Principal Digital Factory Architect

Company Description

Perseptex is a team of AI technology experts, including veterans from Google, dedicated to designing autonomous AI agents that enhance operational efficiency by reducing the workload of human staff. We develop end-to-end, deployable AI solutions that integrate seamlessly with existing IT infrastructures without creating isolated lab demos or prolonged proof-of-concept phases. In addition to engineering AI solutions, we provide comprehensive consulting services in business strategy, product design, and AI infrastructure to ensure successful adoption and measurable results. Partnering with organizations from ideation to deployment, Perseptex empowers businesses to achieve scalable and impactful implementation of AI technologies with secure, robust, and efficient solutions.

Role Description

Perseptex is building the full digital layer for a greenfield pharmaceutical “dark factory”

program. The Principal Digital Factory Architect owns the end-to-end reference architecture for the

factory’s software and AI systems (everything with code), ensuring the platform is coherent,

deliverable, secure, and defensible for regulated manufacturing. You will define system

boundaries, interfaces, phase gates, and architectural standards across the full stack: on-prem

edge platform → integration spine (UNS) → MES/eBR/QMS/LIMS → AI inspection/PAT → supply

chain/distribution → evidence & incentives platforms. This is a hands-on principal role: you will

lead a small team of domain architects, drive build-vs-buy decisions, and translate a complex

multi-vendor, hardware-integrated program into an architecture that can be engineered,

commissioned, and operated 24/7.

Project Overview

Perseptex is the sole digital-layer vendor for a greenfield, highly automated pharmaceutical

manufacturing and distribution program designed to operate with minimal on-floor human

presence (“dark factory” model). We are building the end-to-end software and AI stack that

turns physical infrastructure into an integrated, event-driven, auditable operating system: on-

prem edge platform, real-time integration backbone (Unified Namespace), manufacturing

execution (MES/eBR), quality and lab workflows (QMS/LIMS-lite), automated visual inspection

and process analytics (PAT foundations), supply chain and distribution orchestration,cybersecurity controls, and evidence/binder generation to support regulatory reviews and

financing/incentive substantiation. Work is hardware-integrated (PLC/SCADA, robotics,

cameras/lighting, sensors, warehouse automation) and executed through phase gates (e.g.,

Platform Live → Network/Data Alive → Execution/Quality Live → Perception/Analytics Live →

Scale-out).

Qualifications

• 10 years in software architecture, with at least one system-of-systems program involving

multiple vendors and real-time operational data.

• Demonstrated ability to own an end-to-end reference architecture across platform

integration execution data security domains.

• Strong integration architecture experience: event-driven design, canonical schemas,

adapters, API contracts, versioning, and governance.

• Comfort working at the OT/IT boundary: PLC/SCADA/historians/robotics/cameras at the

architectural interface level (no ladder-logic required).

• Ability to produce crisp architecture artifacts quickly: diagrams, interface specs, phase gates,

gating matrices, and ADRs.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in regulated manufacturing (pharma/CDMO/medical device) or similarly high-

compliance environments.

• Familiarity with boundaries and workflows across MES/eBR, QMS, LIMS, ERP, WMS/WCS.

• Experience designing on-prem/edge platforms for high-availability operations (observability,

DR, secure remote access).

• Familiarity with industrial integration patterns/protocols (e.g., OPC UA, MQTT/Sparkplug,

historians) or demonstrable leadership in comparable integration ecosystems.

• Experience leading build-vs-buy decisions and vendor governance while preserving clean

• architecture boundaries.