SCADA Lead

SCADA Lead

Position Type: Full-Time / Direct Hire
Location: New Orleans, Louisiana
Relocation: Relocation required; relocation assistance is available
Sponsorship: Visa sponsorship is not available
Industry: Utilities / Operational Technology

Position Overview

A rapidly growing natural gas utility is seeking an experienced SCADA Lead to serve as the technical authority and platform owner for its enterprise Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition environment.

This position is responsible for the architecture, administration, security, reliability, lifecycle management, disaster recovery, and long-term sustainability of the SCADA platform supporting natural gas transmission, distribution, storage, measurement, and field operations.

The SCADA Lead will establish engineering standards, guide platform modernization, lead technical troubleshooting, and develop a multi-year roadmap for the SCADA environment. This person will also serve as the primary technical liaison between internal business teams, infrastructure and cybersecurity groups, software vendors, and system integrators.

This is a highly visible, hands-on technical leadership position for someone who can balance long-term platform strategy with the daily operational needs of a mission-critical industrial environment.

Key Responsibilities

SCADA Platform Leadership

• Serve as the technical owner and subject matter expert for the enterprise SCADA platform.
• Develop and maintain a multi-year technical roadmap for the SCADA environment.
• Lead platform modernization, upgrades, patching, configuration, and lifecycle-management initiatives.
• Establish SCADA engineering standards, architecture principles, and support procedures.
• Maintain accurate system documentation, configuration records, diagrams, and operating procedures.
• Evaluate emerging SCADA and Operational Technology solutions and recommend practical improvements.
• Ensure the SCADA environment follows utility-industry standards and engineering best practices.

System Reliability and Operational Support

• Ensure the availability, reliability, and performance of the SCADA platform in a 24x7 operational environment.
• Monitor system health, performance, capacity, and infrastructure dependencies.
• Lead technical troubleshooting and root-cause analysis for critical incidents.
• Coordinate system-restoration activities during outages or service interruptions.
• Identify recurring issues and implement permanent corrective actions.
• Establish proactive maintenance procedures and operational-performance metrics.
• Improve platform monitoring, alerting, support documentation, and incident-response processes.

Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity

• Develop and maintain High Availability and Disaster Recovery strategies for the SCADA environment.
• Plan, coordinate, and execute disaster-recovery and failover testing.
• Maintain recovery procedures, system dependencies, technical documentation, and communication plans.
• Identify opportunities to improve platform resiliency, redundancy, and recovery times.
• Support emergency response and business-continuity planning for critical natural gas operations.

SCADA Engineering and Administration

• Administer enterprise SCADA applications, servers, databases, and supporting technologies.
• Manage SCADA tag, point, calculation, alarm, display, and configuration databases.
• Support RTU and PLC communications across field and control-center environments.
• Troubleshoot industrial communications and data-quality issues.
• Develop and maintain SCADA displays, calculations, alarms, and operational dashboards.
• Perform system-performance analysis and tuning.
• Maintain configuration-management and change-control processes.
• Support industrial communication protocols, including:
  • DNP3
  • Modbus
  • OPC UA
  • ICCP
  • MQTT

SCADA Cybersecurity

• Maintain secure and resilient SCADA architecture across Operational Technology environments.
• Support network segmentation, secure remote access, and protected system communications.
• Coordinate vulnerability management, risk assessments, patching, and remediation activities.
• Support identity and access management for SCADA systems.
• Partner with cybersecurity teams on monitoring, incident response, and security improvements.
• Promote alignment with the NIST Cybersecurity Framework and ISA/IEC 62443 principles.
• Ensure security controls are balanced with operational reliability and system-availability requirements.

Infrastructure Coordination

• Partner with enterprise infrastructure teams supporting:
  • Windows Server
  • Linux
  • VMware and virtualization technologies
  • Enterprise storage
  • Backup and recovery
  • Networking
  • Firewalls
  • Load balancing
  • Enterprise monitoring
• Coordinate infrastructure upgrades, maintenance, testing, and capacity planning.
• Evaluate cloud-readiness opportunities while maintaining appropriate OT security and reliability requirements.

Vendor and Partner Management

• Serve as the primary technical liaison with AspenTech and other key SCADA technology vendors.
• Manage technical support cases, escalations, licensing, renewals, and product-roadmap discussions.
• Coordinate vendor professional services and system-integrator activities.
• Review vendor recommendations and ensure proposed solutions align with the long-term SCADA architecture.
• Hold external partners accountable for deliverables, documentation, quality, and knowledge transfer.

Technical Leadership

• Mentor SCADA engineers, administrators, and other technical team members.
• Lead architecture reviews, technical design sessions, and change-management discussions.
• Establish engineering best practices and promote consistent technical standards.
• Improve documentation, cross-training, and knowledge-sharing processes.
• Support strategic planning, budgeting, resource planning, and operational-improvement initiatives.
• Communicate technical risks, priorities, and recommendations to both technical and business leadership.

Required Skills and Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field.
• At least 10 years of experience supporting industrial control systems, Operational Technology, or utility SCADA environments.
• At least five years of experience administering an enterprise SCADA platform.
• Experience supporting mission-critical systems that require high availability and 24x7 reliability.
• Strong experience with SCADA architecture, administration, configuration, monitoring, and troubleshooting.
• Experience developing or supporting High Availability and Disaster Recovery strategies.
• Strong understanding of Windows Server, virtualization, networking, storage, backups, and OT infrastructure.
• Experience supporting RTU and PLC communications.
• Knowledge of industrial communication protocols such as DNP3, Modbus, OPC UA, ICCP, or MQTT.
• Experience leading complex technical incidents and root-cause analysis.
• Ability to develop technical roadmaps, engineering standards, and operating procedures.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to work across engineering, operations, infrastructure, cybersecurity, leadership, and vendor teams.
• Ability and willingness to relocate to the New Orleans, Louisiana area.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting a natural gas transmission or distribution utility.
• Hands-on experience with AspenTech OSI SCADA solutions.
• Experience with SQL Server and relational-database administration.
• PowerShell or Python scripting experience.
• Familiarity with Dynatrace or similar enterprise-monitoring platforms.
• Knowledge of industrial cybersecurity practices and OT network architecture.
• Familiarity with the NIST Cybersecurity Framework and ISA/IEC 62443 standards.
• Experience leading SCADA modernization, migration, or platform-upgrade initiatives.
• Experience managing software vendors, system integrators, licensing, and professional-services engagements.

Success Measures

Success in this position will be measured by the ability to:

• Improve SCADA platform availability, reliability, and operational performance.
• Develop and execute successful High Availability and Disaster Recovery testing.
• Establish consistent SCADA engineering, documentation, and configuration standards.
• Improve system monitoring, incident response, and operational-support processes.
• Reduce recurring incidents through effective root-cause analysis and permanent corrective actions.
• Strengthen the cybersecurity posture of the SCADA environment.
• Improve knowledge sharing and technical capabilities across the SCADA team.
• Develop and execute a practical, multi-year SCADA modernization roadmap.

Why Join?

This is an opportunity to lead the modernization of mission-critical Operational Technology systems for one of the fastest-growing natural gas utilities in the United States.

The SCADA Lead will have the ability to shape the future architecture of the enterprise SCADA platform, establish engineering standards, strengthen reliability and cybersecurity, and influence major technology investments.

The company provides relocation assistance for the selected candidate. Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States without current or future visa sponsorship.