About the Role
We run a modern refrigerated and frozen co-packing facility that produces for enterprise CPG brands and national retailers. Our production floor is heavily automated — tray sealing, freezing, weighing, coding, refrigeration, air and nitrogen generation — and we're not treating those machines as islands. We've built our own operations platform in-house, and our goal is to make the plant floor and our software talk to each other: live machine data flowing into dashboards, work orders driving line setup, and alarms surfacing where operators and managers actually see them.
This role owns that intersection. You'll program and integrate the PLCs, HMIs, sensors, and SCADA that keep production running, and you'll help wire that hardware into our databases and cloud tools. It's a rare seat for someone who's equally comfortable in ladder logic and in a Python script — and who wants to build the connected plant rather than just maintain it.
Bilingual English/Spanish is strongly preferred; you'll work daily with a bilingual production team, and the ability to train, troubleshoot, and document in both languages is a major asset.
What You'll Do
- Program, configure, and maintain PLCs and HMIs across production, refrigeration, and utility systems (packaging lines, tray sealers, freezing, air/nitrogen, and plant support equipment).
- Integrate and commission sensors, drives, and field devices — discrete and analog I/O, IO-Link/IFM sensors, VFDs, safety circuits — and get new equipment from install to reliable production.
- Build and maintain SCADA/HMI screens and alarm logic that give operators and supervisors clear, actionable visibility into line status, temperatures, throughput, and faults.
- Stand up IoT/machine-data pipelines that push equipment telemetry (run states, cycle counts, temperatures, downtime reasons) off the floor and into our databases and dashboards.
- Integrate industrial controls with our in-house software and connected tools so that work orders, production data, and machine status flow between the floor and the office in near real time.
- Support and manage remote-access tooling (e.g., StrideLinx VPN) for secure troubleshooting of machines and vendor connections.
- Diagnose and resolve controls and integration issues — often under production pressure — and lead root-cause analysis to prevent repeats.
- Own controls documentation: I/O lists, network diagrams, program backups, change logs, and clear standard operating procedures for the maintenance team.
- Partner with equipment vendors and OEMs during installs, upgrades, and warranty work, and hold them to spec.
- Help define and enforce controls, network, and cybersecurity standards for the plant floor.
What You Bring (Required)
- 5+ years of hands-on industrial controls experience — programming, integrating, and troubleshooting PLCs and HMIs in a manufacturing environment (food/beverage a plus).
- Strong PLC programming skills (ladder, function block, structured text) on major platforms (e.g., Allen-Bradley/Rockwell, Siemens, or comparable).
- Solid grasp of industrial networking and protocols (Ethernet/IP, Modbus, OPC-UA, IO-Link, Profinet, or similar) and the ability to design and troubleshoot plant networks.
- Practical experience with sensors, VFDs, motor controls, and reading/interpreting electrical and P&ID drawings.
- Ability to work safely around production equipment, cold environments, and standard plant hazards.
- Clear communicator who can document thoroughly and train operators and technicians.
Strong Pluses
- Bilingual English/Spanish — strongly preferred.
- Python (or similar scripting) for automation, data handling, and connecting systems.
- Experience with databases (SQL and/or NoSQL — we run MongoDB), APIs, and moving data between machines and software.
- Cloud / IoT platform experience — getting edge devices and machine data into cloud or on-prem services reliably.
- SCADA platform experience and building operator-facing dashboards.
- Familiarity with refrigeration controls (e.g., KE2 Therm), MAP/tray sealing, freezing tunnels, coding/labeling (Videojet, ID Technology), compressed air, or nitrogen generation.
- Experience integrating controls data with ERP/MES or custom operations software.
- Networking, IT, or OT-cybersecurity background (UniFi or similar a plus).
Why This Role
- You'll help build a genuinely connected plant — not just keep legacy PLCs alive, but design how the floor and our software work together.
- Direct access to decision-makers and a company that moves fast; good ideas get built, not buried.
- A growing facility with new equipment and real integration challenges — the kind of work that keeps this interesting.
Mockingbird Food Group is an equal opportunity employer. We consider all qualified applicants regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, or veteran status.
Pay: $70,000.00 - $90,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Dental insurance
- Health insurance
- Paid time off
- Vision insurance
Work Location: In person
