Specialist – Operational Technology

TEKNIKOZ; Elyria (OH); On-site; USD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

TEKNIKOZ seeks an OT Specialist to own the technology layer connecting shop floor equipment to plant and enterprise systems. You will design, implement and sustain reliable, secure, and documented data acquisition and control integration across lines enabling MES, historian, analytics and quality systems with real-time production data.

This hands-on engineering role also includes mentoring plant teams, setting OT standards, and supporting integration and troubleshooting across manufacturing

Qualifications

• 6–10 years of hands-on experience in manufacturing or plant automation.
• Experience configuring and programming Ignition gateway, drivers, tags, scripting and HMI development.
• Hands-on experience with a process historian; Canary Labs strongly preferred.
• Hands-on PLC programming on Rockwell/SIEMENS or equivalent.
• Strong knowledge of industrial protocols: OPC UA/DA, MQTT, Sparkplug B, Modbus, EtherNet/IP, PROFINET.
• Ability to select field instrumentation, I/O and edge hardware based on data acquisition requirements.
• Understanding of industrial networking VLANs, switching, routing, DMZ concepts, firewalls.
• Ability to read P&IDs, electrical and control schematics, loop drawings and I/O lists.
• Strong documentation discipline and structured problem solving.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement shop floor to IT/OT communications.
• Design, configure and deploy the connectivity layer between manufacturing equipment and IT/OT systems.
• Configuration of historian, tagging, data storage and downstream publishing.
• Create OT standards and as-built documentation.
• Drive OT sustainability, obsolescence planning and patching.
• PLC programming and troubleshooting support for existing manufacturing lines.
• Support commissioning, line trials, changeovers and equipment integration.
• Collaborate with OEMs to ensure compliance with OT standards.

Skills

Ignition programming

Canary Labs historian

PLC programming

Industrial protocols

P&ID reading

Networking security basics

Documentation discipline

Troubleshooting under production

Tools

Ignition (Inductive Automation)

Canary Labs historian

Rockwell Studio 5000/RSLogix

Siemens TIA Portal

Job description

The OT Specialist owns the technology layer that connects shop floor equipment to plant and enterprise

systems. The role is responsible for designing, implementing and sustaining reliable, secure and well-

documented data acquisition and control integration across manufacturing lines enabling MES, historian,

analytics and quality systems with trustworthy, real-time production data.

This is a hands-on engineering role, combined with a standards-setting and mentoring responsibility for

plant teams.

Key Responsibilities

1. 1. Design and implementation of shop floor to IT/OT communications

   Design, configure and deploy the connectivity layer between manufacturing equipment and IT and OT

   systems, including but not limited to:

   • Ignition configuration and programming tag architecture, device connections and drivers, UDTs, scripting (Python), Perspective / Vision screens, alarming, gateway networks, redundancy and version control.
   • Historian configuration (Canary Labs) historian architecture and sizing, tag onboarding and naming conventions, data collection and storage policies, retention, views and trends, and downstream data publishing to analytics and reporting consumers.
   • I/O hardware selection specify sensors, gateways, edge devices, remote I/O, network hardware and protocol converters to meet the sampling rate, accuracy, resilience and connectivity needs of data acquisition systems.
   • Industrial connectivity protocols and patterns OPC UA / DA, MQTT and Sparkplug B, Modbus TCP, EtherNet/IP, PROFINET, serial, and file or database based interfaces.

2. 2. Standards and documentation for OT sustainability and improvement

   • Create, publish and maintain OT standards covering tag naming, device onboarding, network topology, edge architecture, backup and recovery, and change control.
   • Produce and maintain as-built documentation: architecture diagrams, network drawings, I/O and interface registers, configuration baselines, SOPs and runbooks.
   • Drive continuous improvement of the OT estate obsolescence planning, patch and firmware currency, performance tuning and technical debt reduction.

3. 3. PLC programming and troubleshooting support

   • Support programming, modification and fault diagnosis of PLCs on existing manufacturing
   • Perform root cause analysis on communication failures, data quality issues and equipment interface breakdowns; drive permanent corrective actions.
   • Support commissioning, line trials, changeovers and new equipment integration with minimal disruption to production.

4. 4. Working with equipment vendors

   • Work with OEMs and equipment vendors to specify the correct hardware and software requirements for shop floor manufacturing equipment, including connectivity, data access, licensing and cyber security requirements.
   • Review vendor technical proposals, URS / FDS responses and control system designs; participate in FAT and SAT and in acceptance of delivered systems.
   • Ensure delivered equipment complies with plant OT standards and integration requirements before handover.

5. 5. Mentoring and guidance for plant maintenance

   • Mentor and coach plant maintenance and automation technicians on shop floor equipment, connectivity troubleshooting and first-line OT support.
   • Build capability through training material, hands-on sessions and structured knowledge transfer, so that routine issues are resolved at plant level.
   • Act as the escalation point and technical authority for shop floor OT issues.

Required Skills and Experience

• 6–10 years of hands‑on experience in manufacturing or plant automation, OT infrastructure or
• Demonstrated experience configuring and programming Ignition (Inductive Automation) gateway, drivers, tags, scripting and HMI development.
• Hands‑on experience with a process historian; Canary Labs strongly preferred (PI, AVEVA or Ignition
• Hands‑on PLC programming and troubleshooting on at least one major platform (Rockwell Studio 5000 / RSLogix, Siemens TIA Portal or equivalent).
• Strong working knowledge of industrial protocols: OPC UA / DA, MQTT and Sparkplug B, Modbus, EtherNet/IP, PROFINET.
• Ability to select and specify field instrumentation, I/O and edge hardware based on data acquisition requirements.
• Understanding of industrial networking VLANs, switching, routing, DMZ concepts, firewalls and
• Ability to read and interpret P&IDs, electrical and control schematics, loop drawings and I/O lists.
• Strong documentation discipline and structured problem solving under production pressure.

Working Conditions

• Predominantly plant based, including time in production and equipment areas requiring appropriate PPE.
• Occasional off‑shift, weekend or shutdown work to support commissioning, cutovers and critical breakdowns.
• Travel to other plant or customer sites as required.