Pros
System scale and complexity: Large, real industrial assets. PLC/DCS, APC, historians, PI AF, enterprise data pipelines. Problems are non-trivial and resume-worthy. Global footprint: Visibility across multiple sites and regions if you push for it. Good for systems thinking
Cons
Culture inconsistency: Experience varies wildly by site and manager. No uniform engineering standard enforcement. Process heaviness: Slow approvals, legacy bureaucracy, risk-averse change management. Friction for fast movers. Resource constraints: Chronic understaffing. Engineers absorb ops support, firefighting, and on-call load. Innovation drag: Advanced ideas require excessive justification. Execution often lags intent. Recognition dilution: High performers not cleanly differentiated from average contributors. Political capital matters. Career signaling risk: Title progression and role definition can lag actual responsibility. Workload volatility: Peaks during outages, migrations, or incidents with limited buffer or compensation alignment. Central vs site tension: Corporate initiatives often clash with site realities. Engineers caught in the middle.