Senior Automation Engineer

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Abbott is a global healthcare leader that helps people live more fully at all stages of life. Our portfolio of life-changing technologies spans the spectrum of healthcare, with leading businesses and products in diagnostics, medical devices, nutritionals and branded generic medicines. Our 113,000 colleagues serve people in more than 160 countries.

Abbott serves the Irish market with a diverse range of healthcare products including diagnostics, medical devices and nutritionals products. In Ireland, Abbott employs 6,000 people across ten sites. We have six manufacturing facilities located in Clonmel, Cootehill, Donegal, Longford and Sligo and a third-party manufacturing management operation in Sligo. Abbott has commercial, support operations and shared services in Dublin and Galway. We have been operating in Ireland since 1946.

Abbott Ireland Nutrition Division Cootehill Cavan

Abbott Nutrition produces a range of infant formulae in all pack sizes under the brand name "Similac". To complement the range of "Similac" infant formulae, the facility also manufactures a range of follow on formulae under the brand name of "Gain". The essential ingredient is liquid skim milk and this is combined with carbohydrate, vegetable oils, vitamins and minerals. The product is blended, pasteurised, dried and packaged at the site and once packaged, is distributed to Europe, South East Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Canada.

Established in 1975, Abbott Nutrition in Ireland is the largest powder manufacturing facility for the production of infant formulae within the Abbott Corporation worldwide. Approximately 1,000 dairy farms in Ireland and Northern Ireland supply quality milk to the Cootehill facility which processes 500,000 litres per day. This secure supply together with Ireland's reputation as a green, clean environment is of significant strategic importance to Abbott Nutrition.

Role of Senior Automation Engineer

PURPOSE OF THE JOB:

This is a senior role accountable for helping to develop and implement a robust Automation strategy across the site. Working with the Site Engineering Manager and Divisional Engineering, the role will co-ordinate inputs from all Site functions, IT, sister sites, Vendors along with automation SMEs here in Cootehill to implement appropriate solutions and investments required to execute against same.

This is a key role that will require excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills, and will interact with all levels of the organisation, ensuring competing priorities are managed objectively and in line with the overall business strategy.

Responsibilities

1. Operational Technology Strategy & Roadmap: Give input to develop and maintain the OT Strategy and Roadmap for the site including Industry 4.0 and Smart Factory (digital) opportunities. Use detailed technical / systems standards that support the OT strategy, employing Best Available Technology. Foster a standardised approach to automation across all areas of the site.
2. OT Project Governance: Ensure projects involving OT elements are aligned with the site strategy and business needs. Ensure that Third Party Suppliers, System Integrators and Service providers follow our OT standards. Evaluation of Technical solution designs, execution / delivery, commissioning, and validation.
3. OT Lifecycle Management: Accountable for the lifecycle management of all O/T infrastructure, applications & support services. Develop and implement a process for Retain, Retire and Replacement of automation applications. Responsible for the maintenance, compliance, and availability of the OT systems.
4. OT Team: Develop the skills and capabilities of automation engineers to best meet present and future site needs around operations support and projects. Work closely with peers in the Plant network to ensure Cootehill is aligned with best practices across the network.

Education & Experience

1. Bachelor's Degree (preferably in Engineering or Computer Science) is required with 5+ years of business working experience in a technology function in operations / manufacturing environment.
2. Experience in the delivery and management of automated systems in addition to a working knowledge of GAMP software development lifecycle, ANSI/ISA-S88, S95 and PackML industry standards.
3. Experience dealing with a large portfolio of systems, projects and initiatives in the areas of Information Systems, Automation and Operations.
4. Candidates will have worked on automation systems in cGMP regulated manufacturing environments, and will be knowledgeable regarding FDA cGxP and 21 CFR Part 11 regulations, and understand software system validation in this context is desired.
5. Experience with Siemens PLCs, SCADA systems, and OSIsoft Pi Data Historians is desired.
6. People Management Experience, although not essential, is preferred.

Key Skills

1. Demonstrated ability to run and lead service providers, remotely.
2. Ability to communicate sophisticated business / technical challenges in a simplified manner.
3. Familiarity with structured continuous improvement, problem solving and project management approaches.
4. Must be open-minded and adaptive to change, promote the collective interests of the team more than self-interest, and be able to resolve problems in a respectful manner.