Manufacturing Data Systems Engineer

• Own the data platforms for our manufacturing environment (SCADA, schema design, ETL/ELT orchestration, dashboards, and data governance) and serve as primary administrator for manufacturing business systems (MES, ERP, PLM, QMS), managing access, permissions, and configuration.
• Securely integrate manufacturing and lab systems including ceramic production, cell manufacturing, QC, and robotic systems, and the internal applications built around them.
• Build and operate back-end services, internal tools, and the platform layer (VMs, APIs, Docker/K8s, git, CI/CD, backups), drive incidents to resolution, and lead implementation of new manufacturing tools, coordinating upgrades, testing, validation, and deployment with vendors and stakeholders.
• Minimize single points of failure across the data stack through comprehensive documentation, backup/recovery procedures, cross-training, and engineering for maintainability.
• Partner with Executive, IT/OT, R&D, Engineering, and Operations stakeholders to scope work, plan deliveries, and roll out changes safely.
• Employ governed AI workflows across day-to-day engineering, including code generation, debugging, documentation, code review, and operational automation.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for manufacturing systems support, develop training materials, and conduct user training.

Do you have experience in Version control systems?, * Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or related field, or equivalent hands-on experience in manufacturing, data engineering, and backend systems.

• 4+ years of hands-on experience building and operating production data systems, including SCADA (Ignition preferred), database schema design, ETL/ELT workflows and orchestration platforms, and dashboards.
• Direct experience managing data in a manufacturing or industrial environment, with an understanding of manufacturing processes and workflows, working with production, lab, sensor, or other equipment-generated data and bridging the gap between raw machine output and analytics-ready datasets.
• Hands-on experience with containerization, version control, and CI/CD workflows in a team setting.
• Demonstrated ownership of operational monitoring, logging, alerting, backup recovery, and incident response for production systems.
• Experience administering or supporting MES, ERP, PLM, QMS, or other manufacturing-traceability and production-operations platforms, and an understanding of the data they generate.
• Track record of maintaining and improving existing systems, not just building greenfield.
• Experience supporting cross-functional teams across Engineering, Operations, Quality, and Supply Chain.
• Experience creating reports, dashboards, and KPIs, and gathering requirements to drive process improvements through software systems.

Desirable Experience:

• Experience operating in hybrid environments that span on-prem infrastructure and cloud services (Azure preferred) and thoughtful about where each system belongs.
• Semantic models, dataflows, and downstream reporting infrastructure (Power BI preferred).
• Internal application development experience - data entry UIs, sample/run trackers, equipment dashboards, or workflow apps tied to production systems.
• Experience working in early-stage environments where you owned systems end-to-end.
• Experience with regulated, quality-sensitive, or audit-driven data workflows (e.g. QC, automotive, aerospace, defense, life sciences).
• Hands-on production use of AI coding assistants and/or agentic development tools with a clear point of view on where they help, where they don't, and how to use them responsibly.
• Experience building agentic workflows, LLM-backed services, or AI-driven automation into production data or operations systems (RAG over internal data, MCP servers, evals, prompt/tool design).
• Familiarity with specific platforms and tools used in our stack, such as Odoo ERP, MS SQL and Postgres queries and database structures, Dagster for data orchestration, and basic scripting (Python, PowerShell, Bash)., * Excellent critical thinking, problem-solving, and debugging skills, with discipline around documentation and continuous improvement.
• Self-motivated and able to take full ownership of critical systems, including the unglamorous maintenance work that keeps them running.
• Proactive in identifying and mitigating reliability, data-quality, and security risks.
• Strong written and verbal communication, comfortable with both technical deep-dives and stakeholder updates.
• Comfort working across IT/OT and manufacturing teams to translate production-floor problems into data engineering work.

Pulled from the full job description

• 401(k) 4% Match
• Health insurance
• 401(k) matching
• Paid time off
• Vision insurance
• Dental insurance
• Stock options, In addition to a competitive salary, we offer the following company benefits:
• Medical, dental, vision, disability, and life insurance
• Stock options in an early-stage company
• Hybrid
• Company and floating holidays
• 17 days of PTO to start, with increase upon tenure
• 401k plan with a 4% company match beginning after first paycheck
• Wellness allowance of $1k annually

Ion Storage Systems Inc., located in Beltsville, MD, is a rapidly growing company commercializing its breakthrough lithium metal battery technology based on discoveries made at the University of Maryland. The company is committed to developing products that will impact everyday life on a global scale. Our technology improves product performance and safety in a variety of applications including defense and aerospace, consumer electronics, electrified transportation, and renewable energy storage. Our team is made up of innovative, driven & creative individuals who are passionate about their work. The company offers an inclusive environment, growth opportunities and encourages work/life balance. To all recruitment agencies: Ion Storage Systems, Inc. will not accept agency resumes for this role. Please do not forward resumes to our jobs email, or to any Ion Storage Systems employees or any other company email address. Ion Storage Systems is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes. Ion Storage Systems, Inc. is proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, ancestry, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, or Veteran status. Eligibility to work in the United States as a U.S. Citizen or U.S. permanent resident is required for consideration.