Smart Manufacturing Consultant (Hands-on IT/OT + Cloud)

Job Description

• We’re looking for a hands-on Smart Factory Architect who can design and drive delivery of edge-to-cloud industrial data & application architectures across global manufacturing sites. You’ll bridge OT systems (PLC/SCADA/DCS/MES/Historians) with cloud services (Azure/AWS/Snowflake, etc.), ensuring ISA-95 interoperability, robust cybersecurity (Zero Trust), and reliable data flows for use cases like performance analytics, predictive maintenance, and digital twins. You’ll operate as a technical leader who can review architecture, validate implementation plans, unblock delivery, and communicate clearly across engineering, OT, security, networking, and site stakeholders. ________________________________________ Key responsibilities Architecture & technical leadership • Act as the technical expert for Smart Factory / Edge architectures in a multi-site, multi-stakeholder environment. • Review architectural designs (edge, network, cloud, security, data models) and confirm the feasibility of implementation plans. • Align with Cloud Engineers and OT consultants to ensure ISA-95 compliant IT/OT integration and interoperability across layers (L0–L4/5). • Validate that all required services are deployed and configured correctly (cloud resources, edge runtime, connectivity, identity, monitoring). Edge-to-cloud integration & data flow validation • Define and validate edge-to-cloud data flow requirements, including: o Tag list/signals, payload schemas/formats, naming conventions o Frequency, buffering, store-and-forward, latency/availability targets o Data quality rules (units, timestamps, limits, gaps, duplicates) o Create logical & conceptual models for contextualization • Validate conceptual and logical modelling of the factory asset hierarchy (site/area/line/cell/equipment/component) and mapping to data streams. • Support the implementation of industrial connectivity patterns (e.g., OPC UA, MQTT, Modbus, REST) and integration with OT data sources (historians, SCADA, MES, CMMS, LIMS when relevant). Cloud & platform enablement (Azure/AWS/Snowflake) • Drive architecture decisions for ingestion, storage, and analytics using services such as: o Azure (IoT Hub, Event Hubs, Functions, AKS, Data Lake, Databricks/Synapse, Monitor, Key Vault, Private Link) o AWS (IoT Core, Kinesis, Lambda, EKS, S3, Glue, CloudWatch, Secrets Manager, Greengrass) o Snowflake (ingestion patterns, data modeling, governance, performance considerations) • Ensure observability is in place: logging, metrics, tracing, alerting, and operational runbooks. Network, cybersecurity & site readiness • Coordinate with site IT/networking to ensure: o Connectivity readiness (routing, DNS, proxy, certificates) o Firewall rules, ports, and secure connectivity patterns (VPN/ExpressRoute/Direct Connect where applicable) • Ensure alignment with factory cybersecurity and Zero Trust principles, including segmentation, least privilege, secure remote access, and auditability. Testing, go-live, and operational stabilization • Own the go-live checklist and drive issue resolution during integration testing and cutover. • Support test data ingestion and end-to-end validation, from OT signal extraction through cloud ingestion, storage, and consumption. • Validate performance and reliability requirements (throughput, latency, resilience, recovery) and ensure operational handover readiness. Digital Twin & OT platforms • Contribute to Digital Twin concepts built on IT/OT convergence (asset hierarchy + telemetry + context). • Work hands-on with OT / Smart Factory platforms such as AVEVA, Sight Machine, and/or similar (e.g., Ignition, OSIsoft/PI, Tulip, PTC ThingWorx, depending on environment). ________________________________________ Required qualifications & experience • 7+ years of experience in industrial IT/OT, smart factory, or manufacturing digitalization roles, with architect-level ownership of designs and deployments. • Proven hands-on delivery experience implementing edge-to-cloud integration in real factory environments. • Strong understanding of: o ISA-95 (integration patterns and manufacturing system layers) o Industrial architectures (OT network segmentation, DMZ patterns, edge gateways) o Core OT systems (PLC/SCADA/DCS, historian, MES) and data acquisition methods • Cloud architecture experience on Azure and/or AWS (plus familiarity with Snowflake, databricks and modern data platforms). • Solid fundamentals in networking (firewalls, VLANs, routing, certificates, proxies) and troubleshooting in restricted environments. • knowledge of identity and access management (Azure AD/RBAC/Managed Identities or AWS IAM, secrets, key management). • Excellent communication skills, able to lead technical conversations with security, IT, OT, and business stakeholders globally. ________________________________________ Technical skill set (must-have) • Edge/IIoT protocols & patterns: OPC UA, MQTT, REST APIs, store-and-forward, buffering, offline resilience • Data engineering basics: schema design, time-series concepts, streaming ingestion, partitioning, data quality checks • Cloud security: least privilege, private networking, key management, audit/logging, policy enforcement • Operational readiness: integration test planning, go-live governance, incident triage and structured problem-solving ________________________________________ Preferred / nice-to-have • Knowledge of IEC 62443 / OT security frameworks and industrial zero trust patterns. • Experience with Kubernetes at edge/cloud (AKS/EKS), IaC (Terraform/Bicep/CloudFormation), and CI/CD. • Experience with industrial historians and time-series stacks (e.g., AVEVA/PI-like patterns). • Familiarity with data governance (catalog, lineage, access policies) and regulated environments. • Experience building or operationalizing Digital Twin solutions (asset model + context + telemetry). ________________________________________
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