MES/SCADA Architect

Job Title: MES/SCADA Architect

Location: San Antonio, TX (Local Candidates)

Onsite/ Remote: Day 1 Onsite at customer location

This role is open for contract:

Job Description: MES/SCADA Architect

Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems help monitor and control operations and industrial processes within an integrated IT architecture. This role will be hands-on in designing, configuring, deploying, maintaining, and improving these systems in a fast-paced, dynamic Discrete Manufacturing environment. You will collaborate with architects, analysts, and business associates to create a five-year roadmap and set standards for a scalable SCADA solution that supports IT integration, aligning with corporate goals and addressing both current and future needs of the five manufacturing facilities at International. This position requires knowledge of SCADA principles, strong communication skills, the ability to effectively articulate complex concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences, and a passion for delivering exceptional customer experiences.

The successful candidate is one who:

• Takes responsibility and is accountable
• Innovates, collaborates, tests new technologies, and integrates automation
• Performs well under pressure, adapts to changing priorities, and seeks help when needed
• Solves problems efficiently, processes complex information, and communicates clearly to all levels for decision alignment
• Pays attention to detail, focusing on delivering high-quality solutions
• Relies on evidence to back claims and maintains high standards
• Thinks independently, makes clear decisions, and works across domains and departments
• Aligns project details with strategic goals for short- and long-term success
• Collaborates well and resolves conflicts effectively
• Supports a culture of well-managed transparency, trust, and experimentation
• Is passionate about technology and emerging innovations

Responsibilities:

• Define a five-year roadmap and strategy to ensure a robust, scalable MES/SCADA solution for long-term IT integration, aligning with corporate goals to meet current and future plant needs at the six (6) manufacturing facilities
• Set enterprise MES/SCADA architecture and governance standards and create processes to ensure adherence, including forming a community of practice with clear roles and a review committee
• Develop solutions to ensure efficient and reliable operation of MES/SCADA systems while minimizing ownership costs and considering all interconnections, such as plant controllers, network switches, firewalls, annunciators, HMIs, and IT systems/equipment
• Coordinate technical discussions and vendor negotiations
• Keep abreast of key Manufacturing IT trends - Industrial IoT, Manufacturing Digital Plant Maturity, Cybersecurity, Data Integrity principles, technology, and data standardization, etc.
• Utilize balanced judgment in decisions about risks of both actions taken and not taken while seeking ways to iterate faster in a well-managed way for the immediate team
• Define, implement, follow, refine, explain, and enforce policies for installing, maintaining, and updating manufacturing process control systems, including IT integration
• Maintain a keen awareness of the cross-functional tones throughout the company and continually offer innovative solutions that align with organizational goals to meet current and future plant needs
• Solve complex business problems often within unfamiliar territory and without precedent
• Perform program reviews and system analysis to ensure functionality, stability, scalability, and security
• Assess systems for efficiency and recommend improvements to ensure adherence to industry standards, regulations, and safety protocols, such as NIST, ISA-95, and IEC 62443
• Work with stakeholders to create cost-effective, timely proposals, including alternatives and prototypes to validate solutions before full-scale investment or implementation
• Pro-actively engage with project partners including automation engineers, process engineers, and IT professionals to perform technical due diligence, meeting milestones to ensure timely and budget-friendly completion
• Guide the implementation of solutions, including network configurations and software integrations
• Coordinate networking equipment configuration with corporate network engineering team, including specifying physical interfaces and protocols, assigning IP addresses, and administration of firewall rules
• Use standard project management practices: submit timely budget forecasts, accurately account for product costs, create compliant work plans, maintain issues lists and risk logs, and use planning tools to track schedules, update stakeholders, and meet deadlines
• Create, organize, and maintain all as-built documents and deliverables, such as MES/SCADA system configurations, schematics, network diagrams, operational procedures, contextual designs, integrated system diagrams, data flow diagrams, and programming settings
• Provide training to users of solution on operation and maintenance
• Engage in ongoing maintenance activities, including emergency procedures, troubleshooting playbooks, system backups, and upgrade plans
• Collaborate with project partners to incorporate lessons learned into new designs
• Maintain up-to-date knowledge of industry technology through various training sessions and conferences
• Accomplish work through independent contributions or teamwork requiring advanced subject area knowledge and decision-making skills
• Coordinate dependencies with other team functions and establishes and maintains strategic partnerships across various teams
• Determine business criticality and product quality requirements, ensure appropriate service levels, Disaster Recovery procedures, governance, change management, compliance, and operational support for the MES product
• Support plant operation during rollout and daily work with the MES and SCADA applications

Required Competencies:

• Bachelor s degree in a relevant technical or engineering field
• Fluency in English, both written and spoken
• A minimum of 5 to 8 years of proven experience with:
• Discrete Manufacturing processes
• Driving process improvement and organizational change initiatives
• Evaluating, procuring, designing, developing, implementing, conducting acceptance testing, and supporting/maintaining enterprise MES/SCADA, programmable logic controller (PLC) based assembly control systems, human machine interface (HMI) development, and communication protocols
• Automation & IT, Product Lifecycle Management, program release management/version control, Quality Management, and Change Management
• Understanding of software release management across various environments (e.g., development, QA, production), which includes handling unit testing, regression testing, pool requests, merge operations, solution building, and implementation
• Applying industry-recognized standards and operational controls, such as security integrity, redundancy, high availability, monitoring, archiving, user administration, and other architectural best practices
• Formation of roadmaps in support of broader product strategies
• Capability to collaborate with controls, MES/SCADA, manufacturing execution systems (MES) teams, enterprise resource planning (ERP) teams, and plant management to define, design, and develop standardized enterprise solutions that align local plant needs with corporate strategy
• Skilled at developing a deep understanding of the target domain and building close relationships with key stakeholders to ensure that the team s effort is aligned with the overall strategy
• Proficient in applying industry-established standards to work closely with stakeholders to ensure business value and user feedback is translated into new developments and requirements as necessary
• Apt at resolving a wide range of intricate challenges with diverse scope in innovative ways to ensure enterprise-wide software solutions are evaluated, delivered, and supported effectively
• Possesses expertise to set and manage stakeholder expectations, showing thought leadership to build rapport, establish trusted relationships, influence key contacts, and propose solutions
• Ability to resist pressures to take shortcuts or compromise compliance and ethics to achieve business objectives
• Establishes oneself as a trusted resource to recommend changes in development, maintenance, and system standards and processes
• Fully proficient in using written communication to transform vague ideas into sizeable action
• Consistently stays involved and aware throughout the entire effort
• Effectively articulates the behind-the-scenes workings of the system to developer colleagues in the form of clear, concise, accurate, and effective business requirements, functional specifications, and bid packages
• Exhibits good judgment in selecting methods and techniques for obtaining solutions
• Regularly demonstrates compassion and emotional intelligence

Desired Competencies:

• SQL server and programming languages such as Python
• ISA95 standards
• Lean & Six Sigma
• Smart Manufacturing/Industry 4.0
• Agile Methodology

Software Skills:

• Rockwell Factory Talk Production Centre (MES) (required)
• Inductive Automation s Ignition (required)
• IIoT integration (required)
• Programming Languages C#, Java, C++, VBA/VBScript, Python (required)
• Familiarity with remote access tools such as video conferencing software, VPN, VDI, remote connection software, etc. (required)
• In-depth knowledge in Microsoft Office products, Visio, SQL, and other relevant technologies to support product management activities, data analysis and collection, etc. (required)
• PINpoint MES (preferred)
• Cloud computing solutions (preferred)
• Modern software development methodologies (preferred)
• Familiarity with Azure DevOps (preferred)