SIMCA Engineer

About the Role

This role offers three ascending levels of responsibility for SIMCA Online engineers supporting multivariate statistical process control (MSPC) in manufacturing environments. The Associate role focuses on deploying and supporting SIMCA Online real-time monitoring by configuring models, establishing data connections, and managing dashboards and alerts under guidance. The Senior Associate leads end-to-end deployment and optimization of SIMCA Online models with ownership of lifecycle management and alarm strategy. The Manager level oversees the entire SIMCA Online program, strategic roadmap, governance, team leadership, and vendor management across sites.

Responsibilities

• Associate: Configure SIMCA Online projects from validated SIMCA models (PCA/PLS). Setup data feeds from controllers and historians via OPC/OPC UA. Build dashboards, contribution plots, control charts, and simple alarms. Execute SOPs for batch operations and model updates. Troubleshoot data gaps, tag mappings, and alarm noise. Maintain documentation and collaborate with process engineers to manage deviations.
• Senior Associate: Own model lifecycle including validation and deployment. Design preprocessing steps like centering, scaling, and missing value handling. Configure and maintain connectivity with OPC, DCS/PLC, historian, and MES interfaces. Implement advanced alarm strategies with multivariate limits and cascading rules. Perform root cause analyses using contribution and score trajectories. Define and monitor KPIs for MSPC models. Author and maintain required documentation for compliance and audits. Train and mentor teams.
• Manager: Develop strategy and roadmap for MVDA/MSPC and SIMCA Online rollouts. Govern model lifecycle aligned with batch review and change control. Establish global standards and templates. Build and lead a high-performing team. Manage integration programs connecting MES, Historian, SIMCA Online, and DCS/PLC. Lead vendor relationships and compliance with SLAs. Measure program KPIs related to OEE, yield, deviations, and batch release acceleration. Handle budgeting and cross-site harmonization.

Skills and Knowledge

• Proficient knowledge of SIMCA and SIMCA Online including PCA, PLS, and MSPC models.
• Understanding of multivariate data analysis basics: PCA, Hotelling's T, SPE/Q, contribution analysis.
• Familiarity with process data concepts such as signal characteristics, sampling, time synchronization, and handling missing data.
• Experience configuring and troubleshooting OPC/OPC UA connections, data historians (PI, DeltaV, S7), and CSV data processing.
• Awareness of GxP/21 CFR Part 11 compliance concepts, including audit trails and electronic records.
• Experience in process control, statistical process control, capability indices, and multivariate analysis diagnostics.
• Hands-on skills with alarm management, dashboard user experience, and model deployment automation.
• Good to have scripting skills in Python, MATLAB, or R for data preparation and automation.
• Domain exposure desirable in pharmaceutical, biotech, chemicals, or food and beverage industries.
• Leadership skills for managing teams, stakeholder engagement, and vendor negotiation at senior levels.

Education and Eligibility

Applicants should hold a B.E., B.Tech, or M.Sc. degree in Chemical, Biotech, Industrial, Instrumentation, Data Science, or related engineering/data science disciplines. This position is open to any graduate meeting these educational qualifications.

Performance Metrics

• Maintain over 90% first-time-right model deployments.
• Improve alarm accuracy and reduce false positives and false negatives continually.
• Achieve mean time to acknowledge alarms within SLA.
• Zero major audit deviations and maintain compliance.
• Ensure model availability above 99% and data completeness over 98% at senior levels.
• Reduce deployment cycle times by 20% for upgrades and new models.
• Deliver audit-ready documentation with no critical findings.