Sr. Systems Engineer - Manufacturing Plant Floor Systems

Description

The company's Manufacturing Plant Floor Systems group works from Austin, TX, and Warren, MI, building IT solutions for manufacturing. Its areas include error proofing, monitoring and control, robotics, AI, and intelligent automation, all aimed at building products with zero defects.

This Senior Systems Engineer leads deployment, modernization, and ongoing support of software used in the company's manufacturing plants worldwide. You will help rework current deployment processes around AI, aiming for faster, more repeatable, more reliable work and closer engagement with the business. Hands-on, you will build full-stack application environments from detailed requirements and system specifications.

The ideal candidate has deep experience with GE Digital CIMPLICITY (SCADA), OPC UA/DA, PLC-to-MES integration, and shop-floor IT, plus hands-on AI/ML skills. You will use generative AI to generate PLC and SCADA scripts, build predictive maintenance analytics, and add natural-language query tools for plant-floor data, without compromising the reliability and stability plants depend on.

The role calls for strong development skills to build new capabilities, automate processes and tests, and create AI-enabled deployment workflows. You will build responsible AI solutions, help maintain security, make sure third-party software and operating systems follow the company's IT statement of technical direction, and work with development and support teams to keep systems up, reliable, secure, and ready to run.

Responsibilities

• Rework existing deployment processes to be user-driven, AI-centric, secure, repeatable, measurable, and scalable.
• Deploy, configure, update, and maintain control-room and plant-floor software on shop-floor IT infrastructure.
• Install and configure virtual servers in plant data centers with minimal supervision, working with IT infrastructure delivery teams.
• Keep launch and deployment work on schedule with IT Project Management, raising risks early and escalating them when needed, with minimal supervision.
• Find repeatable deployment steps to automate using scripting, CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure-as-code, and AI-assisted workflows.
• Design and build AI/ML capabilities: generative AI for PLC/SCADA script generation, predictive maintenance analytics, and natural-language interfaces for plant-floor data.
• Set up validation, testing, human review, security, and traceability for AI-generated scripts, configurations, and recommendations.
• Gather requirements from plants, configure applications for each site's business needs, and provide the analysis that launches and deployments require.
• Validate application behavior, data quality, and integration with physical equipment alongside in-plant staff.
• Test with upstream and downstream plant applications to confirm data continuity and correct operational behavior.
• Support CIMPLICITY, OPC UA/DA, PLC-to-MES integrations, Kepware connectivity, and related manufacturing data flows.
• Investigate IT integration problems and provide technical input to resolve them.
• Build and maintain software, deployment automation, test automation, and supporting tools using sound engineering practice.
• Monitor uptime, performance, data quality, and AI effectiveness, and find and fix reliability problems.
• Keep technical documentation current for production installations, deployment procedures, integrations, and AI model or prompt behavior.
• Review pull requests and work with developers on user stories, test cases, code quality, and production readiness.
• Take part in development-team sessions on new ideas and on improving existing solutions.
• Lead technical work that delivers software projects and measurably speeds up deployment.
• Apply depth in multi-layer solutioning, performance tuning, debugging, incident triage and fixes, and usability improvement.
• Travel to plant locations for workshops, discovery, testing, and deployment activities.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Technology, or a related field.
• 5+ years integrating applications with industrial PLCs, robots, or other automation equipment in a manufacturing environment.
• Hands-on experience deploying and maintaining control-room or manufacturing applications on shop-floor IT infrastructure.
• Experience with industrial protocols, PLCs, manufacturing equipment, and plant-floor data collection and integration.
• Experience designing, integrating, or running AI/ML solutions in an enterprise or manufacturing setting.
• Experience with generative AI, large language models, prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation, agentic workflows, or AI-assisted software and script development.
• Experience building or applying predictive maintenance, anomaly detection, forecasting, or other manufacturing analytics models.
• Experience building natural-language query or conversational interfaces for operational, manufacturing, or time-series data.
• Experience putting safeguards on AI solutions: validation, access control, data protection, explainability, monitoring, and human-in-the-loop review.
• Databases: Oracle, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, or comparable relational and time-series technologies.
• Web application servers: Tomcat, IIS, or comparable platforms.
• Infrastructure: server provisioning, virtual machines, networking, clustered servers, and plant data-center environments.
• Operating systems and platforms: Linux, UNIX, Windows Server, and cloud technologies.
• Tools: Cursor, Confluence, ServiceNow, GitHub, Fortify, SonarLint/SonarQube, Artifactory, and JIRA.
• Strong.NET/C development skills.
• Strong Python or PowerShell scripting skills, with the ability to build deployment, integration, and test automation.
• Experience on Agile teams that ship software regularly while practicing code review and automated testing.
• Proven ability to diagnose problems from browser through application, infrastructure, network, database, and industrial systems.
• Experience with IT enterprise security concepts and implementation.
• Kepware experience, including setting up an IoT Gateway so a PLC can communicate with an upper-level application through Kepware, importing tags, and supporting automatic tag generation.
• Strong verbal and written communication, translating feedback, needs, risks, and solutions across IT, engineering, plant operations, and business stakeholders.
• Creative problem solving that produces clean solutions to complex technical and operational issues.
• A strong teamwork focus and the ability to build collaboration within and across teams.
• High business insight, creativity, decision-making, drive for results, negotiation ability, peer relationship building, and fast technical learning.
• A customer-focused outlook and enthusiasm for complex systems, reliable software, responsible AI, and measurable business outcomes.
• Preferred: deep experience with GE Digital CIMPLICITY (SCADA), OPC UA/DA, and PLC-to-MES data integration.
• Preferred: previous manufacturing, plant-floor, industrial automation, or operational technology experience.
• Preferred: demonstrated experience deploying AI/ML solutions into production and monitoring their performance and value.
• Preferred: experience with AI-assisted DevOps, MLOps, model lifecycle management, or LLMOps.
• Preferred: experience with time-series data, industrial historians, predictive maintenance, anomaly detection, or digital twins.
• Preferred: experience with enterprise LLM platforms, vector databases, or retrieval-augmented generation architectures.

Conditions

This role is hybrid: you must report to a specific location at least 3 times a week, or as often as your manager sets.

Work may fall during plant downtime, including weekends, second shift, third shift, and holidays.

The company does not provide immigration sponsorship for this role. Do not apply if you will need company immigration sponsorship now or in the future, including direct sponsorship, naming the company as employer of record on a government form, or any work authorization that requires a written submission or other immigration support from the company, such as H-1B, OPT, STEM OPT, CPT, TN, or J-1.

Role-related assessments and/or a pre-employment screening may be required before you start.

The company is committed to a workplace free of unlawful discrimination that fosters inclusion and belonging.

Benefits

• Relocation benefits are available for candidates who qualify under company policy.
• Well-being support from day one, at work and at home, along with Total Rewards resources.