Lead Engineer, Digital Twin Systems, PET

The J.M. Smucker Company; Topeka (KS); On-site; USD 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation

On-site work

Equal Opportunity Employer

Job summary

The J. M. Smucker Company in Topeka, KS is seeking a Lead Engineer, Digital Twin Systems to lead the Digital Twin initiative for PET. The initial focus is on the Topeka operation and expanding to other PET plants.

You will design, develop, and scale digital twins of manufacturing assets, processes, and systems, applying analytics to improve safety, quality, throughput, uptime, cost, and sustainability. This role requires strong collaboration across Operations, Engineering, and IT teams.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Data Science, or related field required.
• Minimum of 5 years’ experience in manufacturing, process engineering, operations, or industrial analytics.
• Strong understanding of manufacturing processes, equipment behavior, and operational KPIs.

Responsibilities

• Lead cross‑functional team to design and maintain digital twins representing physical assets, production lines, and end‑to‑end processes.
• Integrate historical and real‑time data into digital twin models.
• Apply statistical modeling, machine learning, and advanced analytics for predictive maintenance, anomaly detection, and optimization.
• Support pilot deployment, scale‑up, and replication of successful digital twin use cases across sites.
• Collaborate with IT/IS and controls teams to improve data pipelines and contextualization.

Skills

Digital twin platforms

Advanced analytics

ML frameworks

Time-series data

MES/SCADA data familiarity

Non-technical communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in Engineering/Data Science or related field

Tools

MES

PLC/SCADA data

IIoT architectures

Job description

Your Opportunity as the Lead Engineer, Digital Twin Systems, PETLead the overall Digital Twin initiative for Pet. The initial phase will focus on the Topeka operation and evolve with reapplication to the other PET plants. You will be responsible for designing, developing, and scaling digital twins of Smucker manufacturing assets, processes, and systems to drive measurable improvements in safety, quality, throughput, uptime, cost, and sustainability. This role bridges operations, data, and analytics by translating real‑world manufacturing behavior into virtual models that enable monitoring, simulation, prediction, and optimization. Location: Topeka, KS Work Arrangements: 100% on‑site Willingness to work extended hours and flow to the work as needed In this role you will: Lead cross‑functional team including Operations, Cost of Quality technology workstream, Technical Services, and Engineering to design and maintain digital twins representing physical assets, production lines, and end‑to‑end manufacturing processes. Organization of strategy, execution of plan, and communication to leadership. Develop in‑house Digital Twin expertise within PET SBA. Integrate historical and real‑time data (sensor, process, quality, and setpoint data) into digital twin models. Apply statistical modeling, machine learning, and advanced analytics to enable: Predictive maintenance and failure forecasting Anomaly detection and fault identification Waste, downtime, and energy optimization Partner with Operations, Engineering, Quality, R&D, and OpEx teams to identify high‑value digital twin use cases. Translate digital twin insights into actionable recommendations, controls, and operating standards. Support pilot deployment, scale‑up, and replication of successful digital twin use cases across sites. Optimize process parameters to improve CpK, yield, throughput, and asset reliability. Identify data quality gaps, sensor drift, missing data, and inconsistencies. Collaborate with IT/IS and controls teams to improve data pipelines, tagging standards, and contextualization. Act as a technical and operational translator between plant teams and data/analytics partners. Support training and change management to embed digital twin insights into daily operations. Contribute to digital manufacturing standards, best practices, and governance frameworks.

What we are looking for:

Minimum Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Data Science, or related field required
• Minimum of 5-years’ experience in manufacturing, process engineering, operations, or industrial analytics.
• Strong understanding of manufacturing processes, equipment behavior, and operational KPIs.
• Experience working with time‑series data, process data, and industrial data sources.

Additional skills and experience that we think would make someone successful in this role:

• Hands‑on experience with digital twin platforms, advanced analytics tools, or ML frameworks.
• Experience with predictive modeling, regression, clustering, anomaly detection, or optimization techniques.
• Familiarity with manufacturing execution systems (MES), historians, PLC/SCADA data, or IIoT architectures.
• Ability to communicate complex analytical insights in a clear, actionable way to non‑technical

The Right Place for You

We are bold, kind, strive to do the right thing, we play to win, and we believe in a strong community that thrives together. Our culture is rooted in our Basic Beliefs, and we believe in supporting every employee by meeting their physical, emotional, and financial needs. Stay connected with us on LinkedIn We're an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, age, national origin, disability status or protected veteran status. We’re a community of passionate, talented professionals dedicated to creating food people and pets love—while supporting the communities in which we work and live. We value what makes each person unique, champion growth and development, and foster collaboration that fuels productivity and drives our shared success. Learn more about our Thrive Together purpose At Smucker, we're passionate about creating a workplace where you truly belong. With a culture rooted in our Basic Beliefs and a competitive Total Rewards program, we aim to support every employee by meeting their physical, emotional, and financial needs. Learn more about working at Smucker Our culture is sustained and brought to life every day by the people of Smucker and our hiring process is designed to identify the right candidate for every position at our company. Learn more about our hiring process The J. M. Smucker Co. (the “Company”) is an Equal Opportunity Employer. No person will be discriminated against in hiring or in any other aspect of their employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), age, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, transgender status, marital status, familial status, disability, genetic information, protected veteran/military status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state or local law.