PLM Windchill Solution Architect

Position Title: Windchill Solution Architect/Senior Windchill PLM Consultant
Experience: 12+ Years
Location: Flexible / Hybrid
Domain: Medical Devices  (additionally we can look at candidates from Life Sciences, Healthcare domain as well but preference shall be for candidates with Medical Devices domain background)
Employment Type: Full Time / Contract

Position Summary

We are seeking a highly experienced Windchill PLM Subject Matter Expert (SME) to lead the assessment and strategic planning for a future upgrade to PTC Windchill 2027. The ideal candidate will possess deep technical expertise in Windchill, strong business process knowledge, and a proven track record of PLM transformation programs within Life Sciences, Healthcare, or Medical Device organizations.

The consultant will evaluate the current Windchill implementation landscape, review customizations and integrations, assess business value and user impact of upgrading to Windchill 2027, and provide recommendations on optimal upgrade timing and execution strategy.

Key Responsibilities

Windchill Assessment & Upgrade Strategy

• Perform a comprehensive assessment of the current Windchill implementation, including:
• Configuration
• Customizations
• Data model
• Workflows
• Integrations
• Infrastructure landscape
• Analyze the organization's readiness for Windchill 2027 adoption.
• Evaluate new capabilities available in Windchill 2027 and determine business applicability.

Customization & Technical Evaluation

• Review existing customizations, extensions, and configurations.
• Identify upgrade risks, technical debt, obsolete customizations, and deprecated APIs.
• Assess impact of current and planned enhancements on the Windchill 2027 implementation timeline.
• Recommend remediation, retirement, or modernization strategies.

Business Process Assessment

• Evaluate current Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) processes and alignment with Windchill best practices.
• Perform gap analysis between current processes and Windchill 2027 capabilities.
• Identify opportunities to improve engineering change management, document control, quality management, regulatory compliance, and product development processes.

Upgrade Roadmap & Planning

• Review the current implementation roadmap and identify optimal insertion points for the Windchill 2027 upgrade.
• Develop upgrade approach options including:
• In-place upgrade
• Parallel implementation
• Phased migration
• Assess timeline, cost, resource requirements, and schedule implications of each option.

End User Impact & Benefits Analysis

• Assess organizational impact of moving to Windchill 2027.
• Quantify expected benefits wherever possible, including:
• Productivity improvements
• Reduced manual effort
• Faster change processes
• Better collaboration
• Improved system performance
• Regulatory compliance efficiencies
• Conduct stakeholder interviews and change impact assessments.

Data Migration & Integration Assessment (IMPORTANT)

• Evaluate impact on:
• Product data migration
• CAD data migration
• Historical records
• Classification structures
• Change objects
• Assess integrations with:
• ERP (SAP, Oracle, etc.)
• MES
• QMS
• Regulatory Systems
• CAD Systems (Creo, SolidWorks, CATIA)
• Enterprise applications
• Recommend migration and validation strategies.

Architecture & Governance

• Review current PLM architecture and scalability.
• Recommend future-state architecture aligned with Windchill 2027.
• Establish upgrade governance, risk management, and validation approach.

Required Skills & Experience

Windchill Expertise

• 12+ years of hands-on experience with PTC Windchill.
• Expertise across:
• Windchill PDMLink
• ProjectLink
• MPMLink
• PartsLink
• Change Management
• Document Management
• Configuration Management
• Strong knowledge of Windchill versions 12.x/13.x and roadmap toward Windchill 2027.
• Experience with Windchill upgrades, migrations, and modernization programs.

Technical Skills

• Windchill customization framework.
• Java/J2EE, JSP, REST APIs.
• Windchill Workflow, OIRs, ACLs, Data Model.
• Windchill Integration Frameworks.
• Database knowledge (Oracle, SQL Server).
• Cloud and on-prem deployment architectures.

Business & Functional Expertise

• Strong understanding of PLM business processes.
• Product Development Lifecycle.
• Engineering Change Management.
• Design Control.
• Product Data Governance.
• Regulatory Compliance and Validation.

Domain Expertise (Mandatory)

• Medical Devices Industry.
• Understanding of regulated product development environments.
• Knowledge of:
• GxP
• Design History File (DHF)
• Device Master Record (DMR)
• Risk Management Processes

Preferred / Nice-to-Have

• Ability to obtain and deploy a Windchill 2027 evaluation environment from PTC.
• Hands-on installation, configuration, and sandbox assessment of Windchill 2027.
• PTC Windchill certifications.
• Experience working directly with PTC product teams.
• Prior consulting experience in large-scale PLM transformations.
• Experience preparing executive business cases and ROI assessments.
• Knowledge of:
• FDA 21 CFR Part 11
• ISO 13485

Deliverables Expected

• Current State Assessment Report
• Windchill 2027 Readiness Assessment
• Upgrade Impact Analysis
• Customization Fit-Gap Assessment
• Data Migration & Integration Impact Report
• Business Benefits & ROI Assessment
• Upgrade Roadmap with Recommended Insertion Points
• Executive Presentation and Recommendations