Automation Engineer OT/IT Integration Specialist

Mentor Technical Group (MTG) provides a comprehensive portfolio of technical support and engineering solutions for the FDA‑regulated industry. The Automation Engineer OT/IT Integration Specialist will own the technical strategy for robotics and ASRS capabilities, lead system integration, and ensure operational readiness across various project phases.

Responsibilities:

• Own the end‑to‑end enterprise technical strategy for robotics and ASRS capabilities across the program, defining reference architectures, subsystem boundaries, and interface patterns
• Establish performance and reliability targets, design principles, and scalable solutions across sites, vendors, and operating models
• Lead system integration across PLC/HMI, safety PLCs, robotics/ASRS controllers, and WMS/WES/WCS/EMS platforms
• Define and govern interface control standards, including message contracts, state models, exception handling, and recovery strategies
• Drive architectural decisions across OT networks, industrial protocols, middleware, availability, and cybersecurity requirements
• Establish and lead technical governance processes, including design reviews, architecture boards, and readiness gates
• Ensure traceability from business requirements through design, testing, and acceptance evidence
• Define and enforce engineering quality standards, including naming conventions, alarms, diagnostics, and technical documentation
• Lead commissioning and qualification strategies across FAT, SAT, integrated testing, cutover, and hypercare phases
• Drive complex issue triage, root cause analysis, and resolution during commissioning and startup
• Ensure achievement of throughput, accuracy, availability, and recovery KPIs prior to system acceptance
• Act as the senior technical authority for robotics and ASRS OEMs and system integrators
• Shape technical scope, assumptions, and trade‑offs impacting cost, schedule, and system performance
• Review and approve technical submittals, deviations, and change requests with risk‑based decision making
• Hold vendors accountable for documentation, training, spares, and supportability aligned with SLAs
• Own the safety‑by‑design approach for automated systems, including risk assessments, safeguarding strategies, LOTO, E‑stops, and safety validation
• Coordinate functional safety activities with site EHS and lead hazard closure and safety acceptance
• Ensure operational readiness includes maintainability, training, escalation paths, and a reliability plan that sustains post go‑live performance
• Provide technical leadership for integrated schedules, vendor dependencies, and program‑level planning
• Forecast controls, software, and commissioning resource needs across project phases
• Identify and retire technical risks early, including capacity, resilience, networking, software, and safety risks
• Establish reusable engineering standards and templates, including ICDs, control narratives, alarm and diagnostic philosophy, test protocols, and as‑built requirements
• Govern disciplined change control and configuration management across the lifecycle
• Drive clean handover to Operations and Maintenance with training, troubleshooting playbooks, spare parts strategies, and sustaining engineering ownership

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Controls Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent experience)
• 10+ years of experience delivering industrial automation systems, including robotics and/or ASRS solutions, with significant responsibility for architecture, integration, and commissioning in warehouse, distribution, or manufacturing environments
• Recognized technical authority with a proven track record of driving architecture decisions and resolving high‑severity, cross‑domain technical issues
• Deep experience authoring and governing controls and software deliverables at scale, including reference architectures, control narratives, alarm and diagnostic standards, test strategies, and network/security architecture
• Expert‑level troubleshooting capabilities across electrical, controls, software, and mechanical systems, including leading issue triage and root cause analysis to closure
• Proven experience leading multi‑vendor technical delivery, including OEMs, integrators, and software providers, through FAT, SAT, commissioning, and turnover
• Strong knowledge of industrial networking and OT/IT integration (e.g., Ethernet/IP, Profinet, OPC UA, VLANs, time synchronization, cybersecurity)
• Demonstrated success delivering measurable performance outcomes (throughput, accuracy, uptime, recovery) and establishing sustainment mechanisms beyond hypercare
• Exceptional communication, documentation, and stakeholder management skills with the ability to influence senior stakeholders and mentor technical teams