Position Overview
MetroSys is seeking an experienced OT/SCADA Solutions Architect to lead the technical architecture and deployment strategy for a large-scale rollout of the Inductive Automation Ignition SCADA platform across multiple industrial locations.
This is a senior, hands-on architecture role responsible for translating business, operational, and plant-level requirements into a scalable and repeatable SCADA architecture. The consultant will work closely with client OT leadership, controls engineers, networking and cybersecurity teams, plant resources, and deployment engineers to establish standards and ensure successful implementation across sites.
The architect will help define and refine the client's Ignition reference architecture, gold image, deployment templates, integration standards, network requirements, security model, and commissioning methodology. The individual will also provide technical leadership during complex site deployments and serve as an escalation point for integration and performance issues.
Deep SCADA/OT architecture experience is required. Direct Ignition experience is strongly preferred; however, highly experienced SCADA architects with comparable enterprise platforms and strong industrial integration experience may be considered.
Key Responsibilities
- Own and evolve the overall Ignition SCADA reference architecture supporting multi-site and potentially global deployments.
- Define architecture standards for Ignition gateways, redundancy, communications, historians, databases, visualization, alarming, security, and system integrations.
- Develop and maintain standardized gold images, deployment templates, configuration standards, and reference designs for repeatable site implementations.
- Lead technical discovery and assess individual plant environments, including PLCs, control systems, networks, databases, historians, field equipment, and existing SCADA platforms.
- Design integration between Ignition and PLCs, controllers, OPC/OPC UA servers, MQTT infrastructure, databases, historians, MES/ERP platforms, and other OT systems.
- Establish standards for tag structures, naming conventions, alarming, historian configuration, templates, visualization, and reusable application components.
- Architect highly available and resilient SCADA environments, including gateway redundancy, backup/recovery, failover, performance, and scalability.
- Partner with OT networking and cybersecurity teams to define network segmentation, firewall requirements, secure communications, remote access, authentication, and OT security controls.
- Provide architectural guidance for industrial protocols including OPC UA, EtherNet/IP, Modbus TCP, MQTT/Sparkplug, and related technologies.
- Serve as the senior technical escalation point for complex SCADA, controls, communications, networking, and application-integration issues.
- Lead design reviews and provide technical oversight to SCADA deployment engineers and site implementation teams.
- Establish testing, validation, commissioning, and production-readiness standards for site deployments.
- Review site-specific deviations and determine when configurations should be incorporated into the enterprise architecture or remain site-specific.
- Identify opportunities to automate deployments and improve repeatability across large numbers of industrial locations.
- Produce and maintain architecture diagrams, standards, design documentation, deployment procedures, and as-built documentation.
- Mentor engineers and controls resources responsible for implementing the architecture.
- Work with client leadership to develop a longer-term SCADA/OT technology roadmap as the Ignition environment expands.
Required Qualifications
- 8+ years of experience in SCADA, industrial automation, controls engineering, OT infrastructure, or related industrial technology environments.
- 3+ years in a senior engineering, technical lead, or architecture capacity supporting industrial systems.
- Demonstrated experience designing or leading enterprise or multi-site SCADA/HMI architectures.
- Strong knowledge of PLC integration, industrial controls, field devices, historians, databases, and plant-floor technologies.
- Strong understanding of OPC/OPC UA, EtherNet/IP, Modbus, MQTT and other industrial communication protocols.
- Experience architecting SCADA connectivity across segmented industrial networks.
- Strong understanding of industrial networking, including switching, routing, VLANs, firewalls, NAT, DMZs, and OT/IT segmentation.
- Experience designing high-availability, redundant, scalable, and recoverable industrial systems.
- Understanding of OT cybersecurity principles and industrial security architecture.
- Ability to translate plant-specific requirements into standardized enterprise architecture.
- Experience leading technical design sessions and working across OT, IT, cybersecurity, networking, controls, and business teams.
- Strong documentation, communication, troubleshooting, and technical leadership skills.
Preferred Qualifications
- Extensive hands-on experience with Inductive Automation Ignition.
- Ignition Gold Certification or equivalent advanced Ignition experience.
- Experience with Ignition Perspective, Vision, Tag Historian, Alarm Notification, SQL Bridge, Enterprise Administration Module, or related modules.
- Experience architecting multi-gateway or enterprise-scale Ignition environments.
- Experience with MQTT/Sparkplug architectures and industrial edge computing.
- Experience with Rockwell FactoryTalk, AVEVA/Wonderware, Siemens WinCC, GE CIMPLICITY/iFIX, or comparable SCADA platforms.
- Strong experience with Allen-Bradley/Rockwell, Siemens, Schneider Electric, or similar PLC/control platforms.
- Experience integrating SCADA environments with MES, ERP, cloud, data analytics, or enterprise data platforms.
- Knowledge of ISA/IEC 62443, Purdue Model architecture, NIST guidance, or similar OT cybersecurity frameworks.
- Experience developing standards for a multi-plant or global manufacturing organization.