Principal Automation Engineer Optical Inspection SME

Job Function: Supply Chain Engineering

Job Sub Function: Automation Engineering

Job Category: Scientific/Technology

All Job Posting Locations: Wilson, North Carolina, United States of America

Job Description:

About Innovative Medicine Our expertise in Innovative Medicine is informed and inspired by patients, whose insights fuel our science-based advancements. Visionaries like you work on teams that save lives by developing the medicines of tomorrow. Join us in developing treatments, finding cures, and pioneering the path from lab to life while championing patients every step of the way. Learn more at

Senior Automation Engineer will lead internal team members, suppliers, OEMs, system integrators, Digital/IT partners, automation-system owners, and cross-functional stakeholders to deliver OT infrastructure, industrial networking, integration, historian, virtualization, cybersecurity, and lifecycle initiatives in a cGMP manufacturing environment. Own vision requirements and inspection specifications across filling, AVI, device assembly, and packaging. Define inspection scope and measurable acceptance criteria with Quality and equipment specialists, resolving supplier and integration gaps.

Key Responsibilities:

• Minimum of 10 years of progressive experience in manufacturing OT infrastructure, industrial automation infrastructure, or closely related regulated manufacturing systems, with direct responsibility for OT architecture, implementation, integration, troubleshooting, and lifecycle support.
• Specify, configure, and troubleshoot cameras, lenses, illumination, exposure, triggering, and image geometry.
• Establish stable image acquisition across product formats, equipment speeds, and expected variation in materials and presentation.
• Develop and maintain inspection jobs for particle and cosmetic defects, container and closure features, component presence and orientation, print verification, and barcodes, according to each station’s approved scope.
• Integrate automated inspection equipment and inline vision systems with machine PLCs.
• Verify trigger and result handshakes, product tracking, reject timing and confirmation, and line stop behavior.
• Develop defect libraries and challenge sets with Quality.
• Evaluate detection capability, false acceptance, false rejection, repeatability, and performance across formats and operating conditions using approved test methods.
• Lead vision factory and site acceptance testing and commissioning.
• Support qualification with traceable requirements, representative defect challenges, repeatability studies, and documented resolution of inspection and reject-system defects.
• Troubleshoot missed triggers, poor images, incorrect recipes, product tracking errors, and communication failures.
• Verify that stale, missing, or incomplete inspection results invoke the defined reject or stop response.
• Define and verify batch context, inspection results, defect images, audit trails, and retention requirements with Quality and IT/OT.
• Confirm that records and product identity remain traceable through interruptions and recovery.
• Control inspection recipes, thresholds, calibration, software versions, and access permissions.
• Assess camera, lens, lighting, algorithm, and firmware changes through risk assessment, change control, and appropriate requalification.
• Lead investigations of inspection escapes, false rejects, and recurring faults.
• Distinguish product defects from imaging, algorithm, handling, and timing problems, and implement corrective actions with Quality and Operations.
• Maintain configuration backups, recovery procedures, and technical documentation.
• Coordinate OEM support, mentor engineers and technicians, and train operators and maintenance personnel on inspection challenges, setup, and fault recovery.

Qualifications Education:

Bachelor’s degree in Automation, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Optical Engineering, or a related technical discipline

Experience and Skills:

Required: Demonstrated hands‑on experience developing and qualifying pharmaceutical automated visual inspection and PLC‑integrated machine vision systems through commissioning and GMP manufacturing support. Experience configuring vision inspection tools for pattern matching, edge detection, feature measurement, defect classification, and recipe‑based inspection, with controlled parameter limits and robust result handling. Strong practical skills in optics, camera and lens selection, lighting, calibration, image processing, feature measurement, and defect detection, including control of presentation and environmental variation. Ability to diagnose PLC and HMI interfaces, digital I/O, camera triggers, encoders, industrial Ethernet networks, product tracking, and reject control, including communication handshakes and timing. Experience with presence and orientation checks, print verification, optical character recognition and verification (OCR/OCV), and one‑dimensional and two‑dimensional code reading and grading. Experience with defect standards, challenge testing, statistical assessment of inspection performance, computerized system validation, requirements traceability, data integrity, deviations, and change control. Ability to independently resolve complex inspection problems, communicate quality risks, coordinate suppliers, and guide colleagues through technical leadership without direct supervisory authority.

Preferred: Experience with robotic handling, automated setup, and vision‑guided verification in device assembly and packaging. Experience with MES, OPC UA, SQL, manufacturing historians, inspection image archives, and interfaces between vision results and serialization systems. Experience supporting startup of a new pharmaceutical manufacturing facility, inspection process improvement, and regulatory inspection readiness. Work on site during integration, commissioning, qualification, and manufacturing support, including entry into controlled production areas using the required gowning and safety procedures.

Other:

This position will be located in Wilson, North Carolina, and will require full time on‑site support. However, the design of the facility will occur at an Engineering firm with frequent travel (> 25%) required until the project shifts to the plant site of Wilson, NC.

If you are under 18 years of age, you (the candidate) may need to obtain the necessary working papers or other documentation required by state law to start the assignment, as well as get a parent’s consent for the background check.

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Johnson & Johnson is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, national origin, disability, protected veteran status or other characteristics protected by federal, state or local law. We actively seek qualified candidates who are protected veterans and individuals with disabilities as defined under VEVRAA and Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act. Johnson & Johnson is committed to providing an interview process that is inclusive of our applicants’ needs. If you are an individual with a disability and would like to request an accommodation, external applicants please contact us via internal employees contact AskGS to be directed to your accommodation resource.