Senior Digital Manufacturing Operations Architect (Ignition)

Company / Location Information

A.O. Smith is a global leader applying innovative technologies and energy-efficient solutions to products manufactured and marketed worldwide. The company is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of residential and commercial water heating equipment and boilers, as well as a manufacturer of water treatment products for residential and light commercial applications. A. O. Smith is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with approximately 12,000 employees at operations in the United States, Canada, China, India, Mexico, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.

Primary Function

The Senior Manufacturing Digital Solutions Architect will bring advanced expertise in Ignition (Inductive Automation) development to lead scalable digital solutions that improve visibility, accelerate decision-making, and will shape the future of manufacturing operations.

This role offers a unique opportunity to help shape and expand our enterprise Ignition platform as manufacturing digital capabilities continue to grow. As part of the Digital Operations team, you will partner closely with manufacturing, engineering, and enterprise digital teams to deliver scalable solutions across production environments.

Success requires a highly effective communicator who is comfortable engaging directly with end users, operators, engineers, and business leaders to translate operational challenges into scalable digital solutions.  The ideal candidate brings equal strength in front-end user experience design and back-end development, ensuring solutions are intuitive, logical, efficient, maintainable, and scalable across multiple manufacturing sites.

Strong experience integrating PLCs, SQL databases, enterprise systems including SAP, and modern data architectures such as Unified Namespace (UNS) is essential. A forward-thinking technical mindset is required, along with demonstrated ability to apply AI-enabled analytics, agentic AI layered over operational data, and emerging industrial technologies that accelerate insight generation and manufacturing performance.

Join us in shaping the next generation of digital solutions for manufacturing operations through an enterprise Ignition platform that is redefining digital capability.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and deploy enterprise-grade Ignition applications supporting real-time manufacturing visibility, MES-lite functionality, workflow execution, and operational decision-making
• Develop intuitive dashboards, HMIs, reporting tools, and drill-down visualization solutions across enterprise, plant, line, and machine-level performance
• Build scalable application architecture using reusable templates, modular design, naming standards, maintainable development practices, and long-term supportability principles
• Integrate PLCs, SQL databases, industrial devices, and enterprise systems including SAP to enable reliable operational data flow
• Develop industrial data models aligned with Unified Namespace (UNS), MQTT concepts, and standardized tag structures for scalable enterprise deployment
• Apply AI-enabled analytics, agentic AI applications, and emerging industrial technologies to accelerate insight generation and improve manufacturing performance
• Provide technical leadership across solution design, testing, documentation, deployment, and post-launch stabilization
• Lead the Ignition Citizen Developer Program by mentoring internal developers, reviewing technical designs, approving standards, and governing development quality across deployed solutions

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or higher in Engineering, Information Technology, Business, or a closely related field.
• 7+ years of relevant experience, including client/server networking, SQL database programming, report generation.
• Exposure to a wide variety of production machinery, industrial sensors, and equipment.
• PLC/HMI Knowledge
• Programming experience in Python, VB, C#, or similar.
• Knowledge of Modbus, Ethercat, Ethernet IP, Profinet, MQTT, OPC UA and SQL
• Technical knowledge of database systems, including SQL queries & report building
• Expertise in leading design/blueprint workshops, SCADA Configuration, Custom Development, Cutover Activities, Data Migration, Testing and User Training and hyper-care support experience
• Ability to effectively communicate highly technical concepts to management.
• Excellent interpersonal skills with all levels to support teamwork, facilitation, and negotiation.
• Capability to lead or execute complex assignments and projects independently
• Experience with database and query optimization
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English.
• Travel will vary, expect 20% depending on business needs.

We Offer

Competitive compensation package and comprehensive benefits plans which include medical and dental insurance, company-sponsored life insurance, retirement security savings plan, short- and long-term disability programs and tuition assistance.

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ADA Statement & EEO Statement

In developing this job description care was taken to include all competencies needed to successfully perform in this position. However, for Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) purposes, the essential functions of the job may or may not have been described for purposes of ADA reasonable accommodation. All reasonable accommodation requests will be reviewed and evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

We consider all applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, gender identity and expression, marital or military status. We also provide reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and applicable state and local law.