Smart Manufacturing Consultant (Hands-on IT/OT + Cloud)

We’re looking for a hands-on Smart Factory Consultant to collaborate with us on a freelance, ad-hoc, project basis (this is not a full-time position). This role is well-suited for experienced consultants who enjoy stepping into complex environments to shape and guide architecture decisions.

In this role, you’ll design and drive delivery of edge-to-cloud industrial data & application architectures across global manufacturing sites. You’ll bridge OT systems (PLC/SCADA/DCS/MES/Historians) with cloud services (Azure/AWS/Snowflake, etc.), ensuring ISA-95 interoperability, robust cybersecurity (Zero Trust), and reliable data flows for use cases like performance analytics, predictive maintenance, and digital twins.

You’ll act as a technical leader who reviews architecture, validates implementation plans, unblocks delivery, and communicates clearly across engineering, OT, security, networking, and site stakeholders.

Requirements

• 7+ years of experience in industrial IT/OT, smart factory, or manufacturing digitalization roles, with architect-level ownership of designs and deployments.
• Proven hands-on delivery experience implementing edge-to-cloud integration in real factory environments.
• Strong understanding of:
• ISA-95 (integration patterns and manufacturing system layers).
• Industrial architectures (OT network segmentation, DMZ patterns, edge gateways).
• Core OT systems (PLC/SCADA/DCS, historian, MES) and data acquisition methods.
• Cloud architecture experience on Azure and/or AWS (plus familiarity with Snowflake, databricks and modern data platforms).
• Solid fundamentals in networking (firewalls, VLANs, routing, certificates, proxies) and troubleshooting in restricted environments.
• Knowledge of identity and access management (Azure AD/RBAC/Managed Identities or AWS IAM, secrets, key management).
• Excellent communication skills, able to lead technical conversations with security, IT, OT, and business stakeholders globally.

Technical skill set (must-have)

• Edge/IIoT protocols & patterns: OPC UA, MQTT, REST APIs, store-and-forward, buffering, offline resilience.
• Data engineering basics: schema design, time-series concepts, streaming ingestion, partitioning, data quality checks.
• Cloud security: least privilege, private networking, key management, audit/logging, policy enforcement.
• Operational readiness: integration test planning, go-live governance, incident triage and structured problem-solving.

What Will Set You Apart

• Knowledge of IEC 62443 / OT security frameworks and industrial zero trust patterns.
• Experience with Kubernetes at edge/cloud (AKS/EKS), IaC (Terraform/Bicep/CloudFormation), and CI/CD.
• Experience with industrial historians and time-series stacks (e.g., AVEVA/PI-like patterns).
• Familiarity with data governance (catalog, lineage, access policies) and regulated environments.
• Experience building or operationalizing Digital Twin solutions (asset model + context + telemetry).

• Act as the technical expert for Smart Factory / Edge architectures in a multi-site, multi-stakeholder environment.
• Review architectural designs (edge, network, cloud, security, data models) and confirm the feasibility of implementation plans.
• Align with Cloud Engineers and OT consultants to ensure ISA-95 compliant IT/OT integration and interoperability across layers (L0–L4/5).
• Validate that all required services are deployed and configured correctly (cloud resources, edge runtime, connectivity, identity, monitoring).

• Define and validate edge-to-cloud data flow requirements, including:
• Tag list/signals, payload schemas/formats, naming conventions.
• Frequency, buffering, store-and-forward, latency/availability targets.
• Data quality rules (units, timestamps, limits, gaps, duplicates).
• Create logical & conceptual models for contextualization.
• Validate conceptual and logical modelling of the factory asset hierarchy (site/area/line/cell/equipment/component) and mapping to data streams.
• Support the implementation of industrial connectivity patterns (e.g., OPC UA, MQTT, Modbus, REST) and integration with OT data sources (historians, SCADA, MES, CMMS, LIMS when relevant).

• Drive architecture decisions for ingestion, storage, and analytics using services such as:
• Azure (IoT Hub, Event Hubs, Functions, AKS, Data Lake, Databricks/Synapse, Monitor, Key Vault, Private Link).
• AWS (IoT Core, Kinesis, Lambda, EKS, S3, Glue, CloudWatch, Secrets Manager, Greengrass).
• Snowflake (ingestion patterns, data modeling, governance, performance considerations).
• Ensure observability is in place: logging, metrics, tracing, alerting, and operational runbooks.

• Coordinate with site IT/networking to ensure:
• Connectivity readiness (routing, DNS, proxy, certificates).
• Firewall rules, ports, and secure connectivity patterns (VPN/ExpressRoute/Direct Connect where applicable).
• Ensure alignment with factory cybersecurity and Zero Trust principles, including segmentation, least privilege, secure remote access, and auditability.

• Own the go-live checklist and drive issue resolution during integration testing and cutover.
• Support test data ingestion and end-to-end validation, from OT signal extraction through cloud ingestion, storage, and consumption.
• Validate performance and reliability requirements (throughput, latency, resilience, recovery) and ensure operational handover readiness.

• Contribute to Digital Twin concepts built on IT/OT convergence (asset hierarchy + telemetry + context).
• Work hands-on with OT / Smart Factory platforms such as AVEVA, Sight Machine, and/or similar (e.g., Ignition, OSIsoft/PI, Tulip, PTC ThingWorx, depending on environment).

• Stable employment. On the market since 2008, 1500+ talents currently on board in 7 global sites.
• “Office as an option” model. You can choose to work remotely or in the office, depending on your location.
• Flexibility regarding working hours and your preferred form of contract.
• Comprehensive online onboarding program with a “Buddy” from day 1.
• Cooperation with top-tier engineers and experts.
• Unlimited access to the Udemy learning platform from day 1.
• Certificate training programs. Lingarians earn 500+ technology certificates yearly.
• Upskilling support. Capability development programs, Competency Centers, knowledge sharing sessions, community webinars, 110+ training opportunities yearly.
• Internal Gallup Certified Strengths Coach to support your growth.
• Grow as we grow as a company. 76% of our managers are internal promotions.
• A diverse, inclusive, and values-driven community.
• Autonomy to choose the way you work. We trust your ideas.
• Create our community together. Refer your friends to receive bonuses.
• Activities to support your well-being and health.
• Plenty of opportunities to donate to charities and support the environment.
• Modern office equipment. Purchased for you or available to borrow, depending on your location.

Growth through diversity, equity, and inclusion. As an ethical business, we do what is right — including ensuring equal opportunities and fostering a safe, respectful workplace for each of us. We believe diversity fuels both personal and business growth. We're committed to building an inclusive community where all our people thrive regardless of their backgrounds, identities, or other personal characteristics.