ControlsAutomation Software Engineer

Were ALTEN Technology USA an engineering company helping clients bring groundbreaking ideas to lifefrom advancing space exploration and life-saving medical devices to building autonomous electric vehicles. With 3000 experts across North America we partner with leading companies in aerospace medical devices robotics automotive commercial vehicles EVs rail and more.

As part of the global ALTEN Group57000 engineers in 30 countrieswe deliver across the entire product development cycle from consulting to full project outsourcing.

When you join ALTEN Technology USA youll collaborate on some of the worlds toughest engineering challenges supported by mentorship career growth opportunities and comprehensive benefits. We take pride in fostering a culture where employees feel valued supported and inspired to grow.

Workplace: On-site 5 days per week
Location: Marina CA

We are seeking an engineer to build custom device drivers and data integrations that connect off-the-shelf automation equipment directly into our Ignition platform. This role is software-first. These systems do not use PLCs. Devices communicate over basic protocols (TCP/IP serial) and are integrated via custom Python drivers running on edge devices with data surfaced into Ignition Perspective and published over MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport). The engineer will own the path from raw byte-level device communication through driver development API services containerized deployment and production rollout.

Key Job Responsibilities
Write custom TCP/IP drivers in Python for off-the-shelf automation equipment and devices that do not ship with native SCADA connectivity
Manipulate and parse data at the byte level constructing and decoding raw binary protocol frames handling packing and unpacking endianness framing and checksums
Interface directly with new and unfamiliar device types reverse-engineering or implementing their communication interfaces (TCP/IP sockets serial protocols board-level or PCB-level interfaces) and mapping device functions into a usable driver layer
Stand up and validate new devices independently bringing them online outside the production system before integrating them
Configure Ignition to interface with these devices in the absence of a PLC layer developing screens and functionality in Ignition Perspective
Design and implement API services that expose device functionality and own the deployment strategy for those services into production
Containerize drivers and services using Docker and deploy them onto edge devices including touchscreen industrial PCs on the floor
Manage container lifecycle in production including image builds versioning updates restart and recovery behavior and resource constraints on edge hardware
Publish time-series device data over MQTT using standard industrial schemas specifically Sparkplug B including correct topic namespace payload encoding and birth/death certificate handling
Optimize for latency and cycle time with a long-term mandate to reduce cycle time and deliver reliable real-time data
Build automation around the integration so it scales and replicates across devices and stations
Document driver interfaces network architecture container configurations and deployment procedures

Required Qualifications
Bachelors degree in Computer Engineering Electrical Engineering Controls Engineering Mechatronics Software Engineering or equivalent technical field
Strong production-grade Python development experience. This is a primary requirement not a scripting side skill
Demonstrated experience writing custom TCP/IP or socket-level drivers for hardware devices
Hands-on experience manipulating data at the byte level including binary protocol parsing serialization and bitwise operations
Hands-on experience with serial protocols and integrating off-the-shelf or board-level devices that lack turnkey connectivity
Working knowledge of MQTT including standard industrial schemas such as Sparkplug B
Experience with Ignition (Inductive Automation) specifically Perspective and the ability to articulate Perspective versus Vision tradeoffs
Experience designing and deploying API services including deployment to production
Hands-on experience with Docker and containerization including writing Dockerfiles building images and deploying containerized services
Experience deploying software to edge devices or industrial PCs
Comfortable working onsite in an active manufacturing environment

Preferred Qualifications
Deep MQTT Sparkplug B implementation experience (edge node and device lifecycle birth/death certificates protobuf payload encoding)
Experience with container orchestration and management at the edge (Docker Compose Portainer K3s or comparable)
Experience with CI/CD pipelines for building and shipping containerized services
Experience with latency optimization and cycle-time reduction in real-time data systems
Prior work integrating devices into SCADA or MES platforms without an intermediate PLC layer
Exposure to aerospace EV or other regulated manufacturing environments where data traceability is critical
Experience with Ignition module development or gateway scripting
Familiarity with time-series data storage and retrieval at scale
Experience with Pythons struct socket and asyncio libraries or equivalent low-level networking and binary-parsing tooling

Salary Range
$120000-$145000
The actual salary offered is dependent on various factors including but not limited to location the candidates combination of job-related knowledge qualifications skills education training and experience

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against on the basis of race color religion sex sexual orientation gender identity national origin disability protected veteran status age genetic information or pregnancy.

Please beware of job seeker scams and see this important notice on our careers page for more information about our recruiting process.

Compliance Notice: Alten USA is a federal contractor subject to the requirements of the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA) and Executive Order 11246. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and consider all qualified applicants without regard to race color religion sex sexual orientation gender identity national origin disability or veteran status.

Drug Screening Requirement: As a federal contractor Alten USA maintains a drug-free workplace. All candidates selected for employment will be required to successfully complete a pre-employment drug screening as a condition of hire.