Systems Architect - Automated Manufacturing Systems

Major Duties

We are seeking a Systems Architect to join our Pre-Automation Services Team, where you will play a critical role collaborating with our customers to shape the front-end architecture of advanced automated manufacturing systems. This is a conceptual and pre-design role that defines the digital and physical frameworks guiding all downstream engineering, controls, and software activities.

Your core mission is to determine what should be built and how it should function, using systems thinking, simulation, and data-driven decision making to architect solutions that are scalable, integrated, and future-ready. This is not a detailed design, controls, or implementation role. This is a strategic design role at the intersection of systems engineering, industrial engineering, and advanced automation, focused on upstream system architecture, risk reduction, and requirements development.

You will work directly with customers and internal teams to define high-level concepts, assess technical feasibility, and develop architectural content that serve as the blueprint for future automation programs.

Specific Responsibilities

Lead the conceptual system architecture of advanced manufacturing platforms, integrating automation, digital systems, data, physical equipment, and operations in close collaboration with customers
• Define system boundaries, material and data flows, interfaces, and functional blocks based on customer goals and future state use cases, and that serve as the foundation for follow-on detailed engineering design
• Develop clear, actionable system requirements and acceptance criteria that are traceable to customer needs, business goals, and regulatory requirements
• Conduct simulation, modeling, and studies to explore architectural options, capacity strategies, and system performance scenarios
• Leverage data-driven methods to validate design assumptions, identify risks, and optimize architectural outcomes before handoff to design teams
• Proactively identify and mitigate early-stage product, process, design, integration, performance, and technology risks through proof-of-concept work or conceptual validation
• Engage stakeholders, including customers and internal teams, to understand use cases, digital maturity, and future systems needs
• Collaborate with engineering, controls, IT, operations, and sales to ensure architecture aligns with customer’s long-term strategic goals and execution capabilities
• Produce architectural deliverables, including system user requirements documents (URSs), functional design specification documents (FRSs), functional block diagrams, and early risk registers
• Update and evolve architectural requirements and assumptions as system understanding grows and scope evolves
• Contribute to enterprise-wide frameworks for smart manufacturing, digital enablement, and Information Technology (IT)/Operational Technology (OT) integration

Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree in Systems, Industrial, Mechanical, Software, or Electrical Engineering or equivalent. Master’s or MBA is an asset.

• 7+ years of experience in systems architecture, automation strategy, or conceptual design of complex manufacturing systems

• Knowledge of:

- Systems engineering principles (requirements development, interface management, V-model, risk analysis and mitigation

- Simulation tools (Plant Simulation, or equivalent)

- Industrial automation systems (robotics, PLCs, SCADA, MES, data acquisition, I/O)

- Data and integration protocols (OPC, Ethernet/IP, etc.)

- Vertical integration layers above core automation systems (MES, SCADA, ERP, cloud/edge platforms, analytics, machine learning, artificial intelligence, etc.)

- Smart factory frameworks (Industry 4.0, Digital Twin concepts, etc.)

• Comfortable using Microsoft 365 suite of tools (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio, Project)

• Strategic, systems-level thinker with the ability to distill complexity into clarity

• Confident communicator who can align technical and non-technical stakeholders

Join our globally growing team at ATS Industrial Automation where we create complex automation solutions at the highest level that sustainably impact lives around the world. 

At ATS, a publicly traded global company with a proud 40-year history, we help drive the future with our factory-wide automation solutions. At ATS Industrial Automation, what we do matters - both to our customers and to their customers. With 600 skilled employees around the world, we design, build and service mission-critical automated assembly and test solutions for mobility, nuclear and specialty automation. Our customers are leaders in their industries and rely on us to deliver what we promise - on time and on budget. Combined with our broad product portfolio, financial strength and global presence, we provide our customers with the best automation solutions wherever and whenever they need them. 

Join our ATS Industrial Automation Team because:

• We VALUE our People : The foundation of a great company is having the best team which is why we continuously work to develop, engage, empower, and energize our people.
• We’ve got GREAT Work Perks : We provide a variety of perks to our employees. Make sure you ask more about our flexible work schedules, employee events, free coffee beverages, employee referral program and safety shoe programs. 
• We offer COMPETITIVE Total Rewards: Competitive starting salaries, overtime pay eligibility, paid vacation, company paid short- and long-term disability and life insurance, comprehensive health benefits, 401K matching program, Employee Incentive Bonus program and optional Employee Share Purchase Program. 
• We support internal GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT : ATS Automation offers endless opportunities for professional growth and development, including tuition reimbursement programs and our commitment to promoting from within.