Lead Automation Engineer

Lead Automation Engineer
Location: Mason, OH (on-site)
Type: Direct Hire
Travel: 0–10%

Our client seeks a Lead Automation Engineer to design, implement, and maintain integrations across enterprise and manufacturing systems (ERP, SCADA, MES, LIMS, QMS, CMMS) to support innovative pharmaceutical manufacturing platforms. This role partners closely with Engineering, IT, application owners, and business stakeholders to enable secure, scalable data flow and process automation across IT/OT environments. You’ll help drive integration strategy, execution, documentation, and ongoing support in a regulated cGMP setting.

What You’ll Do

• Lead and support selection and implementation of enterprise applications across a life sciences manufacturing environment
• Gather integration requirements and translate them into reliable integration designs and workflows
• Build/maintain integrations using common patterns, middleware approaches, and API strategies
• Develop and maintain data mappings/transformation rules to ensure data consistency and integrity
• Support creation/maintenance of dashboards that surface critical manufacturing/process data
• Troubleshoot integration issues to ensure high availability and performance
• Manage external vendors (selection, contracts, timelines, deliverables)
• Produce clear documentation for designs, configurations, and support procedures

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Electrical/Controls Engineering, or related technical field
• 5–10 years of enterprise application integration experience in manufacturing environments (SCADA/MES/LIMS/data historian/warehousing, etc.)
• Working knowledge of cGMP/regulatory expectations in a pharmaceutical or similarly regulated environment
• Strong understanding of cloud vs. on-prem architectures and implications
• Hands-on experience with integration technologies/protocols such as REST, SOAP, MQTT, XML, JSON, message queuing
• Strong communication, problem-solving, and cross-functional collaboration skills

Preferred / Nice to Have

• Ignition experience strongly preferred
• Familiarity with UNS (Unified Namespace) concepts and contextualized data models
• Knowledge of security best practices (authN/authZ, encryption, secure data handling)
• Exposure to 3D printing technologies in manufacturing environments

Ref: #861-Cincinnati-S1