Role Summary

The Manager of Automation & Software Engineering leads the design, development, and reliability of all plant automation systems, internally developed software platforms, and OT network infrastructure. This role ensures high-availability production systems, drives digital transformation across operations, and establishes technical standards that reduce downtime, improve data integrity, and enhance throughput.

This position combines hands-on engineering with leadership of a growing technical team. The ideal candidate brings strong experience in industrial automation, software engineering, and manufacturing systems integration to support a complex, high-volume production environment.

This position reports to the Chief Operating Officer (COO) and has six exempt direct reports and hourly indirect reports. Exempt direct reports include a PLC Programmer, Electrical Superintendent, Maintenance Superintendent, and three OT personnel. Hourly indirect reports include electrical and controls personnel.

Key Responsibilities

Automation Systems (Production & Process Control)

• Oversee the design, programming, troubleshooting, and optimization of PLC-based automation systems across the plant.

• Lead root-cause analysis and corrective actions for production-critical systems experiencing downtime, data loss, or throughput limitations.

• Manage upgrades, rewrites, and commissioning of automation systems, ensuring reliability and scalability.

• Establish and enforce automation standards for contractor installations to ensure consistent quality and long-term maintainability.

Software Engineering & Internal Platforms

• Lead the development and lifecycle management of internal applications, including modules for costing, scheduling, training, procurement, receiving, and efficiency dashboards.

• Oversee architecture, coding standards, testing environments, and deployment pipelines (Development, Test, and Production).

• Ensure software solutions replace manual processes, reduce errors, and deliver measurable operational value.

OT Network & Infrastructure

• Manage the plant's OT network architecture, including segmentation, fiber infrastructure, and IT/OT separation.

• Maintain monitoring systems for uptime, logs, hardware health, and application performance.

• Oversee Manufacturing Execution System (MES) database development and ensure accurate, centralized data for operations, maintenance, and reporting.

Data Integrity & Reporting

• Ensure accuracy and reliability of operational data, including scale data, shrink calculations, Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) metrics, and efficiency reporting.

• Partner with Operations, Quality Assurance (QA), and Finance to deliver actionable insights and standardized reporting frameworks.

Project Leadership & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Lead multidisciplinary automation and software projects from concept through deployment.

• Collaborate with Operations, Maintenance, IT, QA, and external vendors to ensure alignment and successful execution.

• Prioritize projects based on business impact, downtime reduction, and strategic value.

Team Leadership

• Supervise and develop a growing team of automation and software engineering professionals.

• Provide technical mentorship, set performance expectations, and build a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and innovation.

• Manage contractor relationships and ensure adherence to established technical standards.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Software Engineering, Industrial Automation, or a related field, and/or equivalent work experience.

• Five or more years of experience in industrial automation, controls engineering, or manufacturing systems.

• Strong proficiency in PLC programming (Allen-Bradley preferred), HMI development, and industrial communication protocols.

• Experience developing software applications using C#, Python, SQL, or similar technologies.

• Demonstrated ability to architect and maintain OT networks and industrial server environments.

• Proven track record of reducing downtime, improving throughput, and delivering measurable operational value.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in food manufacturing, protein processing, or other high-throughput regulated environments.

• Familiarity with MES systems, Unified Namespace architectures, and real-time data pipelines.

• Experience leading cross-functional technical teams.

• Knowledge of AI/ML applications in manufacturing.

• Experience managing contractors and enforcing technical standards.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

• Reduction in unplanned downtime across automated systems.

• Successful deployment and adoption of internal software modules.