Lead Consultant Smart Manufacturing (Auto / Discrete / Gigafactory)

Role: Lead Consultant – Smart Manufacturing (Auto / Discrete / Gigafactory)

Location: PAN India

We are seeking a Lead Consultant – Smart Manufacturing with strong experience in Automotive, Discrete Manufacturing, or Gigafactory environments to lead transformation consulting across MES, production excellence, quality, IT/OT convergence, and AI enablement. This role demands a strong sell–deliver–scale mindset, combining consulting, solutioning, program leadership, and executive advisory for account mining, pipeline contribution, and roadmap-based expansion planning.

Key Responsibilities and expectations (must have)

Domain Consulting

• Opportunity shaping: Lead plant/leadership workshops, frame problems, define value hypotheses, and translate operational pain points into digital transformation initiatives as part of I4.0 and smart manufacturing advisory.
• Solutioning & proposals: Own solutioning and proposals including storyboarding, architecture, scope, estimation, delivery approach, assumptions/risks, and contributions to commercials/SOWs.
• Translate operational challenges into smart manufacturing roadmaps spanning pilot → scale → standardize → sustain cycle
• Commercial awareness: SOW structuring, milestones, governance, acceptance criteria (inputs to pricing with internal support).
• Executive advisory: Build PoVs/demos where needed and present pragmatic recommendations to CXO / Plant leadership aligned to business goals.

1. Program & Delivery Leadership

• Lead multi-workstream delivery across plants/lines; manage vendors and cross-functional teams (Ops/Quality/Engineering/IT/OT/Data).
• Workshop facilitation, stakeholder mapping, structured problem-solving, and value-case creation.
• Drive MES /MOM solution design and rollout (requirements → design → implementation)
• Implement digital production and quality initiatives—inline/at-line inspections, SPC, nonconformance management, CAPA integration, digital quality gates, and quality analytics for FPY/COPQ improvement.
• Define IT/OT integration architectures across MES–ERP–PLM/EAM–QMS–Historian–SCADA/PLC–IIoT, considering cybersecurity, edge deployment, and plant connectivity constraints

1. AI Enablement (GenAI / Agentic AI) – Expectations

• Build and lead AI use case portfolio and prioritization (value vs feasibility) across production, quality, maintenance, and logistics.
• Deliver GenAI copilots with guardrails
• Design human-in-the-loop Agentic AI patterns for orchestration, automation, auditability, and safe execution
• Partner with Data/ML teams for data readiness, MLOps/LLMOps, model monitoring, and controlled rollout.

Required Experience & Qualifications

• 10–14 years experience in Auto / Discrete / Gigafactory smart manufacturing transformations with consulting delivery leadership.
• Bachelors/masters in engineering/manufacturing/industrial/computer science or equivalent.
• MBA or an equivalent qualification from a top tier/reputed institute.
• Industry certification on smart plant maturity assessment from SIRI, or equivalent is mandatory.
• Proven leadership across manufacturing value chain (program ownership, not just advisory).

Preferred / Nice to Have

• Exposure to ISA‑95, edge/IIoT, event-driven integration, and manufacturing data modeling.
• Gigafactory exposure (cell/pack, formation, EOL testing, high genealogy/traceability) covering high-speed assembly, robotics and vision systems.
• Lean/Six Sigma, SAFe/Scrum, value stream mapping, and plant performance management systems.

Work Model:

Hybrid with site travel during key phases (workshops/go-live/hypercare); travel typically 10–40%.