Enterprise MES Lead | ETO Manufacturing | Apriso, Siemens Opcenter, Plex, SAP DM​/ME, FactoryTalk, iBaseT or Wonderware

Enterprise Mes It Lead

Location:

Milwaukee, WI (preferred) or Chicago, IL

Schedule:

Onsite 4 days/week (required) Travel:
Approximately 25% (1 week a month on average; primarily domestic but would include international) Relocation:
Available for qualified candidates

KORE1, a nationwide provider of staffing and recruiting solutions, has an immediate opening for an Enterprise MES Lead | ETO Manufacturing | Apriso, Siemens Opcenter, Plex, SAP DM/ME, Factory Talk, iBaseT or Wonderware

The Enterprise MES (Manufacturing Execution System) IT Lead is responsible for leading the implementation, integration, optimization, and long-term support of the organization's Manufacturing Execution System. This role oversees the interface of MES with SAP and other enterprise systems, ensuring seamless integration across manufacturing operations while supporting future expansion of the platform across multiple manufacturing facilities. You will play a pivotal role in defining technical strategy, guiding solution design, partnering with implementation vendors, and ensuring successful delivery of enterprise MES capabilities that support business objectives.

Following implementation, this individual will serve as the enterprise IT lead for the MES platform, driving continuous improvement, system enhancements, and future deployments. This is a highly visible techno-functional leadership role requiring close collaboration with manufacturing, operations, business stakeholders, application support teams, and external implementation partners. Success in this position requires balancing technical expertise with strong communication and relationship-building skills to help drive digital transformation across the shop floor while ensuring systems support operational efficiency, quality, compliance, and integration with enterprise applications such as SAP.

Key Job Responsibilities

To be successful in this role, the Enterprise MES IT Lead must possess a strong understanding of manufacturing business processes and enterprise application technologies while effectively partnering with business leaders, manufacturing stakeholders, vendors, and executive leadership.

• Lead and oversee the implementation, integration, upgrades, support, and continuous optimization of the enterprise Manufacturing Execution System (MES).
• Serve as the primary IT owner and subject matter expert for the organization's MES platform.
• Partner with manufacturing, operations, engineering, and business stakeholders to understand operational needs and translate them into scalable MES solutions.
• Collaborate with implementation partners, application support providers, and internal IT teams to successfully deliver MES initiatives across multiple manufacturing facilities.
• Define technical requirements, functional specifications, and solution architecture aligned with business objectives and manufacturing processes.
• Evaluate business requirements and recommend scalable configuration and integration approaches while minimizing unnecessary customizations.
• Employ application and integration best practices, enterprise architecture standards, environment management, testing, and change management throughout the solution lifecycle.
• Ensure MES solutions are successfully implemented across manufacturing plants while supporting integration with SAP and other enterprise and shop floor systems.
• Partner with Application Managed Services (AMS) teams to coordinate ongoing support, issue resolution, upgrades, and release activities. This role provides technical leadership but is not responsible for day-to-day help desk or application administration.
• Ensure the long-term sustainability, security, performance, and scalability of MES technologies while aligning platform capabilities with business objectives and future roadmaps.
• Identify, investigate, and recommend improvements to manufacturing applications, business processes, integrations, and system capabilities.
• Lead cross-functional initiatives involving manufacturing stakeholders, implementation partners, offshore support teams, and future internal MES resources through influence rather than direct authority.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives that increase manufacturing efficiency, product quality, traceability, compliance, and operational visibility.
• Stay current with MES technologies, manufacturing best practices, and digital manufacturing trends to identify future enhancement opportunities.
• Serve as the primary IT point of contact for all enterprise MES-related initiatives and future platform expansion.