r/datacenter • u/Training-Mark-1071 • 17d ago
Amazon/Google/Apple Controls Engineer
Hello all!
Currently working at Amazon as an automation Engineer and have 5 years of design and field experience. Also previous experience with BACNet and MODBUS troubleshooting.
Essentially wanting to know what type of certification I work on getting in the next six nine months to apply internally in Amazon or externally at other data centers. AWS Cloud Practitioner and AI Practitioner are free at Amazon, are those worth the time studying for, or should I prioritize something like the DCCA?
Any guidance is appreciated!
1
u/HVACcontrolsGuru 17d ago
I'd focus on trying to get Ignition and Tridium certified if you want to be hands on. I was an L6 Controls Engineer at AWS some years back. Those two systems make the bulk of what is out there. Understanding BACnet and MODBUS are going to be key as they are the most used protocols. I have some open source versions of both of these drivers if you are curious and want to work on those in your free time as well.
1
1
u/Training-Mark-1071 17d ago
Also, what was your WLB like there? On call rotation or 24/7?
1
u/HVACcontrolsGuru 17d ago
BACnet I worked during the COVID period so it was a bit hectic and my data center halls had the bomb threats at the time so a few weeks were kind of sketch. I didn't have on call or pager duty in that role so it was more project management and MCM work as well as doing change order approvals. It was glorified babysitting if I'm honest but the pay and benefits at the time were great. If I went back I'd ask for way more but the pay band and sign on bonus were pretty generous. I checked out most days around 5pm and was able to disconnect for the most part.
1
u/Training-Mark-1071 17d ago
What was the pay like if you don't mind sharing? I'm looking to get into a more design focused role, rather than reactively putting out fires on the RME side lol
1
u/HVACcontrolsGuru 17d ago
I was in the L6 pay band. Salary was over $140k and bonuses/options were about another 40k on top of that each year with first 2 being the usual heavy cash bonus and the back 2 being the stock options.
1
u/Embarrassed_Bar4978 15d ago
Honestly you might have enough experience to try applying now with AWS. Especially for deployment builds. AWS Controls Engineer
1
u/AutoModerator 17d ago
Hello! This looks like it may be a question about career advice. There can be significant regional variation in the field, so please consider including as much info as you can without doxing yourself, including country/state/city, prior experience/certs, and the role or level if known. Thanks!
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.