Manufacturing Data & MES Engineer

Vulcan-Elements; Benson (NC); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Vulcan Elements is manufacturing American rare-earth permanent magnets for a secure, resilient future, with a pilot facility expanding to a massive 1 million square foot site.

The Manufacturing Data & MES Engineer will own the MES from pilot to production, embedding with the vendor team to close live-data gaps and define a platform-neutral data architecture that survives SCADA, batch, MES, and historian selections.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.
• Strong SQL and relational database design (PostgreSQL, SQL Server, or similar) and time-series data handling experience.
• Working knowledge of ISA-95 concepts-production orders, material genealogy, equipment models, batch records—and experience integrating plant-floor systems with business systems.

Responsibilities

• Embed with the pilot MES implementation as the designated internal knowledge-transfer target with contractual handover criteria; own the system outright after vendor handover, through go-live and stabilization.
• Close the pilot’s data-integration gaps: batch/tag contextualization, historian-to-record mapping, and reliable interface plumbing between plant-floor and business systems.
• Design and operate the plant data architecture: entity models (material, batch, equipment, test results), the interface catalog, and an owned contextualization database independent of any single vendor platform.
• Build and maintain REST/HTTP integrations between MES, SCADA, laboratory systems, and the ERP boundary, with production-grade error handling, idempotency, retries, and logging.
• Define ISA-95 object models and the electronic batch record and material genealogy structure for a make-to-stock magnet manufacturing flow.
• Write the data-access, openness, and database-dependency criteria into the site SCADA/batch/historian/MES platform-evaluation, and support structured proofs-of-concept on pilot infrastructure.
• Deliver reporting and self-serve analytics access for process engineering from pilot and production data.
• Establish schema versioning, units/timestamp/identifier discipline, and missing-and-duplicate record handling across all plant data pipelines.

Skills

SQL

Time-series data handling

Manufacturing systems integration

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science/Engineering or related field

Tools

FactoryTalk ProductionCentre

AVEVA MES

Tulip

Job description

Vulcan Elements is manufacturing American rare-earth permanent magnets for a secure, resilient future. With a focus on national security and economic resiliency, we serve critical industries such as defense, aerospace, and automotive powering a high-technology future. Vulcan Elements is building a team of ambitious professionals committed to Mission Focus, Technical Excellence, and Transparency. This program operates under U.S. government security requirements; candidates must be U.S. persons and able to work with Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI).

As the Manufacturing Data & MES Engineer you will own the manufacturing execution and plant-data backbone from a running pilot facility today to a massive 1 million square foot manufacturing facility expansion. You will embed with the vendor team implementing MES on our pilot as the designated knowledge-transfer engineer, close the pilot’s live data-integration gaps, and define the platform-neutral data architecture that survives whatever SCADA,batch,MES, and historian stack the site selects. As manufacturing scales, you will shape how the MES is implemented from pilot to production. This is a high-impact, high-ownership role requiring deep technicalexpertiseacross manufacturing systems and dataengineering.

Responsibilities:

• Embed with the pilot MES implementation as the designated internal knowledge-transfer target with contractual handover criteria; own the system outright after vendor handover, through go-live and stabilization.
• Close the pilot’s data-integration gaps: batch/tag contextualization, historian-to-record mapping, and reliable interface plumbing between plant-floor and business systems.
• Design andoperate the plant data architecture: entity models (material, batch, equipment, test results), the interface catalog, and an owned contextualization database independent of any single vendor platform.
• Build andmaintainREST/HTTP integrations between MES, SCADA, laboratory (LIMS-class) systems, and the ERP boundary, with production-grade error handling, idempotency,retries, and logging.
• Define ISA-95 object models and the electronic batch record and material genealogy structure for a make-to-stock magnet manufacturing flow.
• Write the data-access, openness, and database-dependency criteria into the site SCADA/batch/historian/MES platformevaluation, andsupport structured proofs-of-concept on pilot infrastructure.
• Deliver reporting and self-serve analytics access for process engineering from pilot and production data.
• Establishschema versioning, units/timestamp/identifier discipline, and missing-and-duplicate record handling across all plant data pipelines.

Deliverables You Will Develop, Review, or Support

• Pilot MES configuration and handover documentation, electronic batchrecordand genealogy design
• Canonical entity models, the plant interface catalog, contextualization database schemas, and integration specifications.
• REST interface implementations, ETL/pipeline code with error handling and logging to support the business data engineering team, and interface monitoring dashboards.
• Platform-evaluation data criteria and proof-of-concept results, plus reporting and analytics deliverables for process engineering.

Responsibilities and tasks outlined are not exhaustive and may change asdeterminedby the needs of the business.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s orMaster’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field with 5+ years spanning manufacturing systems (MES/MOM) and data engineering.
• Strong SQL and relational database design (PostgreSQL, SQL Server, or similar) and time-series data handling experience.
• Working knowledge of ISA-95 concepts-production orders, material genealogy, equipment models, batch records-and experience integrating plant-floor systems (historians, SCADA, PLC data) with business systems (ERP).

Must be a U.S. Person due to required access to U.S. export-controlled information or facilities

Preferred Skills

• Ability to synthesize complex and interwoven topics to individual stakeholders and drive adoption, decision-making for defining criticality of what to track and how from an engineering and business perspective.
• Experience in higher level data visualization software for engineer, scientist, and/or business stakeholder consumption. Examples include Tableau, Hex,Grafana,etc…
• Hands-on configuration experience with a commercial MES platform (FactoryTalk ProductionCentre, AVEVA MES, Tulip, or similar).
• OT networking and cybersecurity conceptual understanding and operation.NIST 800-171 control families and CMMC best practices
• Batch manufacturing or materials-processing industry background.
• Experience defining data architecture ahead of platformselectionor surviving a platform migration.
• Experience in regulated industries such as Defense, Aerospace, or Automotive.

Physical and Environmental Requirements

The position requires regular presence on the production floor and the ability to navigate all areas of the facility. Candidates must be able to climb stairs, stand and walk for extended periods, and work in environments that may be hot, humid, or noisy. The role also requires the use of personal protective equipment, including respirators, and adherence to all applicable safety policies, procedures, and regulatory requirements. Employees must be able to complete required fit testing, wear appropriate PPE for the duration of assigned tasks, and respond safely to changing conditions within the production environment.

This position requires access to information and technology that is subject to US Export Control. Vulcan Elements will use this information to determine if you are eligible to receive this information under US Law.

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey.Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiringprocess or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in aconfidential file.

As set forth in Vulcan Elements’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy,we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection.As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measurethe effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categoriesis as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-/connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.

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