Job Summary
The Ignition Architect position is a senior individual contributor responsible for designing, integrating, and scaling industrial automation, SCADA, and manufacturing data systems across manufacturing operations. This role operates at the intersection of controls engineering, Ignition SCADA/MES, enterprise data platforms, cloud and on-prem infrastructure, and applied machine learning, providing technical leadership and architectural direction without direct people management.
The SCADA Architect serves as a technical authority and escalation point for complex automation, data and infrastructure challenges, driving standardization, reliability, and long-term scalability across plant-floor and enterprise systems.
Automation & Controls Architecture
- Design and maintain end-to-end automation architectures spanning PLCs, drives, motion systems, and safety-critical control environments
- Develop scalable control strategies for high-speed and continuous manufacturing processes
- Define standards and best practices for control system design, versioning, testing, and lifecycle management
SCADA, MES & Manufacturing Data Systems
- Architect, support, and evolve SCADA and MES platforms, with deep expertise in Ignition-based systems
- Design and maintain tag models, historian strategies, alarming frameworks, and visualization standards
- Ensure high availability, performance, and maintainability of plant-floor data systems
- Establish consistent data models and interfaces between SCADA/MES and enterprise analytics platforms
- Deep knowledge of the Ignition WebDev Module, developing and publishing REST APIs, and building and documenting OpenAPI 3.0.0 specifications. Hands-on experience with load balancers such as NGINX.
OT/IT Integration, Cloud & Infrastructure Enablement
Database Administration & Data Reliability
Applied Machine Learning & Edge AI
- Design and deploy edge AI and machine learning inference pipelines for manufacturing use cases such as anomaly detection, predictive quality, and process optimization
- Develop and maintain Python-based services for data processing, feature extraction, and model inference
- Ensure AI-enabled solutions meet real-time, latency, reliability, and operational constraints of industrial environments
Technical Leadership & Influence
- Serve as a technical escalation point for complex automation, data, performance, and integration issues
- Lead technical design reviews and influence platform, architecture, and vendor decisions
- Mentor engineers and provide guidance on advanced automation, SCADA, data, and edge AI topics
- Translate manufacturing, quality, and operational requirements into scalable, supportable technical solutions
- Drive continuous improvement initiatives that increase system uptime, data reliability, and operational efficiency
- Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field (or equivalent experience)
- 10+ years of experience in industrial automation, controls engineering, or manufacturing systems
- Strong expertise in PLC programming, industrial networking, drives, and motion control
- Advanced experience with SCADA platforms, particularly Ignition
- Proficiency in Python for automation, data processing, and system integration
- Experience with relational databases and database administration in manufacturing environments
- Hands-on experience with Linux and Microsoft OS on hybrid infrastructure environments
- Strong understanding of OT/IT integration, cybersecurity considerations, and system reliability
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience deploying machine learning or edge AI solutions in production manufacturing environments
- Familiarity with Snowflake or similar enterprise analytics platforms
- Experience with Nutanix, AWS or VMWARE infrastructure in hybrid cloud/on-prem deployments
- Familiarity with containerized workloads and edge computing architectures
- Experience with high-speed, continuous, or tightly tolerance manufacturing processes
- Background in designing enterprise-scale automation, SCADA, or MES platforms
- Experience influencing technical strategy across multiple sites or cross-functional teams