Senior Automation Controls Engineer

Senior Automation Controls Engineer

Job: Senior Automation Controls Engineer Duration: 3+ Months Location: Normal, IL

Manufacturing Data & Controls Systems Engineer (Contract)

Client is seeking an experienced Manufacturing Data & Controls Systems Engineer to lead data cleanup, optimization, and KPI alignment initiatives within key manufacturing operations. This role will focus on improving the quality, accuracy, and reliability of manufacturing data streams across General Assembly production lines by eliminating data noise, optimizing PLC-to-SCADA communications, and establishing accurate performance metrics.

The successful candidate will work closely with manufacturing and controls engineering leads to improve operational visibility and support continuous improvement efforts through accurate measurement of critical production KPIs.

Key Objectives

• Identify and eliminate data integrity issues across manufacturing control systems.
• Establish reliable data foundations for operational performance measurement.
• Improve the accuracy and consistency of: Mean Time to Repair (MTTR), Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF), Operational Production Ratio (OPR), Root-cause bottleneck identification and analysis
• Optimize manufacturing data pipelines to support data-driven decision-making and continuous improvement.

Scope of Work

• General Assembly R1 (GA R1)
• General Assembly Electric Delivery Van (GA EDV)

The engineer will collaborate directly with internal manufacturing, controls, and operations leaders to assess current-state systems, identify improvement opportunities, and implement sustainable solutions.

Key Responsibilities

• Controls & Data Systems Assessment
• Conduct audits of Allen-Bradley (Rockwell Automation) PLC programs, tag structures, and communication architectures.
• Review Ignition SCADA/MES gateway configurations, database connections, transaction groups, and scripting environments.
• Identify sources of data noise, false fault conditions, duplicate events, and inaccurate production reporting.
• Data Cleanup & Optimization
• Clean and optimize real-time and historical manufacturing data pipelines.
• Remove redundant, erroneous, and low-value data points that impact downtime tracking and production reporting.
• Implement tag rationalization strategies, filtering methods, and deadband adjustments to improve data quality.
• Improve data collection and event logging processes to increase overall system reliability.
• KPI Development & Reporting
• Configure data structures and reporting mechanisms that accurately support MTTR, MTBF, OPR, and bottleneck analysis calculations.
• Align manufacturing data streams with operational performance framework.
• Develop processes for ongoing monitoring of data quality and KPI accuracy.
• Continuous Improvement & Stakeholder Collaboration
• Partner with controls engineers, manufacturing engineers, production teams, and internal project leads.
• Recommend solutions that provide immediate operational impact and measurable return on investment.
• Establish and support a regular reporting cadence for tracking project progress and data integrity improvements.

Required Qualifications

• Technical Expertise
• Extensive experience with Allen-Bradley (Rockwell Automation) PLCs, including: PLC programming and troubleshooting, tag management and architecture, factory automation systems integration
• Advanced experience with Ignition by Inductive Automation, including: Python scripting, transaction groups, UDTs (User Defined Types), database logging and optimization, gateway configuration and troubleshooting
• Strong understanding of manufacturing data acquisition, historian systems, and industrial networking.
• Manufacturing Experience
• Experience supporting automotive, industrial, or high-volume manufacturing environments.
• Demonstrated success improving production reporting and manufacturing KPI accuracy.
• Knowledge of equipment downtime tracking, fault management, and continuous improvement methodologies.