OT Network Engineer

Overview CAREER OPPORTUNITY: Process Control Engineer. Drive technical initiatives across Operational Technology (OT) networks focused on reliability, cybersecurity, connectivity, and data acquisition. Lead and support projects that improve process visibility, reduce downtime, optimize performance, and enhance profitability. Provide hands-on technical support to operations and maintenance teams to help the mills achieve goals and objectives. Responsibilities Troubleshooting & Enablement: Diagnose OT network, firewall, and connectivity issues. Project Execution: Plan, design, and implement OT infrastructure projects including network segmentation, secure remote access, DMZ architecture, and data center buildouts (rack/stack, power, cooling, cabling, failover). Cybersecurity & Compliance: Configure and maintain OT firewalls, VLANs, ACLs, IDS/IPS, and endpoint protections to safeguard mill assets; support vulnerability management, patching windows, and incident response. Data Acquisition & Integration: Implement robust, secure data collection from PLCs/DCS/Historian using OPC UA/DA, Modbus, EtherNet/IP, Profibus/Profinet, MQTT, and other standard industrial protocols; maintain tag governance and asset models. IoT Enablement: Deploy and manage industrial IoT gateways/sensors, normalize telemetry, and ensure reliable data pipelines to on-prem historians and cloud services. Platform & Compute: Administer and optimize VMware and Hyper-V environments; provision and maintain Windows/Linux VMs for OT applications, historians, and middleware. Cloud & Data Services: Build secure data flows to AWS (e.g., IoT Core, Kinesis, S3, Lambda, Glue) for analytics and reporting; implement authentication, encryption, and network controls. Documentation & Tracking: Administratively track trials, network changes, firewall rule sets, and data flows; maintain architecture diagrams, runbooks, and change logs. Operational Excellence: Perform daily checks on critical OT systems (latency, throughput, packet loss, historian backfill, certificate health) and act on leading indicators. Safety & Housekeeping: Promote daily safety communications and maintain clean, well-labeled cabinets, panels, racks, and cable management aligned with mill standards. Customer Focus: Assist in resolving internal customer issues (operations, quality, maintenance) with corrective actions and proactive monitoring; maintain clear communication. Continuous Improvement: Organize and implement trials and changes to improve data quality, network resilience, and system uptime; quantify benefits (MTBF/MTTR, data completeness, cost avoidance). What You Will Need to Succeed Education: Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Industrial Engineering—or equivalent technical discipline. Experience: Minimum 5 years of experience in OT/industrial networking, systems engineering, or controls/automation, with relevant work experience or military service considered. Hands-on with L2/L3 networking (switching/routing), VLANs, trunking, STP, QoS, NAT, VPNs, and segmentation (ISA/IEC 62443 concepts a plus). Experience configuring and managing firewalls (e.g., Palo Alto, Fortinet, Cisco, Check Point) and implementing rule hygiene and logging. Practical cybersecurity skills in OT environments: least privilege, secure remote access, jump hosts, certificate management (PKI), asset inventory, and patch management. Demonstrated proficiency with OPC UA/DA, Modbus/TCP, EtherNet/IP, MQTT, and integrating PLC/DCS tags to historians/SCADA/analytics. Experience with VMware and/or Hyper-V for virtualization; Windows Server and Linux administration. Familiarity with AWS services and secure data integration patterns for industrial telemetry. Data center fundamentals: rack design, structured cabling, labeling, redundancy, power, cooling, and monitoring. Strong understanding of Distributed Control Systems (DCS) and Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC) architecture, configuration, and communication protocols. Familiarity with design and implementation of industrial network topologies such as FTE, DLR, REP, and PRP. Experience troubleshooting control system connectivity issues and integrating data from PLC/DCS into historians and cloud platforms. Knowledge of vendor-specific platforms (e.g., ABB, Emerson, Honeywell, Rockwell/Allen-Bradley, Siemens) is a plus. Nice to Have Pulp & paper mill or heavy industrial background. Experience with PI/AVEVA (OSIsoft), Ignition, FactoryTalk, or similar platforms. Exposure to network monitoring tools (NetFlow, SNMP, syslog), and SIEM integration. Scripting/automation (PowerShell, Python) for configuration management and data workflows. Certifications: CCNA/CCNP, NSE, PCNSA, GICSP, CISSP, AWS Cloud Practitioner/Associate. WestRock Values Integrity - We are honest, ethical and do the right thing. Respect - We treat one another with respect and earn the respect of others through our actions. Accountability - We are responsible for our work, to our team and for contributing to the success of our company. Excellence - We strive to perform at the highest levels - for ourselves and for our customers, investors and communities. Keywords OT network, OT cybersecurity, firewalls, VLAN, segmentation, ISA/IEC 62443, DMZ, secure remote access, OPC UA, OPC DA, Modbus, EtherNet/IP, MQTT, SCADA, historian, IoT gateways, AWS, Kinesis, S3, Lambda, VMware, Hyper‑V, Windows Server, Linux, data center buildout, routing, switching, QoS, VPN, IDS/IPS, packet capture, PI, Ignition, FactoryTalk, PLC, DCS, pulp & paper, mill operations, reliability, uptime, performance optimization. Equal Opportunity Statement Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or other characteristics protected by state or federal law. #J-18808-Ljbffr WestRock Company