At Alcon, we're passionate about enhancing sight and helping people see brilliantly. With more than 25,000 associates, we innovate fearlessly, champion progress, and act swiftly to impact global eye health. We foster an inclusive culture, recognizing your contributions and offering opportunities to grow your career like never before. Together, we make a difference in the lives of our patients and customers. Are you ready to join us?
This role is part of Alcon's Engineering function, a team focused on improving quality, processes, products, packaging and materials across our business to help deliver brilliant outcomes.The Sr. Principal, Automation & Control Engineering (Science/Tech/Engineering Path), is primarily responsible for leading the design, development, and maintenance of advanced control systems, focusing on mathematical modeling, dynamic behavior analysis, and control theory. You will supervise complex projects, provide strategic direction, and drive technological innovation.
Specifics Include:
• Lead the design, development, implementation, operation, and maintenance of advanced instrument/electrical and automation control systems
• Focus on mathematical modeling of diverse systems and analyze their dynamic behavior, applying control theory to create controllers ensuring systems behave as desired
• Oversee multiple complex projects, ensuring goals are met through expertise and innovation, and make critical technical decisions affecting project outcomes
• Provide strategic direction to the engineering team and stay current with advances in system design, configuration, and automation
Develop and maintain the enterprise IT/OT reference architecture for smart manufacturing.
•Define standards for interoperability across MES, PLC/SCADA, IoT gateways, robotics, analytics, and cloud ecosystems.
•Establish architecture patterns, data pipelines, and integration frameworks (OPC-UA, MQTT, REST, Profinet, etc.).
•Lead architectural design for Industry 4.0 / 5.0 projects, including autonomous robotics, AI/ML, vision inspection, and real-time data systems.
•Oversee integration between PLCs, MES, SCADA, DCS, historians, IoT platforms, and cloud environments (Azure/AWS/GCP).
•Ensure scalability, modularity, and cybersecurity compliance in all deployed solutions.
•Ensure compliance to Quality/Regulatory / ISO13485, cGMP/GDP, HSE, Finance and Alcon Corporate policies
• Adhere to GxP regulations by following Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), maintaining accurate documentation, ensuring quality control, and completing required training
• Meet individual job requirements and contribute to organizational compliance, committing to continuous improvement and regulatory compliance All associates must adhere to GxP regulations by strictly following Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), maintaining accurate and complete documentation, ensuring rigorous quality control, and completing all required training. Associates are responsible for meeting their individual job requirements and contributing to the overall compliance of the organization. Compliance with regulatory requirements and a commitment to continuous improvement are essential to our operations.
What you bring to Alcon?
Education: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in IT Systems, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Automation, Mechatronics, or related field.
Experience: • 8+ years of experience across IT/OT roles, including at least 3 years in architecture or technical leadership
• Experience in regulated industries (medical devices, pharma, semiconductors) is preferred. Strong understanding of manufacturing systems and automation, including PLCs, SCADA, historians, MES, and ERPs
• Hands-on experience with industrial data protocols and platforms (e.g., OPC UA, MQTT, REST APIs)
• Experience building or governing contextualized manufacturing data models.
• Familiarity with cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, GCP) and data services (data lakes, streaming, analytics).
• Experience enabling or collaborating on AI/ML solutions for manufacturing. Understanding of industrial cybersecurity principles and IT/OT security boundaries.
• Experience with time-series data analytics, visualization, and alerting.
• Ability to translate user needs into intuitive digital interfaces.
• Comfortable working in fast paced, experimental environments.
• Clear communicator who collaborates effectively across disciplines.
ATTENTION: Current Alcon Employee/Contingent Worker
If you are currently an active employee/contingent worker at Alcon, please click the appropriate link below to apply on the Internal Career site.
Based on 7,690 disclosed Software salaries on RoleSuite, the role pays a median of $158K/year, with most offers between $124K and $199K (10th–90th percentile: $101K–$236K).
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