PLM Systems/Business Analyst

Job Title: PLM Systems/Business Analyst
Duration: 3+ years
Client: Defense Research Lab
Location: Lexington, MA 02421 (onsite 2 days/wk)

Description: Collects and interprets data from various data sources. Manages master data, including creation, updates, and deletion. Monitors data quality and removes corrupt data. Defines new data collection and analysis processes. Analyses results of data collection. Identifies patterns and trends in data sets. Develops various reports, graphs, charts, and presentations. Has ability to format reports, use formulas/functions, sort data, create macros, link files, etc. Reports result back to the relevant members of the business. Able to translate business requirements into non-technical, lay terms. Evaluates current business processes and proposes areas for improvement. Works alongside stakeholders and team members to establish business needs. Possesses strong communication and organization skills.

Background/Need: The Engineering Center is seeking a PLM Systems Analyst to bridge engineering organizations, technical stakeholders, and software development teams. The role focuses on engineering-based systems analysis within PLM and Digital Engineering environments, working directly with engineers and researchers to understand engineering workflows, technical information, system interactions, and opportunities for digital improvement.

The analyst translates complex and evolving engineering needs into functional requirements, user stories, workflows, use cases, acceptance criteria, and solution concepts. The role applies systems thinking to analyze engineering processes, product data, application behavior, integrations, and information flows across PLM and related enterprise systems. The analyst also supports solution configuration, testing, troubleshooting, validation, and continuous improvement in partnership with architects, developers, QA professionals, product owners, and end users.

The ideal candidate combines strong analytical and communication skills with technical curiosity and the ability to bring structure to ambiguous engineering problems without imposing unnecessary process rigidity.

Other information relevant to the job requirement?

Primary Responsibilities:

• Partner with engineers, researchers, and technical stakeholders to understand engineering practices, workflows, information needs, and opportunities for improvement.
• Perform systems analysis of engineering workflows, product data, lifecycle states, system interactions, application behavior, and integrated data flows.
• Lead stakeholder interviews, working sessions prototype reviews, etc. and translate engineering needs into requirements, user stories, workflows, use cases, acceptance criteria, data definitions, and testable system behavior.
• Collaborate with architects, developers, QA, product owners, and users throughout solution design, development, testing, deployment, and continuous improvement.
• Evaluate workflows, data structures, configurations, integrations, and application behaviors to identify practical solution approaches.
• Analyze PLM and related enterprise systems, including integrations and data exchanges with ERP, MES, engineering, modeling, and analysis applications.
• Perform and support configuration, testing, troubleshooting, validation, and defect analysis within enterprise engineering platforms.
• Facilitate stakeholder discussions and use prototypes or working software to validate requirements and refine solutions.
• Recommend improvements that enhance engineering collaboration, traceability, data quality, usability, and decision-making.

Requirements:

• Bachelor s degree in engineering, Computer Science, Information Systems, Business Analytics, Data Science, or related discipline.
• 5+ years supporting PLM platforms
• Experience supporting PLM, product data management, engineering data management, configuration management, technical document management, or product development applications.
• Experience working directly with engineers, researchers, scientists, or technical subject-matter experts.
• Experience analyzing and translating complex engineering needs into functional requirements and testable system behavior.
• Experience with Agile/iterative software development and the SDLC.
• Understanding related enterprise systems such as ERP and MES.
• Experience with configurable enterprise platforms, workflows, data models, integrations, or system interfaces.
• Strong systems-thinking, analytical, communication, facilitation, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to work effectively in ambiguous, evolving engineering environments while avoiding unnecessary process rigidity.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Aras Innovator experience.
• Digital Engineering, Digital Thread, MBSE, systems engineering, or engineering data management experience.
• SAP/ERP integration experience.
• SQL and/or enterprise data analysis experience.
• Familiarity with APIs, REST, XML, JSON, or web services.
• Experience with troubleshooting, root-cause analysis, prototyping, workflow modeling, or data modeling.

Others:

• Clearance: Interim clearance sufficient for start.
• Work Location: Candidate should expect to be onsite 2 days/wk. The team is typically onsite together on Wednesdays.
• Interview Process: There will be an initial screening and then a few zoom rounds with the pertinent decision makers (may be in multiple shorter zoom interviews if scheduling does not allow a few folks to hop on at the same time).