An engineering degree in electrical, mechanical, robotics, mechatronics, etc. will help get you in the door for the title "Controls Engineer", since you need to know the both hardware and software usually. Having good experience and a portfolio can replace the degree. There are plenty of courses online and in-person that get you into this field pretty quickly, it's relatively easy to learn, but difficult to master due to the diverse applications, platforms, and industries. There are a lot of industrial automation integrators that will take anyone, train them up, and contract them out in exchange for low wages, long work hours, but you get the skills and can then gtfo.
There are also industrial robot programmers who come straight out of high school, get some quick training and go to automotive integrators who contract them out to large automotive companies. This usually requires less engineering knowledge because the industrial robot platforms are relatively easy to learn and what you're doing most of the time is teaching the robot where to go to meet cycle times which is tedious, you use a "pendant" not a laptop usually, but that's changing with all the offline programming software, but reality never matches the simulation.
There reason most people don't like this field is you have to be in the "field", sometimes that's a loud ass, highly dangerous, manufacturing floor, outside in the searing heat or frigid cold, working with people that are.....uh...not the brightest, and work under constant pressure since "controls" is usually the last to get all the specs and the time you get to finish got shortened due to late deliverables from mechanical and electrical. It's not a job you can really do remotely. You can program remotely, but at some point your going to test you code on the machine and you're responsible for not breaking anything or killing anyone.
* no tech work in the U.S. is "easy to get into" at this time. Manufacturing especially is tiers higher than the knowledge taught for any specific degree. Have to go to the right schools that are integrated in that market, or know people.
There are also industrial robot programmers who come straight out of high school, get some quick training and go to automotive integrators who contract them out to large automotive companies. This usually requires less engineering knowledge because the industrial robot platforms are relatively easy to learn and what you're doing most of the time is teaching the robot where to go to meet cycle times which is tedious, you use a "pendant" not a laptop usually, but that's changing with all the offline programming software, but reality never matches the simulation.
There reason most people don't like this field is you have to be in the "field", sometimes that's a loud ass, highly dangerous, manufacturing floor, outside in the searing heat or frigid cold, working with people that are.....uh...not the brightest, and work under constant pressure since "controls" is usually the last to get all the specs and the time you get to finish got shortened due to late deliverables from mechanical and electrical. It's not a job you can really do remotely. You can program remotely, but at some point your going to test you code on the machine and you're responsible for not breaking anything or killing anyone.