InflexionPoint
Overview
At InflexionPoint I served as Principal Automation Engineer / Project Manager on an enterprise, multi-site, multi-state automation and data-delivery program for South Jersey Industries BioGas. The work spanned repeatable standards, architecture, documentation, testing, and commissioning — not a one-off PLC job.
The role combined technical leadership and project management across PLC, SCADA, Ignition, and instrumentation, including mentoring engineers and aligning customer leadership with delivery teams.
Challenge
Multi-site automation programs fail when every location invents its own standards, naming, interfaces, and commissioning habits. The South Jersey Industries BioGas program needed a repeatable foundation so sites could scale without relearning the same lessons in the field.
That meant aligning organizations and systems — design standards, interface documents, SOWs, PLC/SCADA requirements, Ignition architecture, naming and data conventions, FAT/SFAT packages, commissioning docs, and SOPs — so delivery stayed consistent across sites and states.
Approach
I led both the technical spine and the project cadence:
- Defined and drove design standards, interface control documents, and statements of work
- Set PLC/SCADA requirements and Ignition architecture patterns, including naming and data conventions
- Built structured FAT/SFAT verification from requirements, with issues tracked, fixed, and retested
- Produced commissioning documentation and SOPs that could travel across sites
- Mentored engineers and kept customer leadership, PMs, and technical teams aligned on scope, schedule, and quality
FAT/SFAT was treated as structured verification against requirements — find issues early, close them, retest — rather than a last-minute field scramble.
Results
The measurable win was commissioning efficiency. The durable win was organizational: the same standards and test discipline could be reused instead of rebuilt for each site.
Takeaway
Enterprise automation is systems and organizational alignment first — standards, architecture, documentation, and verification — not primarily PLC programming. Those practices transfer to regulated plant delivery that demands the same rigor around requirements, FAT/SFAT, commissioning, and controlled change.