MES Analyst

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Oversee the adoption/development/support of Ken’s Foods Manufacturing Execution System.
• Act as the key liaison between the corporate and plant floor teams, the technical development team, and the senior management team.
• Provide training and assistance with the MES system.
• Administer, configure, and support the Ignition platform for manufacturing execution and operational visibility.
• Develop and maintain Ignition projects, including:
• Production dashboards
• Downtime tracking
• OEE monitoring
• Recipe management
• Electronic batch records
• Traceability applications
• Quality and production reporting
• Troubleshoot MES and Ignition-related issues affecting manufacturing operations.
• Manage system integrations between Ignition, PLCs, SCADA systems, historians, ERP systems, and databases.
• Support gateway administration, tag management, alarming, scripting, and user security within Ignition.
• Partner with operations, QA, maintenance, engineering, and IT teams to improve manufacturing efficiency and data accuracy.
• Analyze manufacturing data to identify trends, bottlenecks, downtime causes, and process improvement opportunities.
• Support digital transformation initiatives and plant-floor automation projects.
• Ensure MES functionality aligns with food safety, traceability, and regulatory compliance requirements.
• Aid in standardizing manufacturing processes across multiple production lines or facilities.
• Create and maintain SQL queries, reports, KPIs, and production analytics.
• Develop real-time dashboards and visualizations for plant operations and leadership teams.
• Support historical data collection and reporting for audits, investigations, and compliance tracking.
• Validate manufacturing data integrity and troubleshoot data flow issues.
• Maintain documentation for MES configurations, SOPs, workflows, validation protocols, and system changes.
• Support compliance with FDA, USDA, HACCP, SQF, GMP, and internal quality standards.
• Participate in change management, system testing, validation, and deployment activities.
• Aid in user training and development of work instructions.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Deep understanding of Ignition or similar MES.
• Understanding of manufacturing operations including batching, packaging, filling, mixing, and material traceability.
• Familiarity with industrial automation systems and controls architecture.
• Strong troubleshooting, analytical, and communication skills.
• Leverage of Lean Manufacturing or Six Sigma experience.
• Experience supporting multi-site manufacturing operations.
• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, Industrial Technology, Food Science, or related field.
• 3+ years of MES, SCADA, or manufacturing systems experience in a production environment.
• Hands-on experience with the Ignition platform by Inductive Automation or similar MES.
• Experience in food and/or beverage manufacturing strongly preferred.

PAY & BENEFITS

The salary for this position is determined by a combination of experience, skills, and education level. The compensation range is $110K-135k annually.