Shopfloor Apps Manufacturing Systems Engineer

Job Summary

PHINIA is seeking a Manufacturing Systems Engineer to act as a key bridge between Operational Technology (OT) and Information Technology (IT) across our global manufacturing network. This role is responsible for connecting shop floor automation systems and manufacturing platforms with enterprise applications, enabling reliable, secure, and scalable data flows that support operational excellence, digital manufacturing, and Industry 4.0 initiatives. Working closely with plant teams, automation engineers, IT partners, and manufacturing stakeholders, the Manufacturing Systems Engineer will design and implement solutions that capture, structure, and integrate production data from industrial control systems into central platforms for analytics, reporting, and business processes.

Key Responsibilities

• Connect to plant-floor automation systems (Rockwell ControlLogix/CompactLogix, Siemens S7/TIA Portal, and similar) to identify, configure, and extract production data tags for central consumption.
• Configure and maintain OPC-UA servers and clients (Kepware, Matrikon, native Siemens/Rockwell servers) including certificate management, namespace configuration, subscription tuning, and high-tag-count performance optimization.
• Set up and maintain data historians (OSIsoft PI, FactoryTalk Historian, WinCC archives, or similar) - tag configuration, polling rates, compression settings, storage sizing, and downstream access provisioning.
• Build secure integrations between shopfloor systems and MES, ERP (SAP), PLM, and IoT platforms using OPC-UA, MQTT, SOAP, REST, and AMQP protocols; debug malformed JSON, XML, and SOAP payloads in production.
• Write and optimize SQL queries against production databases for data mining, validation, and troubleshooting; support data quality investigations across the integration chain.
• Work directly with plant ME and maintenance teams to understand their automation landscape, identify available data points, and implement data extraction solutions - often with limited documentation and inconsistent tag naming.
• Navigate IT/OT network segmentation (DMZ, firewalls, data diodes) and coordinate with plant IT/security teams to establish secure data paths from automation networks to enterprise systems.
• Support MES platform implementations and migrations (Rockwell FTPC/MES, Siemens OpCenter, Ignition, or equivalent), including system configuration, operator workflow setup, and production validation.
• Develop and maintain real-time dashboards and monitoring tools; integrate time-series data from sensors/PLCs/historians for operational insights (OEE, downtime, scrap, quality trends).
• Train and mentor plant engineers on data extraction techniques, OPC-UA configuration, and historian usage to build local self-sufficiency and reduce dependency on central IT.
• Produce and maintain technical documentation including plant integration maps, tag lists, network diagrams, configuration guides, and runbooks.
• Ensure all shopfloor solutions meet PHINIA's standards for reliability, cybersecurity, ISA/IEC 62443 alignment, Zero Trust, and data integrity.
• Contribute to digital manufacturing initiatives including IIoT enablement, machine connectivity, predictive analytics, and smart-factory programs.

What We're Looking For

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Automation, Manufacturing Systems, or related technical field
• 6-10 years of experience in manufacturing IT, OT systems, or shopfloor application development/integration
• Hands-on experience with Rockwell and/or Siemens automation platforms: RSLogix/Studio 5000, FactoryTalk, TIA Portal, WinCC, or their respective historians
• Practical OPC-UA experience: configuring servers/clients, certificate management, namespace browsing, subscription vs. polling tuning, high-tag-count performance
• Experience setting up and configuring data historians (PI, FactoryTalk Historian, WinCC archives, or similar)
• Multi-protocol integration fluency: OPC-UA, MQTT, SOAP, REST, AMQP - with comfort reading and debugging JSON, XML, and SOAP payloads
• SQL fluency (joins, window functions, query optimization) for data mining against production databases
• Big data awareness: familiarity with time-series databases, data lake concepts, and streaming ingestion patterns
• Basic algorithm understanding (sorting, searching, complexity analysis)
• Strong understanding of manufacturing processes: traceability, quality checks, OEE, work instructions, operator workflows, machine data capture
• Experience with plant-floor networking: VLANs, DMZ, edge devices, IoT gateways, barcode/RFID/scanner workflows
• Experience with IT/OT cybersecurity principles, network segmentation, and secured industrial architecture
• Ability to influence without authority and get results in environments with resistant or under-resourced plant