WHAT DOES AN INSTRUMENTATION ENGINEER DO?

Published: Sep 19, 2025 - The Instrumentation Engineer supports project development by generating instrument lists and preparing bid specifications and procurement documents. This role manages budgeting, man-hour estimation, equipment inspection, and the creation of detailed design deliverables such as loop diagrams, network architectures, and panel layouts. The engineer also oversees commissioning activities, responds to site inquiries, and ensures comprehensive turnover documentation, including As-Builts, checkout sheets, and instrument manuals.

A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Instrumentation Engineer

1. Instrumentation Engineer Duties

  • Project Execution: Executing projects per the Phillips 66 and SFR project FEL process and ensuring conformance with Phillips 66 Required Standards and Recommended Engineering Practices
  • Standards Application: Applying Phillips 66 Required Standards, engineering standards, mechanical integrity procedures, and safety procedures to address instrument reliability challenges
  • Estimate Development: Directing the development of AFD and AFE quality project estimates
  • Capital Planning: Participating in annual capital long-range plan development and ongoing project funding approvals
  • Engineering Coordination: Coordinating FEL and detailed engineering with mechanical, civil, instrument and electrical resources
  • Project Validation: Ensuring assigned projects are technically sound, cost-effective and customer-focused
  • Execution Planning: Developing project execution plans and project milestone schedules
  • Scope Control: Ensuring project scope and cost are controlled and change is managed
  • Construction Support: Providing project-specific turnaround and construction support

2. Instrumentation Engineer Details

  • Project Prioritization: Establishing project priorities, deliverables and deadlines aligned with capital strategies
  • Multitask Management: Successfully managing competing priorities and multiple projects simultaneously
  • Time Accountability: Accountable for managing time to deliver on commitments
  • Team Interface: Ensuring interface with technical consultants, area resources and Operations
  • Technical Support: Serves as instrumentation technical support for both Maintenance and Operations personnel, including field instrument and process control troubleshooting support, training documentation and procedure development/review, and Management of Change (MOC) ownership
  • MOC Coordination: Coordinating the MOC process for assigned projects
  • System Design: Designing or approving designs by others of Safety Instrumented Systems
  • Design Review: Reviewing project design packages and providing design input to ensure that site requirements and preferences are met
  • Maintenance Integration: Ensuring that newly installed instruments are captured on appropriate maintenance programs after project commissioning
  • Failure Analysis: Providing consultation to the refinery for instrumentation issues, including leading and participating in root cause failure analyses (RCFAs)

3. Instrumentation Engineer Responsibilities

  • Operations Culture: Engage with the wider Technical Support, Maintenance, Technology, Commercial and Production Team to build a strong and coherent operations culture
  • Assurance Support: Support assurance activities at the site to ensure EPC deliverables meet the requirements of the Lump Sum Contract, Project Standards, and Industry Best Practices, Inspection Test Records (ITRs) and operational readiness requirements
  • Punch Listing: Support punch listing at handover to ensure agreement with A, B, and C, punch items
  • Digital Integration: Drive and integrate digital and data solutions into new ways of working, promoting, and delivering a culture of continuous improvement and future-proofing business
  • Procedure Writing: Support writing maintenance procedures and guidelines based on site experience gained during CSU phases, the first 200 cargoes and vendor support
  • NCR Initiation: Initiate NCRs for items not meeting EPC’s deliverables, substandard construction and demonstrate a good mitigation plan
  • Risk Management: Initiate Manage Threats and Opportunities (MTO) and MOC with a proper risk assessment and mitigation plan if potential HSSE, Reliability/availability/operability concerns are observed
  • Team Collaboration: Collaborate with EPC and the site construction team to display a One Team mindset and promote a learner attitude
  • Failure Prediction: Find opportunities for utilizing advanced diagnosis alerts and alarms, failure mode prediction
  • Lead Coverage: Provides coverage for other PACO leads to support CSU activities
  • Digital Support: Support the digital team to develop solutions
  • RCM Ownership: Support the current RCM process and take ownership of the Electronic Spare Parts Interchangeability Report (E-SPIR)
  • Workforce Support: Support the connected worker and augmentation workforce vision for LNGC
  • Functional Integration: Act as an integrator across all the PACO functions during CSU and the initial startup period
  • PSSR Assurance: Responsible for ensuring that the Asset delivery meets the pre-start-up safety requirements (PSSR)

4. Instrumentation Engineer Job Summary

  • Instrument Specification: Specifying cGMP process instrumentation, components, and spare parts
  • Calibration Justification: Setting priorities for and completing Calibration Range and Tolerance Justifications forms for new instruments
  • Equivalence Evaluation: Evaluating new instruments for Functional Equivalence to existing instrumentation that has become obsolete
  • I/O Review: Reviewing and approving input/output lists for automated systems
  • Root Cause: Conducting troubleshooting and root cause analysis for complex instrumentation and associated systems
  • Config Management: Creating and maintaining configuration specifications for cGMP manufacturing equipment
  • Design Review: Assisting in the design review of equipment and approved supplier lists for instrumentation
  • Test Execution: Writing and executing test plans to demonstrate instrument suitability
  • Corrective Actions: Implementing corrective/preventative actions for existing equipment
  • Change Evaluation: Preparing engineering evaluations and test plans for change control documentation

5. Senior Instrumentation Engineer Accountabilities

  • Spec Preparation: Develop specifications and prepare material requisitions for control and safety systems, instruments, valves and all other instruments on assigned front-end and detailed engineering projects
  • Sizing Calculation: Carry out instrument sizing calculations and verification checks
  • P&ID Review: Review and develop P&IDs for correctness with respect to control and safety requirements and instrumentation
  • Index Preparation: Prepare a project instrument index in accordance with the P&IDs
  • Drawing Support: Assist the designers with the preparation of cable block diagrams, cable routing, equipment layouts, termination drawings and schedules
  • Design Review: Review all C&I drawings and ensure that the quality of design and drawings produced for inquiry and fabrication purposes is of a satisfactory standard
  • Bid Analysis: Prepare technical bid analysis for C&I equipment
  • Supplier Coordination: Attend coordination meetings and engineering review meetings with the supplier
  • Document Tracking: Review document requirements and issue dates for major equipment with suppliers and assist the Procurement Department in compiling a Supplier’s Document Index
  • Document Approval: Review and approve supplier documents for instrumentation and distribute
  • Procurement Support: Assist the Procurement Department with the expediting of supplier documents
  • Site Survey: Attend site surveys and contribute to site survey reports

6. Senior Instrumentation Engineer Functions

  • Client Support: Give support to the client, project engineers, other specialist engineers and inspectors on C&I engineering matters
  • Drawing Review: Review C&I aspects of the package unit supplier’s drawings as requested by the engineer responsible for the equipment
  • Schedule Monitoring: Advise the Lead C&I Engineer of any slippages, their causes, and proposed corrective action
  • Technical Advisory: Advise the Lead C&I Engineer of any technical problems and unresolved differences with other groups
  • Drawing Coordination: Coordinate with the Procurement Department and ensure certified drawings are available in time to meet the engineering schedules
  • Data Notification: Notify the Project Engineer of all deficiencies in the flow of data or other basic information required for the execution of work
  • Progress Reporting: Assist the Lead C&I Engineer with the progress reports
  • Site Follow-up: Follow up on C&I construction work on project sites to ensure correct interpretation of designs regarding installation
  • Issue Resolution: Resolve any C&I problems arising during commissioning
  • Field Awareness: Keep abreast of developments in the C&I engineering field
  • Efficiency Improvement: Suggest ways to improve efficiency, costs and service in the execution of projects
  • Manual Compilation: Assist in the compilation of operating manuals and mechanical catalogues

7. Instrumentation Engineer Job Description

  • Package Engineering: Engineering of electrical and instrumentation packages
  • Drawing Preparation: Prepare drawings and technical documentation
  • Test Documentation: Prepare documentation for testing and installation
  • Installation Support: Support during the installation and commissioning phase
  • Product Development: Contribute to further development of existing products
  • Agency Interface: Support in interfacing with space agencies, authorities and customers to support the company in winning the different contracts
  • Requirement Analysis: Synthesize/Extract the outcomes of the system/satellite requirements toward the instruments and elaborate their specifications and the statements of work
  • Proposal Review: Analyze the technical, development and industrial proposal issued by the instruments subcontractors
  • Subcontract Negotiation: Negotiate the subcontracts concerning the instruments
  • Development Oversight: Manage and follow up with the instruments subcontractors during the overall development process of the instruments subcontractors (meetings, reviews, documentation analysis, budgets, industrial matters, quality, assembly, tests…)
  • Project Participation: Proactive participation in the project team work to guarantee that the subcontractors will deliver a product totally in line with the specification, the SOW and the delivery time
  • Budget Management: Establish budgets and synthesize

8. Instrumentation Engineer Overview

  • System Design: Design and build complex analytical and/or measurement systems, and integrate them with data acquisition and control software
  • Protocol Execution: Design of complex experimental protocols and execution of experiments on unstable and/or highly variable systems
  • Project Maintenance: Work on electrification, modification, and maintenance projects
  • Client Support: Work with clients to reduce carbon footprint from existing and new installations
  • Project Participation: Participate in EPCI projects, general field instrument engineering, system engineering, automation and control engineering
  • Engineering Support: Support of the project manager in the basic engineering
  • Diagram Creation: Creation of cause and effect diagrams, logic diagrams, instrument lists and technical instrument specifications
  • Document Preparation: Collaborate in the preparation of plant documentation
  • HAZOP Support: Collaborate in the preparation of P&I diagrams and HAZOP studies
  • Hardware Specification: Specification of hardware and software requirements for DCS and PLC
  • Detail Design: Instrument detail design development
  • Engineering Interface: Interface with other engineering disciplines and close co-operation with the Instrument Discipline Task Responsible
  • Offshore Survey: Perform Offshore surveys to identify installation method, placement of Instruments, Cable tray and Cable routing
  • Material Coordination: Identify and coordinate material needs
  • Jobcard Planning: Establish and develop a Jobcard plan in accordance with best practice and installation method

9. Instrumentation Engineer Details and Accountabilities

  • Facility Setup: Set up the facilities, systems and processes needed to assemble the modules into finished goods
  • Procedure Development: Devise procedures and forms for the end-to-end manufacturing process
  • Product Transfer: Lead the transfer of product into manufacturing
  • Process Improvement: Drive and implement process improvements and optimization to meet the production goals
  • Risk Assessment: Perform risk assessment, cycle time study, manufacturing tools and fixtures reliability study, etc
  • Fixture Maintenance: Drive maintenance and improvement activities on test fixtures and equipment including equipment qualification and setup PM/Calibration process for tools
  • Equipment Service: Perform equipment maintenance of service equipment
  • Compliance Assurance: Ensure that the manufacturing processes are compliant with Quality System and EHS requirements
  • Issue Resolution: Perform troubleshooting, failure analysis and drive issues to closure
  • Data Analysis: Perform data trending analysis, construct and execute the design of experiments to address quality issues
  • Issue Coordination: Coordinate with Operations, Assay Development, Hardware Engineering and Software Development to troubleshoot performance issues
  • Training Delivery: Compile training materials and conduct training on the manufacturing process
  • Team Leadership: Provide leadership and mentor junior staff to resolve routine issues

10. Instrumentation Engineer Tasks

  • PID Development: Support the development of PIDs and create an instrument list based on the controls shown
  • Bid Specification: Generating bid specifications for instruments and sending bid packages out to vendors
  • Budget Planning: Creating budgets for project instrumentation
  • Hour Estimation: Generating man-hour estimates for project execution such as procurement, checkout, documentation, commissioning, turnover
  • Instrument Procurement: Procuring all instrumentation, which will include the creation of RPOs
  • Equipment Inspection: Receive all instrumentation and check-in/inspect equipment before delivering to the site
  • Diagram Creation: Create instrument location plans, loop diagrams, network architectures, panel layouts and schematics
  • Site Support: Respond to contractor/site questions
  • Checkout Documentation: Create checkout sheets and/or testing documentation for commissioning and startup
  • Instrument Startup: Commission and start up each instrument and fill out all checkout paperwork
  • Turnover Submission: Submit turnover documentation, including Greenlines of construction drawings, As Builts, Commissioning/checkout sheets, and Instrument manuals
Relevant Information
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