Data Platform Engineer (Manufacturing)

We're hiring a full-time Data Platform Engineer, based in Beltsville, MD and reporting into the Office of the CTO, to take end-to-end ownership of the data platforms behind our solid-state battery manufacturing. You will own the systems that connect our production lines, labs, equipment, and internal applications. You will design, build, and operate the pipelines, databases, monitoring, and back-end services that move data off the production floor and out of the lab into the dashboards, models, and tools our teams rely on every day. You'll work hands-on with real physical-world data (furnaces, cyclers, robots) on a small team with a modern data stack, across both greenfield and brownfield systems, with visible impact.

This is a role for someone who wants to own data in a manufacturing setting, not a generic big-data or data-science position. The right person is fluent on the IT/OT boundary, comfortable writing production code, maintaining existing systems, and partnering across data, IT/OT, and manufacturing teams. We'll set you up with modern AI-assisted development workflows to amplify your work. The role is open to mid-level through senior candidates; we will level to fit. You'll report to and work alongside our Data Solutions Architect, who will support you as you grow into the role.

Responsibilities

• Own the data platforms for our manufacturing environment (SCADA, databases, ETL/ELT orchestration, dashboards, and data governance) and administer or support manufacturing business systems (e.g. MES, PLM, QMS) by managing access, permissions, and configuration.
• Build and operate back-end services, internal tools, and the platform layer (VMs, APIs, Docker/K8s, git, CI/CD), drive incidents to resolution, and lead implementation of new manufacturing tools, coordinating upgrades, testing, validation, and deployment with vendors and stakeholders.
• Minimize single points of failure across the data stack through comprehensive documentation, backup/recovery procedures, cross-training, and engineering for maintainability.
• Partner with Executive, IT/OT, R&D, Engineering, and Operations stakeholders to scope work, plan deliveries, and roll out changes safely.
• Employ governed AI workflows across day-to-day engineering, including code generation, debugging, documentation, code review, and operational automation.
• Serve as a point of contact for manufacturing systems support, develop training materials, and conduct user training.

Required Experience

• Bachelor's in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field (or equivalent hands-on experience) and 4+ years building and operating production data systems, or a Master's and 2+ years; spanning database schema design, ETL/ELT workflows and orchestration, and dashboards.
• Experience working with manufacturing, industrial, or adjacent equipment-generated data (production, lab, sensor, telemetry, or scientific-instrument), or strong production data engineering experience plus genuine curiosity about physical systems.
• Hands-on experience with containerization, version control, and CI/CD workflows in a team setting.
• Experience with operational monitoring, logging, alerting, backup recovery, and incident response for production systems.
• Track record of maintaining and improving existing systems, not just building greenfield.
• Experience supporting cross-functional teams across Engineering, Operations, Quality, and Supply Chain.
• Experience creating reports, dashboards, and KPIs, and gathering requirements to drive process improvements through software systems.

Desirable Experience

• Experience operating in hybrid environments that span on-prem infrastructure and cloud services (Azure preferred) and thoughtful about where each system belongs.
• Semantic models, dataflows, and downstream reporting infrastructure (Power BI preferred).
• Internal application development experience - data entry UIs, sample/run trackers, equipment dashboards, or workflow apps tied to production systems.
• Experience working in early-stage environments where you owned systems end-to-end.
• Experience with regulated, quality-sensitive, or audit-driven data workflows (e.g. QC, automotive, aerospace, defense, life sciences).
• Hands-on production use of AI coding assistants or agentic development tools, with a clear, responsible point of view on where they help and where they don't; bonus for building agentic workflows or LLM-backed automation into production data or operations systems (e.g., RAG over internal data, MCP servers, evals).
• Familiarity with specific platforms and tools used in our stack, such as Odoo ERP, MS SQL and Postgres, Prometheus and Grafana, Dagster for data orchestration, and basic scripting (Python, PowerShell, Bash).
• Experience administering or supporting MES, PLM, QMS, SCADA, or other manufacturing-traceability and production-operations platforms, including integrating production-floor equipment and process data, and an understanding of the data they generate.

Required Skills

• Excellent critical thinking, problem-solving, and debugging skills, with discipline around documentation and continuous improvement.
• Self-motivated and able to take full ownership of critical systems, including the unglamorous maintenance work that keeps them running.
• Proactive in identifying and mitigating reliability, data-quality, and security risks.
• Strong written and verbal communication, comfortable with both technical deep-dives and stakeholder updates.
• Comfort working across IT/OT and manufacturing teams to translate production-floor problems into data engineering work.

Department: Office of the CTO

Location: Beltsville, MD

Reports to: Data Solutions Architect

Benefits

The base salary range for this role is $125,000-$155,000, depending on experience. In addition to base salary and equity, we offer the following company benefits:

• Medical, dental, vision, disability, and life insurance
• Stock options in an early-stage company
• Hybrid
• Company and floating holidays
• 17 days of PTO to start, with increase upon tenure
• 401(k) plan with a 4% company match beginning after first paycheck
• Wellness allowance of $1,000 annually

Company Description

ION Storage Systems is commercializing breakthrough solid-state lithium metal battery technology, based on discoveries made at the University of Maryland, that prioritizes performance, safety, and durability. Built on a scalable, modular, three-dimensional ceramic structure, ION's batteries take a sustainable approach to next-generation energy storage and are ready to meet the demands of an increasingly electrified world across defense and aerospace, consumer electronics, electrified transportation, and renewable energy storage. We are backed by leading venture capital firms including Alsop Louie Partners, Clear Creek Investments, VoLo Earth Ventures, and Toyota Ventures.

We offer an inclusive environment with growth opportunities and encourage work/life balance, because we believe a thriving workspace leads to a thriving company. Our team is made up of driven, creative people who are passionate about their work, and we hope you'll reach out to learn more and join our diverse, collaborative team.

To all recruitment agencies: Ion Storage Systems, Inc. will not accept agency resumes for this role. Please do not forward resumes to our jobs email, or to any Ion Storage Systems employees or any other company email address. Ion Storage Systems is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.

Ion Storage Systems, Inc. is proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, ancestry, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, or veteran status.

Eligibility to work in the United States as a U.S. Citizen or U.S. permanent resident is required for consideration.

Salary: $125000 - $155000 per year

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