Operations Technology Engineer - IT Operations

Darigold is seeking an experienced and driven Operations Technology and Automation (OT) Engineer to join our IT Operations team. The Electrical and Controls Automation Engineer will be responsible for creating and implementing solutions to improve operational performance, support and enhance capability and deliver and maintain technology systems in our dairy manufacturing facilities.

Darigold is the fifth largest dairy cooperative in the United States based on milk volume and one of the largest privately held organizations headquartered in the state of Washington. Since 1918, our producers have taken pride in producing dairy products with unsurpassed quality. Today, we are one of the nation's largest agricultural cooperatives, producing over 8.5 billion pounds of milk every year.

Through innovative technology and our efficient, flexible production capabilities, we deliver value-added products and customer-driven solutions. Darigold is now known throughout the world for bringing fresh, wholesome dairy products and ingredients from the Northwest to people all around the globe.

• Acts as technical resource to the plants and Engineering group to support and deliver technical services and Controls Automation solutions to resolve manufacturing issues and improve operational performance.
• Understands Rockwell PLC MI and drives, electrical design, Windows based PC’s and VM’s and industrial network architectures and how to effectively apply these technologies to a dairy manufacturing environment.
• Actively collaborates as a team member in a high-performance cross functional work team environment, including plant and regional manufacturing technical resources, engineering and IT.
• Acts as a leader to support and drive electrical and control standards adoption and implementation across the manufacturing enterprise.
• Provides first class technical support to the manufacturing enterprise, supporting plant operations and personnel to ensure a safety-first environment that delivers value to our producers and the highest quality products to our customers.
• Understands and has experience in manufacturing processes in industrial plants (preferably Food and Beverage), electrical control systems, equipment and machinery.
• Develops, plans and executes technical solutions including equipment bills of materials, scope of work, estimates, participates in proposal review and provides timely status updates.
• Provides leadership in knowledge transfer and implementation of approved standards and practices for electrical and control systems, including network implementation, PLC’s, HMI, field devices and control network systems.
• Leads troubleshooting and root cause analysis to effectively resolve issues and deliver sustainable solutions in collaboration with plant technical peers.
• Facilitates and supports the numerous manufacturing processes and control systems within Operations, collaborating with Engineering, IT, Operations and Corporate management and vendor resources.
• Provides production support and maintenance for enterprise systems including Environmental Health & Safety, OEE and Plant Key Performance Metrics, Process Controls and Automation, reporting and analytics systems for Operations and others as directed.

• Engineering (Electrical, Chemical, or Mechanical) B.S. degree, or 5+ years of experience in systems integration, managing manufacturing process control applications, supporting software and databases, support and ongoing process improvement efforts. Plus 2+ years of experience supporting manufacturing process controls networks, infrastructure and security systems.
• Strong troubleshooting and root cause analysis skills with electrical and controls systems and associated programming.
• Experience in developing PLC and HMI solutions (Allen Bradley / Factory Talk preferable) and specifying hardware and software for controls and automation projects.
• Experience with controls power distribution layouts, panel layouts, hardware specification.
• Electrical design, PLC/HMI programming and instrumentation.
• Ability to establish and maintain strong, effective team relationships with multiple organizational…