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

About the role:

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.

Tasks:

Architecture & technical leadership:

• 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).
  

Edge-to-cloud integration & data flow validation:

• 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).

 Cloud & platform enablement (Azure/AWS/Snowflake):

• 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.

Network, cybersecurity & site readiness:

• 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.

Testing, go-live, and operational stabilization:

• 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.

Digital Twin & OT platforms:

• 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).  

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). 

We offer:

Offer:

•  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.