Operational Technology Manager

Country: United States

City: Brookings

Job Family: Engineering Maintenance

Contract Type: Unlimited-term

Job ID: 52901

Operational Technology Manager

The Bel Group is a major player in the food industry through portions of dairy, fruit and plant-based products, and one of the world leaders in branded cheeses. Its portfolio of differentiated and internationally recognized brands includes The Laughing Cow®, Kiri®, Babybel®, Boursin® Nurishh®, Pom'Potes® and GoGo squeeZ®, as well as some 30 local brands. Together, these brands helped the Group generate sales of €3.74 billion in 2024.

Do you want to join a company with strong brands that puts consumers and responsibility at the heart of the decision-making process? Then Bel is made for you!

Are you bold, pragmatic, and determined? Do you want to contribute to the transformation of an international agri-food company? Them come join us and measure the impact of your talent and energy in realizing an ambitious and sustainable company project!

#IWorkForAllForGood

The Operational Technology Manager is responsible for overseeing the implementation of operational technologies, ensuring data availability, and optimizing industrial IT infrastructure. It also involves contributing to technical expertise groups, managing business applications deployment, and providing training on new technologies.

Essential Duties And Responsibilities

• Ensure the deployment and local operation of the EDGE, which serves as the middle layer for data management and deployment of various industrial applications.
• Oversee connectivity works, including migration and update of shopfloor equipment, and physical connections.
• Deploy, update, and contextualize data model standards for all machines, maintaining the availability of industrial data to upper layers and inter-asset communications.
• Supervise and optimize the industrial IT infrastructure (ILAN), managing networks, servers, control, and monitoring systems, ensuring network security, availability, and performance, and adhering to group technical standards and cybersecurity requirements in coordination with the IT Site manager.
• Deploy international standards (OPC UA, PACK ML, ISA) and make necessary program modifications to optimize overall plant performance, employing innovative technologies such as PLC machine, HMI, AI and machine learning, Vision, Wireless security and control, AGV, COBOT.
• Participate in technical expertise groups (GET) led by corporate teams, contribute to the deployment of digital streams, and manage deployment of business applications from the EDGE Manager, including the creation of specific applications.
• Maintain up-to-date technical documentation for the plant, provide training and knowledge transfer locally on new technologies or deployed modifications, functionally manage site automation engineers, and facilitate community engagement in collaboration with the technical manager.
• Provide first-level automation training to autonomous teams and update operational KPIs within their domain.
  
  

Minimum degree and experience required:

• Engineer-level education or equivalent in acquired skills, with a minimum of 3 years of experience in engineering/automation.
• 3 years of successful experience in managing industrial projects and automation packages, preferably in the agri-food sector.
• Recognized expertise in designing automation and robotic systems, including PLC, variable speed drives, sensors, EDGE, robots, cobots, industrial safety systems, and industrial information systems such as SCADA and MES.
  
  

Competencies and Abilities

Soft Skills

• Cross-functional leadership and management
• High level of autonomy, proactivity, and initiative-taking
• Rigorous and methodical, with a strong written communication culture
• Collaborative teamwork with multiple functional areas (IS/IT, Industrial Performance, Purchasing, Maintenance, Quality, Safety, etc.)
• Interest in technological innovation
• Technical English proficiency
  
  

Hard Skills:

• Industrial protocols: OPC-UA (Advanced level: Address Spaces, Companion Specifications, etc.), Profinet, Ethernet/IP, IO-Link, AS-Interface
• Automation: Rockwell (ControlLogix RS, Studio 5000), SIEMENS (S7 Family, TIA Portal), Schneider (PacDrive, Modicon)
• SCADAs & HMI: WinCC, FactoryTalk (View, Linux)
• Industrial standards: PackML, Industrial safety standards (e.g., NF EN 61508), Robotics (ISO 15066), vision and AI
• Knowledge of Linux & Windows / Industrial network administration (Cisco, Vmware, Windows Server, Stratix, Scalance, Linux)
• Awareness of cybersecurity
• Electrical certification level B1
• Applied industrial deployment experience of machine learning/ AI solutions.
  
  

Working Conditions: Work is performed in an office and manufacturing environments. Hours of work will generally be during regular business hours. There will be some variation in work hours due to special projects, deadlines, and other concerns. Ability to lift up to 30 lbs., as well as climb ladders. Frequent travel will be required – US as well as international. Personal protective equipment (PPE) must be worn in the plant as required.

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

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