IT Analyst (MES)

*** Manufacturing Execution System IT Analyst (MES)

Basic Job Functions:

Design and continuous improvement of First Solar’s Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES). This encompasses raw material consumption, work in process inventory tracking, PLC/machine based quality assurance testing, packaging, and transition to shipping. Systems may include client/server .NET applications (mostly C# and some VB6/VB.NET), web applications (asp.NET and Java), PLC-based control systems, and database technologies.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Analyze MES system change requests, provide risk assessment, test plan, back up plan and coordinate deployment across all manufacturing plants.

• Ability to work within a customer-focused, global team-oriented environment.

• Collaborate with various resources at global level to drive resolution of issues or completion of small-to-medium sized tasks/projects.

• Proven understanding of the Software Development Lifecycle and Quality Lifecycle.

• Design & develop requested system/application changes/enhancements.

• Execute and/or transition pre-defined projects.

• Work with IT/MES team to manage MES assets during system upgrades.

• Responsible for technical and procedural documentation.

• Perform troubleshooting and problem solving for issues related to application, manufacturing process data & system data.

• Provide support for First Solar applications and Participate in a rotation of on-call support outside of normal office hours as necessary during critical times.

• Responsible for Incident/ Request management & Problem management.

• Responsible for system downtime tracking and prevention.

*** Business Application Systems IT Analyst (BAS)

Basic Job Functions:

Primary function is to support for Business Application Systems (BAS) at First Solar’s Vietnam facility. Global systems currently in place that will be rolled out and support include (but not limited) ERP, HRIS, Maintenance, Collaboration, Planning, Business Intelligence Reporting and other related systems. Responsible to troubleshoot BAS related issues onsite and function as the bridge to shared service resources in Malaysia and USA. Assist in gathering requirements and drive process improvement leveraging BAS systems. Responsible for analysis and evaluation of user business problems and work with global team to development of system recommendations to meet requirements including problem definition, evaluation of requirements, configuration, testing and implementation.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Own business area (Mfg area and/or capability): examples: Finishing, Routing, Scrapping...

• Relationship management with key business stakeholders at Execution-Level.

• Primary contact for large/complex business capabilities: (CMS Programs, new derating, special data collection, complex rules/exceptions...)

• Consulted by Ops for standard business capability needs, (Derating configuration, New Part Setup/Labeling, ETAs..)

• Capture/Document high-level business requirements, achieve alignment of understanding between business stakeholders, architects, development team(s), technical team(s), QA team.

• Define test strategies, test plans, test cases, & test data in collaboration with QA team, SE team, & Business stakeholders.

• Coordinate test execution, & test results data analysis in collaboration with QA team, SE team, & Business stakeholders.

• Change Requests (KSRs): Assess & coordinate execution through delivery of business value, to attain throughput & quality metrics.

• Problem Coordinator for Application Issues: Coach Problem Specialist, & collaborate with: CE & SE Team, Infra Team, Security Team, all functional SMEs, & business partners.

• Replicate complex solutions to remote sites, including travel as needed.

• Work effectively with cross-functional teams to understand technical and economic requirements as well as sharing results and data

• Collaborate with INT team on Derating/Efficiency data

• Data Analyst on Tool Data

• Deliver MES Advance knowledge to ME (Rerun/rework/data flow/ETA ... logic)

• Understand statistical level of module performance data

• Contribute for Cost per Watt Reduction

• Continues Improvement Project to increase productivity of both team.

• Ability in analyzing and statistical data analysis, modeling, and design of experiments with data sets and associated software (eg. JMP, SQL)

• Interfaces with other departments to provide consultation about ways that software can simplify and automate manufacturing processes

• Assist a Project Manager/Program Manager and the rest of the project team in the execution of multiple projects simultaneously in the following capacities:

- Business Requirements elicitation from a technical standpoint

- Write technical specifications, use cases, test scenarios, work instructions

- Designs solutions that are effective, highly rated for user experience, and easy for software developers to build and maintain.

- Provide project updates using various tools (Remedy, SharePoint and email)

- Give frequent status reports on budgets and resource utilization

- Assisting the Quality Assurance (QA) team with test script creation and execution

- Defect and Issue escalation and resolution during the transition period immediately following go-live and during transition/ramp-up of the Operations team for supporting the application.

• Interface Line of business leaders to bring high value MES System change requests forward & peform in-depth analysis/assessment/testing in order to deliver expected results on time.

• Available to support production critical MES system as needed during escalation.

• Interfaces with other departments to provide consultation about ways that software can simplify and automate manufacturing processes.

• Travels to global manufacturing facilities to assist in project rollouts on an as needed basis.

• On some projects, will use global team resources and/or an off-shore development team for doing the software development. When this is the case, must be able to do the following:

- Meet outside normal working hours to clarify requirements

- Manage scope to ensure that the software is delivered on time and on budget

- Assist in the deployment of the software for testing and production release

- Transaction the support of the application from the offshore team that developed it to a First Solar operations team.

• Assist in creating training materials and curriculum for MES applications. May serve as instructor on some classes.

• Serve as Project Manager and/or Agile scrum master as needed.

• Serve to coordinate and/or assist with software deployments as needed.

Experience:

• Minimum 5 years of related work experience.

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology or related field or equivalent years of work experience

Required Skills/Competencies:

• Capable of designing and writing (C#.NET) software using Microsoft Visual Studio

• Ability to demonstrate understanding of the Software Development Lifecycle and Quality Lifecycle required.

• Experience with effectively using troubleshooting mindset to design robust solutions and isolate failures is required.

• Experience developing test plans and test cases/scripts/scenarios required.

• Experience writing queries in MS SQL Server T-SQL required.

• Experience analyzing end-user application GUIs required.

• Experience analyzing back-end systems (APIs, Services, Messaging) required.

• Experience handling multiple issues/tasks/projects of varying size simultaneously required.

• Demonstrated success at collaborating & communicating effectively with project team and business partners is required.

• Experience documenting and understanding business processes and internal controls is required.

• Experience analyzing solutions integrated with controls automation (HMI, Data collection, PLC, integrated hardware/software) is highly desired.

• Experience in a production-critical environment with end-users is highly desired.

• Experience working under an Agile/Scrum methodology is highly desired.

• Experience with HPALM is desired.

• Experience working with automated testing methods is desired.

• Experience programming in MS .NET is a plus.

• Experience administrating and maintaining application platform performance, with Splunk experience a plus

• Experience in front end JavaScript, with AngularJS a plus

• Experience integrating mobile or scanner devices with testing is a plus.

• Experience in multi-tiered architecture using some of the following: C#.Net, SQL, XML, HTML, Microsoft Message Queueing (MSMQ).

• Experience or Familiar with SQL Server Integration Service (SSIS) technology.

• Experience or Familiar with reporting technology.

• Understands Manufacturing processes is a plus

• Adheres to SDLC processes, standards, and compliance measures (SOx, etc.)

• Possess good analytical, troubleshooting, & continuous improvement thinking skill.

• SCRUM Master, ITIL V3 Certification is a plus

• Knowledge about Server environments (both Windows and Infrastructure) is a plus.

• Must demonstrate initiative and commitment to achieve results

• Good Communications skills both oral and written in English.

• Must be team orientated & Must be business-partner oriented (internal)

• Ability to write system specifications (technical & functional) using Microsoft office application suite.

• Able to participate in phone and online conference calls outside of normal office hours with global team.