Principal Lead - Plant Network Engineering

Role : Principal Lead - Plant Network Engineering

Note: This is a W2 only role — C2C, C2H will not be considered  

Work Location : Hybrid role based in Plano, TX. Travel to manufacturing plants and on-site backup coverage as needed. International travel for site visits and on-site support may also be required.

Note : 6-month contract to hire

We are seeking a hands-on Principal Lead – Plant OT Network Engineering to integrate and elevate OT network engineering services across multiple manufacturing plants. Reporting to the Network Leader, this role provides the standards, technical guidance, and performance management that enable plant-based OT network engineers to deliver consistent, high-quality support, and service as the primary point of coordination for cross-site activities, reporting, and escalation for plant network engineering. Plant OT Network Engineers operate within the assignment of their respective plants and own decisions within their plant. The Principal Lead supports cross-plant decisions for Network Leaders and standardization, combining technical depth, and strong relationship management across IT, OT, and plant stakeholders.

Description / Essential Functions:

•         Provide technical leadership, coaching, and development for plant-based OT network engineers, with an emphasis on both technical growth and strong communication skills.
•         Integrate plant network engineering services across sites into a single, standardized service, aligning support models, processes, and service levels.
•         Support cross-plant technical decisions and OT network standards, implementation practices, and documentation with Network Leaders; technical decisions within a plant remain with the plant OT Network Engineer.
•         Provide technical advice and escalation support to plant engineers on complex issues, designs, and changes.
•         Provide decision support to the Network Leaders on priorities, risks, resourcing, and technical direction.
•         Manage the performance of plant network engineering services, including KPIs, regular performance reports, team capacity and workload, and backlog.
•         Hold regular status meetings with each plant OT Network engineer and drive continuous improvement of support quality.
•         Provide on-site backup support at plants during critical cutovers and network incidents when assigned OT Network Engineers are unavailable.
•         Define and improve standard procedures for major outage response, maintenance windows, cutovers, and operational readiness.
•         Act as the first point of customer communication for multi-plant or major network incidents as required; lead post-incident reviews and ensure lessons learned are applied to future work.
•         Build and maintain effective relationships with site stakeholders at plants.
•         Act as a bridge between engineering teams and business partners to keep teams focused on project delivery and operational priorities.
•         Partner with stakeholders to translate business and production requirements into practical network designs and solutions.
•         Oversee and prioritize project delivery and production support across plants.
•         Participate in the hiring and onboarding of plant OT network engineers and support their development plans and certification goals.
•         Develop and maintain knowledge of customer-specific network technologies, site requirements, and operating procedures.
Technology Scope

Experience should include a broad mix of enterprise and industrial networking technologies, such as:
•         Cisco technologies including SD-Access, Cisco Catalyst Center (formerly DNA Center), Wireless, ISE, and ACI.
•         SD-WAN networking, VLANs, routing, switching, and redundancy.
•         Network security, firewalls, segmentation, secure connectivity, and IDMZ architecture.
•         Industrial network connectivity and protocols, plant-floor systems, and edge-connected devices.
•         Remote access and secure support patterns.
•         Network monitoring, troubleshooting, and high-availability design.
Required Qualifications

•         Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering, computer science, or related field; and/or commensurate work experience
•         10+ years of progressive network engineering experience.
•         5+ years of experience leading technical teams, including senior engineers.
•         Experience supporting OT, industrial, or manufacturing network environments.
•         Familiarity with OT cybersecurity, IDMZ, and segmentation strategies.
•         Strong expertise in enterprise networking and secure network design.
•         Experience managing network services across multiple sites, including KPIs and service reporting.
•         Proven ability to collaborate across IT, OT, and manufacturing teams.
•         Experience troubleshooting complex issues in high-availability environments.
•         Experience communicating incident status and business impact to customer leadership.
•         Strong written and verbal communication skills with technical and non-technical audiences.
•         Experience supporting deployments, maintenance windows, and cutovers.
•         Demonstrated ability to mentor others and drive accountability.
Preferred Qualifications

•         Experience with automation, controls, or industrial networking systems.
•         Background in large-scale OT deployments or plant modernization.
•         Experience working with production engineering, maintenance, and operations teams.
•         Experience developing network standards, deployment procedures, or architecture guidance for manufacturing.
•         Relevant certifications such as CCNP, CISSP, or ISA/IEC 62443.
•         Experience managing vendors or partner companies, or network integrators.
•         Excellent communication, judgment, logical thinking, and documentation skills.
•         Business-level proficiency in written and spoken English.
•         Flexibility and openness to adapt to our culture and ways of working, and interest in Japan or our group.
 •         Experience building or launching managed services, or transitioning project-based work into a service offering (e.g., ITIL service design and transition).
•         Experience with OT / industrial networks in manufacturing environments, such as plant networks, IT/OT segmentation (Purdue model), ISA/IEC 62443, and industrial protocols.
•         Certifications such as PMP/PgMP, ITIL 4, CCNP/CCIE, or CISSP.
•         Experience in the automotive or manufacturing industry, or with Japanese companies.
•         Knowledge of Lean, or Kaizen methods.
•         Familiarity with delivery and reporting tools such as ServiceNow, Jira, Microsoft Project, or Power BI.