PLM/ PDM Systems Architect

Parallel Systems is pioneering autonomous battery-electric rail vehicles designed to transform freight transportation by shifting portions of the $900 billion U.S. trucking industry onto rail. Our innovative technology offers cleaner, safer, and more efficient logistics solutions. Join our dynamic team and help shape a smarter, greener future for global freight.Senior PLM & Manufacturing Systems Engineer Parallel Systems is seeking a Senior PLM & Manufacturing Systems Engineer to own the systems that control how our vehicle is defined, released, and built. The immediate priority is our SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional environment — administration, release and change control process design, and the engineering data handoff into Odoo. As the production organization scales, this role will expand into the broader manufacturing systems stack, including MES, quality management, and serialized traceability. Ideal candidates have administered PDM and PLM in a hardware environment and have built the engineering release and configuration management process on top of it, not simply maintained the tool. This is a hands-on, senior individual contributor role. We expect the function to grow and additional headcount to follow as production scales; we are hiring the person who will build its foundation and set its technical direction. Responsibilities: Own administration of the SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional environment, including archive and database servers, vault configuration, replication, backup and restore testing, upgrades, and license administration. Design and maintain data cards, workflows, revision schemes, and state-driven permissions that reflect how engineering and production actually work. Work with engineering to define and implement engineering release and change control, including ECR/ECO workflow, released-state protection, effectivity, and revision control that holds up against a production BOM. Govern CAD and product data standards — part numbering, file naming, templates, Toolbox management, and the custom properties that drive downstream systems. Maintain the integration between PDM and Odoo so that item masters, engineering BOMs, revisions, and released drawings reach manufacturing without manual re-entry. Automate routine administration and data movement using Dispatch, scripting, and the PDM and Odoo APIs. Support engineers and production staff directly — triage issues, onboard and train new users, and document the processes the systems enforce. Partner with Manufacturing Engineering, Quality, and Supply Chain to evaluate, select, and deploy additional production systems as the organization scales, including MES, quality management, and serialized traceability. Act as the technical authority on product data management and configuration control, influencing how Parallel Systems maintains as-designed, as-planned, and as-built configuration across a growing fleet. What Success Looks Like:30 days: You've mapped the current PDM and ERP environments. You will have started to map out a desired workflow for engineering data through conversations with engineering and procurement teams. You will have a burn down list of issues to fix and features to add. 60 days: You've made meaningful progress burning down the issues on that list. PDM data cards and simple release workflows will be working as desired. Dispatch scripts will be cleaned up. 90 days: You've implemented production release and ECR workflows that are tested and function as intended. You will begin to work with the manufacturing team to scope out their MES and other infrastructure, at least as it relates to engineering data from PDM. Basic Requirements: 5+ years administering PDM or PLM systems in a hardware engineering or manufacturing environment. Deep hands-on SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional administration, including workflow, data card, permission design, and Dispatch. Demonstrated ownership of an engineering release and change control process, not only the system that hosts it. Working knowledge of ERP/MRP manufacturing data — item masters, BOMs, and routings — and how engineering data must land in it. Scripting or light development ability sufficient to build and maintain system integrations, such as Python, C#/.NET, or SQL, with comfort working against REST or XML-RPC APIs. Experience working directly with engineers and production staff to translate process requirements into system configuration. Preferred Qualifications: Hands-on experience with Odoo, or with another ERP/MRP implementation, integration, or migration. Experience evaluating or deploying MES or electronic quality management (eQMS) platforms. Background in rail, aerospace, automotive, or another environment where serialized traceability and configuration control are required. Familiarity with SOLIDWORKS Manage, or with migration from PDM to a broader PLM platform. Broader IT infrastructure experience, including identity and SSO, Windows Server, virtualization, backup strategy, and software license management. Startup or small-team experience, with the ability to build process and documentation from nothing. We are committed to providing fair and transparent compensation in accordance with applicable laws. Salary ranges are listed below and reflect the expected range for new hires in this role, based on factors such as skills, experience, qualifications, and location. Final compensation may vary and will be determined during the interview process. The target hiring range for this position is listed below.Target Salary Range:$150,000—$190,000 USDParallel Systems is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity in the workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any discriminatory factor protected by applicable federal, state or local laws. We work to build an inclusive environment in which all people can come to do their best work.Parallel Systems is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. As part of this commitment, Parallel Systems will ensure that persons with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please contact your recruiter.