a preventive or predictive maintenance procedure you built from scratch. How did you decide what to include and how did you know it was working?
What they are checking: ownership of maintenance strategy versus just following existing procedures
Give me an example of a project you led on the floor, even an informal one. What was your role, and what would you do differently now?
What they are checking: actual project leadership experience since the posting explicitly asks for it despite no direct reports
Tell me about a time you wrote an SOP or maintenance documentation that someone else later used. What made it useful or where did it fall short?
What they are checking: clarity of documentation and awareness of how others will use it
Tell me about a time you had to learn a new technology fast because the job demanded it. What did you do and how long did it take before you were productive with it?
What they are checking: genuine adaptability given how many different tools and platforms this role touches
What would you do
If a robot cell integrated with a vision system starts misreading parts intermittently, where do you start looking first?
What they are checking: understanding of how vision systems, robots, and RFID components interact and fail together
Two departments disagree about how a new automation solution should be designed and you're stuck in the middle. How do you handle that?
What they are checking: ability to work cross-functionally and influence design decisions without formal authority
How do you use data from the floor, like downtime logs or sensor data, to decide what to fix first?
What they are checking: whether analytics gets applied practically to prioritize work, not just collected
About the work
Say a work cell with an Allen Bradley PLC and an HMI throws an intermittent fault that only shows up under load. How would you go about isolating the cause?
What they are checking: systematic diagnostic approach on the exact PLC platform they use
How comfortable are you moving between Allen Bradley and Siemens platforms, and can you give an example where you had to work in both on the same project?
What they are checking: actual breadth across the two named PLC families, not just familiarity with one
Tell me about your experience with CNC controls, Siemens or Fanuc specifically. What kind of programming or troubleshooting have you done on them?
What they are checking: depth of CNC controls exposure since it's called out as a plus but tested directly
Have you built or maintained anything in Ignition SCADA? What did it connect to, and did you use SQL or Python anywhere in that work?
What they are checking: specific hands-on depth with the exact SCADA stack and scripting tools named in the posting
Tell me about a time you had to read or modify a controls print in AutoCAD to solve a real problem on the floor.
What they are checking: ability to translate documentation into physical troubleshooting or modification
What do you know about industrial network setups like Ethernet or DeviceNet, and have you had to troubleshoot a network issue that was actually a controls problem in disguise?
What they are checking: awareness that many controls failures are really network issues, and comfort diagnosing across that boundary
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Practice this out loudThe full job description
As published by Mercury Marine.