Job Description:We are seeking a highly skilled professional to join our team in Newport News, VA. This is an onsite position with immediate availability.
We are developing modern, highly customized digital applications on the Ignition platform to support complex discrete manufacturing operations at a heavy industrial U.S. defense contractor. This role combines hands-on experience with SCADA and industrial data systems with strong modern software development fundamentals.
Candidates should be comfortable working with live plant-floor data through OPC, Kepware, tags, and historians, while also building robust, maintainable web-based applications. You will use Ignition as the application platform — integrating real-time and historical data and extending Perspective with Python scripting, JavaScript, CSS, SQL, and APIs to create scalable desktop and mobile manufacturing solutions.
This is also a highly field- and customer-facing role. During site visits, you will work independently throughout the customer facility with operators, trades, engineers, supervisors, and managers to understand equipment and workflows, determine what data is needed and how to acquire it, and translate those needs into useful solutions. Success requires strong communication, maturity, emotional intelligence, and the ability to build trust across a diverse user community while representing our company professionally.
Key Responsibilities
- Application Development
- Design and develop responsive industrial web applications using Ignition Perspective and supporting web technologies
- Extend Ignition’s out-of-the-box components using JavaScript, CSS, and Python scripting to meet complex business and operational requirements
- Build modular, maintainable application architectures that support long-term scalability and reuse
- Data & Systems Integration
- Connect equipment and control systems to Ignition using OPC, Kepware, tags, and related industrial technologies
- Configure and troubleshoot real-time and historical data collection
- Integrate applications with industrial and enterprise systems including SQL databases, SAP, Sharepoint, Active Directory, OPC and historian data sources (Kepware, Canary, etc.), REST APIs
- Design efficient data models and queries optimized for real-time operational use
- Manufacturing Collaboration
- Work directly in the manufacturing environment with trades, engineers, IT, supervisors, and managers to understand equipment, processes, and operational needs
- Determine what machine and process data is required, how it can be acquired, and how it should be presented to support end users
- Translate diverse user needs into intuitive applications and visualizations, adapting effectively to different technical backgrounds and communication styles
- Build trusted client relationships and represent the engineering team and company professionally
- Quality & Reliability
- Implement robust error handling, logging, and diagnostics
- Ensure solutions meet performance, security, reliability, and compliance requirements
- Produce clear technical documentation and solution architecture diagrams
Required Qualifications
- Software Development Strengths
- Strong experience with web UI development concepts: HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, responsive design, and modern UI patterns
- Proficiency in Python scripting for application logic and automation
- Solid experience working with SQL databases and relational data models
- Experience integrating external systems using REST APIs or web services
- Ability to design maintainable, modular software — not just single-purpose screens
- Industrial & OT Strengths
- Hands-on experience with SCADA/HMI systems and live industrial data
- Experience configuring and troubleshooting OPC connections, tags, and historian data
- Ability to understand equipment, controls, production workflows, and real-time operational requirements
- Experience with Ignition, Kepware, Canary, or comparable technologies strongly preferred
- Customer & Manufacturing Aptitude
- Comfortable working independently in an active industrial environment to understand equipment, processes, and user needs firsthand
- Able to communicate effectively with operators, maintenance trades, engineers, supervisors, and management
- Strong judgment, interpersonal maturity, and ability to build trust with users of widely varying technical backgrounds
- Able to translate loosely-defined operational problems into practical, intuitive digital solutions
Bonus Experience (Nice to Have)
- Deep Ignition Perspective experience
- Strong working knowledge of discrete manufacturing environments (aerospace, automotive, shipbuilding, heavy industry)
- Working familiarity with SAP integrations
- Knowledge of cloud or hybrid architecture (AWS Industrial Solutions Framework)
