Solution Architect – Industrial Data & Integration

ABOUT US

SistelGroup delivers turnkey PLC, SCADA and OT data contextualization solutions for the manufacturing industry. For more than 30 years we have helped pharmaceutical, chemical, and food & beverage manufacturers run plants that are more efficient, safer and fully traceable.

We work as a partner, not a supplier. We learn our customers’ processes, we stay with them through the full life of a solution, and we are the people they call when something matters. That is why our clients stay with us for decades.

When you join us, you will work on international projects with advanced Industry 4.0 and digitalization technologies for leading manufacturing companies. You will also build your career in a group that covers both industrial automation and digital transformation for the manufacturing industry.

THE ROLE

We are looking for a Solution Architect to lead the technical direction of our industrial data and integration work. This is a hands-on architecture role, focused on Unified Namespace, industrial connectivity and data contextualization. You will design and build the architectures that connect the plant floor to business systems (SCADA, MES, ERP, warehousing systems, LIMS), and you will write the reference architecture and the standards that our engineers follow. Ignition is a particular focus: it is the platform we build most of these solutions on.

You are hands-on with the technology. You build proofs of concept, prototypes and demonstrations: to prove a design works, to show a client what is possible, and to give our engineers a working reference to learn from. Our project teams carry out the implementation and commissioning, and part of the Solution Architect role is to train them to do it well.

Much of this work is about context. A plant produces millions of values every day, but a value on its own means very little. Context is what turns it into insightful information: which equipment produced it, on which line, during which batch and for which product, and how it connects to the order in the ERP system and the result in the laboratory. You design the models, the naming and the relationships that carry that meaning, so that the same data serves an operator, a quality reviewer and a data scientist without anyone having to guess what it refers to.

You will work with our commercial team from the first client conversations, helping turn a business problem into a design, a demonstration, and a proposal. On projects: you are involved in the early stages — design, architecture and the technical decisions that shape the work — and then hand over to the delivery team. Most of our clients work in regulated industries, which means clear documentation and traceable design decisions are key.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Architecture and design

• Design Unified Namespace architectures for plant data: namespace and topic structure, information models, and the context that gives each value its meaning.
• Design the data models behind the architecture: equipment and site hierarchies, product and batch genealogy, and the relationships between assets, processes and quality results, using recognized models ISA-95 and ISA-88.
• Design integrations between plant systems and business systems: PLC, SCADA, ERP, MES, LIMS, historians and data platforms.
• Assess legacy plant and laboratory environments and design the modernization path for them.
• Choose the technologies, and write reference architecture and design standards for this work.

Proofs of concept and integration

• Build proofs of concept, prototypes and reference implementations that prove a design works before a project commits to it.
• Build and prove data flows with MQTT, Sparkplug B, OPC UA and REST APIs.
• Work with Ignition and similar platforms as the plant-side layer of these architectures.
• Build prototypes of data-driven applications on top of the architecture: equipment monitoring, predictive maintenance, and batch reporting.
• Integrate with ERP and MES using standard message formats such as B2MML, so that production orders, confirmations and quality results flow in both directions.
• Make plant data findable and “end user friendly” to people who did not build the system, through consistent naming, documented models and clear metadata.
• Connect to business and laboratory systems: SAP and other ERP systems, MES platforms, LIMS and quality systems.

Pre-sales and client consulting

• Work with our commercial team during early client conversations: understand the business problem before designing anything.
• Run technical workshops with clients, design the solution, and present it clearly to both engineers and management.
• Build the demonstrations and solution concepts that our commercial team uses in client meetings.
• Contribute to development of technical proposals, solution designs and estimates together with our commercial team.

Technical expertise and knowledge sharing

• Train engineers to implement and commission the solutions you design, and build the team’s capability in Ignition, MQTT, industrial data connectivity, and data contextualization concepts.
• Lead the design phase of new projects, then hand over to the delivery team with the documentation and guidance they need.

REQUIREMENTS

• Degree in engineering, computer science or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• 8+ years of experience in industrial automation, industrial software or IT/OT integration, including several years in an architecture or solution design role.
• Deep hands-on experience with Ignition (Inductive Automation): you build prototypes and demonstrations yourself, and you are comfortable working in the tools rather than only specifying them.
• Proven experience designing and integrating plant-to-enterprise architectures in real production environments: Unified Namespace, PLC, DCS, SCADA, MES, ERP and LIMS.
• Strong experience with MQTT, Sparkplug B, OPC UA, and REST APIs.
• Proven experience modelling and contextualizing industrial data: hierarchies, naming conventions, metadata and the relationships between equipment, process and product.
• Strong SQL skills, and at least one scripting language, preferably Python.
• Experience delivering in GMP or other regulated environments, with working knowledge of GAMP 5, EU GMP Annex 11, 21 CFR Part 11.
• The ability to explain a complex architecture simply, to engineers and to managers.
• Commercial skills: effort estimation, and technical workshop facilitation.
• English, spoken and written. Spanish is a plus.

DESIRABLE EXPERIENCE AND CERTIFICATIONS

The following skills are nice-to-have and will support the innovative engineering initiatives at our company.

• Data-driven manufacturing applications: predictive maintenance, equipment monitoring, OEE, energy monitoring solutions, batch reporting and yield, golden batch.
• MQTT broker platforms: HiveMQ, or the Cirrus Link modules for Ignition.
• Cloud knowledge, preferably Azure.
• Historians and industrial data platforms: AVEVA OSI PI, AspenTech Inmation, or similar.
• Time-series and non-relational databases (MongoDB, InfluxDB, or similar).
• Containers, CI/CD and version control (Docker, Kubernetes, Git).
• Data analysis and dashboards (Power BI, Grafana or similar).
• OT network and security design: segmentation, industrial DMZ, and ISA/IEC 62443 knowledge or certification.
• MES platforms: Ignition Sepasoft, Körber PAS-X, Siemens Opcenter, or similar.
• Multi-site standardization, or defining a technical service offering: creating a reference architecture or data model template and rolling it out across several plants or projects.
• Regulatory awareness for industrial data: the EU GMP Annex 11 revision, and Annex 22 on artificial intelligence in GMP.

WHAT WE OFFER

• A builder’s role with technical ownership: you design it, you prove it, and you see it become part of how the company works.
• Training programs with our technology partners.
• A direct line to the business: you work with our commercial team and see your designs turn into won projects.
• Large international pharmaceutical clients and genuinely complex plants.
• A specialized and collaborative technical team, and 30+ years of plant knowledge behind you. We are a people-oriented company, with special focus on ensuring the best environment for our engineers to work and collaborate.
• Competitive salary according to your experience.
• Flexible working hours and hybrid work.

POSITION DETAILS

• Location: Sant Cugat del Vallès (Barcelona), Spain — hybrid.
• Contract: permanent, full-time.