Engineer/Analyst – Data Historian System Administrator
Southern Power
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Job summary
Southern Power is seeking a Data Historian System Administrator to own and operate the AVEVA PI/IP.21 data historian platforms for the M&D Center, ensuring availability, security, data quality, and scalable performance. The role interfaces with ROC Operators, Analysts, and IT, and is based at the Remote Operations Center in Birmingham, AL.
Strong scripting and data integration skills are essential. Responsibilities include upgrades, disaster recovery planning, interface management, and
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Data Science, or related field (required).
- Master's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Data Science, or related field (preferred).
- Experience with AVEVA PI and Asset Framework (AF) in a commercial setting (5+ years).
- Hands-on administration of PI Data Archive and AF servers, backups, security, and licensing.
Responsibilities
- Own historian platform administration, health, security, and expansion for PI and IP.21.
- Monitor server health, archive sizing, and performance; plan capacity as fleet grows.
- Plan upgrades, patches, and migrations with minimal disruption; validate data integrity.
- Lead disaster recovery planning, runbooks, and restoration objectives.
- Configure interfaces/connectors and data sources; ensure data quality and governance.
- Provide first-line issue resolution and cross-team troubleshooting across OT/IT.
- Develop PI Vision/AspenTech displays; support end users.
- Collaborate with ROC, M&D, IT, and vendor teams to resolve issues.
Skills
Education
Tools
Job description
This position will function as part of the Southern Power Monitoring & Diagnostics (M&D) Center, which provides remote monitoring and diagnostic support to the SPC fleet of gas, solar, wind, and energy storage assets.
This position will function as part of the Southern Power Monitoring & Diagnostics (M&D) Center, which provides remote monitoring and diagnostic support to the SPC fleet of gas, solar, wind, and energy storage assets.
The Data Historian System Administrator serves as the SPC Subject Matter Expert (SME) for the operational data historian platforms the M&D and Operations organizations depend on — AVEVA PI (approximately 85%) and AspenTech IP.21 (approximately 15%). The role owns day‑to‑day administration, health, security, performance, and expansion of these environments, including PI Data Archive and Asset Framework (AF) server management, interface and connector configuration, tag and AF governance, site onboarding, upgrades and migrations, disaster recovery, and end‑user support. The role also sets the data quality standards, naming conventions, and governance practices that every downstream dashboard, report, analytic, and AI/ML pipeline is built upon.
In short, this role owns the operational data platform itself — ensuring the historian infrastructure the SPC fleet runs on is available, secure, accurate, and scalable, so every downstream consumer can trust the data they receive.
This position will closely interface with ROC Operators, M&D Analysts, the Operations Data Engineering Analyst, AI/ML Analysts, Performance Engineers, Asset Managers, Renewable Analysts, Commercial Optimization, SPC SCADA teams, Technical Shared Services, the Technology Organization, plant personnel, and historian vendors.
This position will be located at the Southern Power Remote Operations Center in Birmingham, AL and will be filled at a level and job classification commensurate with the qualifications and experience of the successful candidate.
- System Ownership & Administration — Serve as the primary administrator and single point of contact for all AVEVA PI and AspenTech IP.21 administrative tasks, including server health, archive management, backup and restore, licensing, security and access control, and user provisioning across the SPC fleet.
- Platform Availability & Performance — Monitor historian server health, archive sizing, buffer and queue status, collective/replication status, and overall system performance. Tune configurations and plan capacity so the platform stays available and responsive as the fleet grows.
- Upgrades, Patching & Migrations — Partner with IT and vendors to plan and execute historian hardware and software upgrades, patching, version migrations, and platform consolidation with minimal operational disruption. Validate data integrity before and after every change.
- Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity — Liaise with the central server team to maintain, document, and periodically test backup, failover, and recovery procedures for all historian environments, including recovery runbooks and restoration time objectives.
- Interface & Connector Management — Liaise with the corporate data acquisition team to configure, maintain, and troubleshoot PI interfaces/connectors and IP.21 data sources, including buffering, failover, and communication with plant control systems and SCADA.
- Cybersecurity & Compliance — Administer historian environments in accordance with Southern Company cybersecurity standards, access management policies, and applicable regulatory requirements. Support audits, vulnerability remediation, patch compliance, and periodic account reviews.
- Data Quality Accountability — Accountable for ensuring a high standard of data quality across all historian and analytics systems. Establish monitoring for stale tags, flatlined signals, bad values, scaling errors, communication failures, and archive gaps, and drive identified issues to resolution.
- Tag & Asset Framework Governance — Own fleet-wide standards for tag naming, point types, compression and exception settings, units of measure, and AF templates and hierarchies. Review and approve changes to preserve structural integrity across all OEMs and asset classes.
- Calculations, Analytics & Notifications — Develop and maintain calculated points, AF analytics, event frames, notifications, tools, and reports that support real‑time monitoring, diagnostics, and performance reporting.
- Site Onboarding & Fleet Changes — Lead integration of new generation and storage sites into the historian environments, including interface/connector setup, tag provisioning, AF buildout, initial data validation, and updates to interfacing applications. Manage equipment swaps, repowers, and decommissions.
- Historian Migration Projects — Plan and lead historian migration and consolidation efforts, including tag mapping, historical data backfill, validation, cutover coordination, and stakeholder communication.
- Data Access Enablement — Serve as the first point of contact for data requests including extracts, graphics, and reports. Enable self‑service access through PI DataLink, PI Web API, PI AF SDK, PI Integrator, the IP.21 Excel Connector, Python, and SQL, and support delivery of historian data into downstream platforms such as Databricks.
- First‑Line Issue Resolution — Serve as the first point of contact for site personnel and business users to resolve historian issues, including non‑functional data points, Asset Framework questions, display problems, and data access requests.
- Root Cause Troubleshooting — Diagnose and resolve issues spanning plant controls, SCADA, network connectivity, industrial protocols (OPC DA/UA, DNP3, Modbus), historian interfaces, and archive subsystems. Coordinate plant, IT, and vendor resources as needed.
- Display & Visualization Support — Develop and maintain PI Vision and AspenTech displays, graphics, and reports, and coach end users to build and maintain their own.
- Vendor & Stakeholder Management — Manage vendor support cases, escalations, license renewals, and roadmap discussions. Interface with ROC, M&D, Renewable Operations, Commercial Optimization, site personnel, and IT to resolve issues end to end.
- Cross‑Functional Collaboration — Establish ongoing relationships and communicate effectively with all levels of plant and corporate employees and management. Lead team and customer‑support meetings.
- Training & Development — Provide historian training to analysts, engineers, and plant personnel as needed, and take an active role in the development of new employees.
- Documentation & Standards — Maintain thorough documentation of historian architecture, server configurations, interface inventories, tag and AF standards, runbooks, and standard operating procedures.
- Project & Priority Management — Organize and manage multiple concurrent projects, distinguishing issues that need immediate attention from those that allow more time to resolve.
- Business Case Development — Produce business cases to justify financial investment decisions for technology tools, upgrades, and platform expansion.
- Best Practices & Continuous Learning — Stay current on AVEVA PI System releases, historian technologies, industrial data architectures, and relevant industry trends, and incorporate best practices and lessons learned into daily operations.
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering (Electrical, Computer, Instrumentation and Controls), Computer Science, Data Science, or a related technical field — required.
- Master's degree in Engineering (Electrical, Computer, Instrumentation & Controls), Computer Science, Data Science, or a related technical field — preferred.
- Historian System Administration: Minimum 5 years of experience using AVEVA PI and Asset Framework (AF) or a similar data historian, including at least 2 years in a system administration capacity.
- Hands‑On Administration Depth: Hands‑on administration of PI Data Archive and AF servers — archive management, backups, security and access control, licensing, buffering, and interface/connector configuration — preferably in an electric generating facility or other operational environment.
- Data Integration: Experience with data management techniques to access, integrate, and present data from multiple sources (SCADA, Excel, relational databases, etc.).
- Scripting & Automation: Proficiency in Python or an equivalent scripting language for extracting, transforming, and automating data tasks across multiple sources.
- PI Developer Interfaces: Hands‑on experience with PI AF SDK, PI Web API, and PI Integrator for Business Analytics.
- Display Development: Experience developing PI Vision and/or AspenTech displays and graphics.
- Industrial Protocols & Networking: Working knowledge of OPC DA/UA, DNP3, Modbus, and similar industrial communication protocols, including troubleshooting network connectivity issues.
- Troubleshooting: Demonstrated ability to troubleshoot communication and system issues associated with plant controls, historian, and communication components.
- Project Management: Experience organizing and managing multiple projects at the same time, with a proven ability to plan and to discern problems needing immediate attention from those that allow more time to resolve.
- Business Applications: Proficiency with Excel, Visio, Word, PowerPoint, and similar applications.
- Other Data Historians & Migrations: Experience with non‑AVEVA historians such as AspenTech IP.21, dataPARC, or eDNA, and with historian migration or consolidation projects.
- IT Infrastructure: Knowledge of the IT infrastructure components that support historians, including servers, virtualization, storage, networking, and Windows domain and security administration.
- SCADA Configuration: Experience with SCADA configuration (Ignition or similar platforms).
- Data Visualization / BI: Experience with Power BI, Tableau, or similar BI tools for dashboard development and operational reporting.
- Energy Sector: Experience in power generation, renewables, or utilities operations.
- PI Accreditation: AVEVA PI Infrastructure Specialist certification, or an equivalent AVEVA/OSIsoft PI System accreditation.
- SQL: Proficiency in SQL for querying, integrating, and manipulating data across relational databases and data platforms.
- Cloud & Data Platforms: Familiarity with Databricks, Azure, or equivalent cloud data platforms and how historian data is delivered into them.
- AI/ML Awareness: Understanding of how curated historian data feeds anomaly detection, predictive analytics, and AI/ML pipelines.
- OT Cybersecurity: Familiarity with NERC CIP or similar operational technology cybersecurity and compliance requirements.
- Must be able to make timely decisions, apply seasoned judgment, and display personal responsibility.
- Demonstrate Southern Company Values: Safety First, Intentional Inclusion, Act with Integrity, and Superior Performance.
- Be a team player — able to quickly build good, productive working relationships across operations, plant, IT, and vendor organizations, and actively promote teamwork.
- Customer-service oriented — responsive to ROC, plant, and analyst needs, with the ability to translate technical detail for non-technical audiences.
- Detail-oriented and proactive — anticipate platform and data quality issues before they impact downstream consumers.
- Results-oriented self‑starter that can work independently while contributing to team objectives.
- Able to think strategically and tactically — balancing the long‑term platform roadmap against day‑to‑day operational demands.
- Creatively solve issues, think outside the box, and find innovative ways to meet current and emerging fleet needs.
- Proven interpersonal and communication skills, including with all levels of plant and corporate management.
Southern Power, a subsidiary of Southern Company, is a leading U.S. wholesale energy provider meeting the electricity needs of municipalities, electric cooperatives, investor‑owned utilities, and other energy customers. Southern Power and its subsidiaries own 55 facilities operating or under construction in 14 states with more than 12,500 MW of generating capacity in Alabama, California, Delaware, Georgia, Kansas, Maine, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, West Virginia, and Washington.
Southern Company (NYSE: SO ) is a leading energy provider serving 9 million customers across the Southeast and beyond through its family of companies. Providing clean, safe, reliable and affordable energy with excellent service is our mission. The company has electric operating companies in three states, natural gas distribution companies in four states, a competitive generation company, a leading distributed energy solutions provider with national capabilities, a fiber optics network and telecommunications services. Through an industry‑leading commitment to innovation, resilience and sustainability, we are taking action to meet customers' and communities' needs while advancing our goal of net‑zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Our uncompromising values ensure we put the needs of those we serve at the center of everything we do and are the key to our sustained success. We are transforming energy into economic, environmental and social progress for tomorrow. Our corporate culture has been recognized by a variety of organizations, earning the company awards and recognitions that reflect Our Values and dedication to service. To learn more, visit www.southerncompany.com .
Southern Company invests in the well‑being of its employees and their families through a comprehensive total rewards strategy that includes competitive base salary, annual incentive awards for eligible employees and health, welfare and retirement benefits designed to support physical, financial, and emotional/social well‑being. This position may also be eligible for additional compensation, such as an incentive program, with the amount of any bonus/awards subject to the terms and conditions of the applicable incentive plan(s). A summary of the benefits offered for this position can be found here https://seo.nlx.org/southernco/pdf/SOCO-Benefits.pdf . Additional and specific details about total compensation and benefits will also be provided during the hiring process.
Southern Company is an equal‑opportunity employer where an applicant's qualifications are considered without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other basis prohibited by law.
Job Identification: 21188
Job Category: Renewable Energy
Job Schedule: Full time
Company: Southern Power
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