Senior Industrial Automation Engineer

This is not a pure software role, and it is not a pure field technician role. It requires the rarest combination: someone who can read a PLC tag database export, debate the tradeoffs between KEPServerEX and a Snap7-based Linux gateway as an OPC UA bridge, and still sit across a table from a European OEM mechanical contractor and discuss motor torque limit parameters.

You will own the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL), the translation layer between the Siemens controller and the web backend — and you will be the single point of technical authority for everything between the field devices and the API endpoint.

The role involves three on-site visits to Doha over approximately 22 weeks (audit, integration sprint, commissioning), with the majority of the work conducted remotely.

Key Responsibilities

Conduct an on-site technical audit of the existing Siemens S7-300 control system: document the full PLC tag database, DB block structure, Profibus DP device map, drive parameter registers, and alarm/event table

Design and implement an OPC UA gateway/bridge that exposes live PLC data to the web application backend — including axis positions (cm slanted), torques, RPMs, limit switch states, operating modes, and alarm states

Define and document the complete read/write tag contract between the PLC and the HAL, including all command words for 7 operating modes (Open, Close Inline, Close Shifted, Chess Pattern, Emergency Retract, Manual/Service, Cleaning) and per-axis position setpoints

Specify and implement the industrial network architecture:

OT/IT segmentation, gateway server placement, connectivity from PLC to edge device to web backend, and RTSP camera VLAN integration Collaborate directly with the software development team (backend/frontend) to define a clean, versioned internal API above the HAL, and provide a data dictionary for time-series ingestion (position, torque, RPM per axis; weather inputs; event and alarm logs) Define fail-safe and degraded-mode behaviour: what happens to the canopy if the web layer loses connectivity, ensuring PLC-side safety logic remains sovereign over all web-initiated commands — particularly the wind-triggered emergency retract sequence

Technically lead discussions with the end client's facilities management team on system architecture, safety interlock hierarchy, and maintenance window planning

Be on-site in Doha for: Week 2 (initial audit, ~1 week), Week 10 (integration sprint, ~1 week), Weeks 21–22 (commissioning and UAT, ~2 weeks)

Produce technical documentation throughout: wiring diagrams, network topology diagrams, tag mapping sheets, API contracts, and a handover package for the client's in-house facilities team

• 5+ years of hands-on Siemens S7 experience — specifically S7-300 programming, diagnostics, and data block structure via Step 7 Classic or TIA Portal
  
• Profibus DP fluency — able to diagnose bus faults, read GSD device profiles, identify slave addresses, and recover from "MP Bus Blackout"-class faults without vendor support
  
• WinCC Flexible proficiency — able to navigate and extract tag configuration, alarm classes, and screen logic from an existing compiled WinCC Flexible project
  
• OPC UA implementation experience — via any of: Siemens Industrial PC OPC Server, KEPServerEX, open62541, or a Snap7-based Linux gateway solution
  
• Industrial networking — OT/IT convergence, unmanaged Profibus topology vs. managed Ethernet, VLAN design, and understanding of where IT security policy collides with OT real-time requirements
  
• Ability to independently read and produce electrical schematics, PLC I/O mapping sheets, drive parameter tables, and field device wiring diagrams
  
• Comfortable working on an active, high-visibility public-facing site in Qatar — able to obtain Qatar SafePass, site-specific HSE inductions, and work under the relevant site access protocols
  
• Fluent English — can write clear technical documentation and communicate directly with European OEM contractors, a remote software development team, and the client's facilities management team