Senior Manager – Controls and Automation Software Development

The Senior Manager – Controls and Automation Software Development​​ is responsible for leading Patterson-UTI’s Controls and Automation Development team, providing the technical leadership, engineering governance, and organizational capability required to deliver safe, reliable, and scalable drilling control systems across the company’s fleet.

This role is accountable for engineering execution, software development processes, architecture governance, software quality, release management, engineering standards, and the continuous development of a high-performing software engineering organization. The Senior Manager leads a multidisciplinary team responsible for PLC software, HMI applications, simulation, quality assurance, and software platform development.

Working closely with Product Management, Sustaining Engineering, and New Projects teams, this leader ensures engineering execution aligns with business priorities while maintaining the highest standards for software quality, technical excellence, and predictable delivery.

This position reports to the Director, Controls & Automation.

Detailed Description 

Engineering Leadership

• Build and lead a high-performing Controls Software Engineering organization responsible for delivering safe, reliable, and scalable control software across Patterson-UTI’s drilling fleet.

• Establish a culture of technical excellence, accountability, ownership, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

• Lead Technical Leads, Senior Engineers, Quality Engineering, and third-party engineering resources responsible for software development and validation.

• Develop organizational capability through structured coaching, mentorship, succession planning, and leadership development.

• Define and maintain engineering career ladders and technical competency expectations across all engineering levels.

• Develop and maintain the Principal Engineer pipeline by identifying, mentoring, and growing future technical leaders.

• Own workforce planning, future staffing strategy, and hiring plans aligned with the Controls & Automation technology roadmap.

• Establish and maintain the technical hiring bar for the organization and participate in final technical interviews for senior engineering positions.

• Lead the performance management process, ensuring evaluations are based on measurable performance, technical contribution, leadership, and organizational impact.

• Promote a diverse and inclusive work environment where employees feel respected, supported, and empowered to contribute their best work.

Technical Governance

• Establish the technical direction for the Controls Software Engineering organization while empowering Technical Leads and Principal Engineers to own detailed solution design and implementation.

• Govern software architecture through structured architecture reviews, engineering standards, and technical design processes.

• Ensure engineering teams consistently deliver high-quality software, documentation, control algorithms, and system designs that meet company standards.

• Own the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), including development standards, coding practices, testing methodologies, documentation requirements, release controls, and change management processes.

• Define and enforce software contribution standards, including code quality, modularity, documentation, maintainability, and testability.

• Own the engineering technical debt strategy by ensuring technical debt is identified, prioritized, and systematically addressed during release planning.

• Maintain active technical engagement across all engineering programs by evaluating architecture proposals, identifying technical risks, facilitating architecture reviews, and resolving escalated technical decisions.

• Champion modern software engineering practices including AI-assisted software development, automated testing, simulation, continuous integration, static c