Engineer/Analyst – Data Historian System Administrator

Engineer/Analyst – Data Historian System Administrator

Monitoring & Diagnostics (M&D)

JOB SUMMARY

This position will function as part of the Southern Power Monitoring & Diagnostics (M&D) Center, which provides remote monitoring and diagnostic support to the SPC fleet of gas, solar, wind, and energy storage assets.

The Data Historian System Administrator serves as the SPC Subject Matter Expert (SME) for the operational data historian platforms the M&D and Operations organizations depend on — AVEVA PI (approximately 85%) and AspenTech IP.21 (approximately 15%). The role owns day-to-day administration, health, security, performance, and expansion of these environments, including PI Data Archive and Asset Framework (AF) server management, interface and connector configuration, tag and AF governance, site onboarding, upgrades and migrations, disaster recovery, and end-user support. The role also sets the data quality standards, naming conventions, and governance practices that every downstream dashboard, report, analytic, and AI/ML pipeline is built upon.

In short, this role owns the operational data platform itself — ensuring the historian infrastructure the SPC fleet runs on is available, secure, accurate, and scalable, so every downstream consumer can trust the data they receive.

This position will closely interface with ROC Operators, M&D Analysts, the Operations Data Engineering Analyst, AI/ML Analysts, Performance Engineers, Asset Managers, Renewable Analysts, Commercial Optimization, SPC SCADA teams, Technical Shared Services, the Technology Organization, plant personnel, and historian vendors.

This position will be located at the Southern Power Remote Operations Center in Birmingham, AL and will be filled at a level and job classification commensurate with the qualifications and experience of the successful candidate.

MAJOR JOB RESPONSIBILITIES

Historian System Administration & Infrastructure

• System Ownership & Administration — Serve as the primary administrator and single point of contact for all AVEVA PI and AspenTech IP.21 administrative tasks, including server health, archive management, backup and restore, licensing, security and access control, and user provisioning across the SPC fleet.

• Platform Availability & Performance — Monitor historian server health, archive sizing, buffer and queue status, collective/replication status, and overall system performance. Tune configurations and plan capacity so the platform stays available and responsive as the fleet grows.

• Upgrades, Patching & Migrations — Partner with IT and vendors to plan and execute historian hardware and software upgrades, patching, version migrations, and platform consolidation with minimal operational disruption. Validate data integrity before and after every change.

• Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity — Liaise with the central server team to maintain, document, and periodically test backup, failover, and recovery procedures for all historian environments, including recovery runbooks and restoration time objectives.

• Interface & Connector Management — Liaise with the corporate data acquisition team to configure, maintain, and troubleshoot PI interfaces/connectors and IP.21 data sources, including buffering, failover, and communication with plant control systems and SCADA.

• Cybersecurity & Compliance — Administer historian environments in accordance with Southern Company cybersecurity standards, access management policies, and applicable regulatory requirements. Support audits, vulnerability remediation, patch compliance, and periodic account reviews.

Data Quality, Governance & Configuration

• Data Quality Accountability — Accountable for ensuring a high standard of data quality across all historian and analytics systems. Establish monitoring for stale tags, flatlined signals, bad values, scaling errors, communication failures, and archive gaps, and drive identified issues to resolution.

• Tag & Asset Framework Governance — Own fleet-wide standards for tag naming, point types, compression and exception settings, units of measure, and AF templates and hierarchies. Review and approve changes to preserve structural integrity across all OEMs and asset classes.

• Calculations, Analytics & Notifications — Develop and maintain calculated points, AF analytics, event frames, notifications, tools, and reports that support real-time monitoring, diagnostics, and performance reporting.

• Site Onboarding & Fleet Changes — Lead integration of new generation and storage sites into the historian environments, including interface/connector setup, tag provisioning, AF buildout, initial data validation, and updates to interfacing applications. Manage equipment swaps, repowers, and decommissions.

• Historian Migration Projects — Plan and lead historian migration and consolidation efforts, including tag mapping, historical data backfill, validation, cutover coordination, and stakeholder communication.

• Data Access Enablement — Serve as the first point of contact for data requests including extracts, graphics, and reports. Enable self-service access through PI DataLink, PI Web API, PI AF SDK, PI Integrator, the IP.21 Excel Connector, Python, and SQL, and support delivery of historian data into downstream platforms such as Databricks.

Troubleshooting & Customer Support

• First-Line Issue Resolution — Serve as the first point of contact for site personnel and business users to resolve historian issues, including non-functional data points, Asset Framework questions, display problems, and data access requests.

• Root Cause Troubleshooting — Diagnose and resolve issues spanning plant controls, SCADA, network connectivity, industrial protocols (OPC DA/UA, DNP3, Modbus), historian interfaces, and archive subsystems. Coordinate plant, IT, and vendor resources as needed.

• Display & Visualization Support — Develop and maintain PI Vision and AspenTech displays, graphics, and reports, and coach end users to build and maintain their own.

• Vendor & Stakeholder Management — Manage vendor support cases, escalations, license renewals, and roadmap discussions. Interface with ROC, M&D, Renewable Operations, Commercial Optimization, site personnel, and IT to resolve issues end to end.

Leadership, Collaboration & Continuous Improvement

• Cross-Functional Collaboration — Establish ongoing relationships and communicate effectively with all levels of plant and corporate employees and management. Lead team and customer-support meetings.

• Training & Development — Provide historian training to analysts, engineers, and plant personnel as needed, and take an active role in the development of new employees.

• Documentation & Standards — Maintain thorough documentation of historian architecture, server configurations, interface inventories, tag and AF standards, runbooks, and standard operating procedures.

• Project & Priority Management — Organize and manage multiple concurrent projects, distinguishing issues that need immediate attention from those that allow more time to resolve.

• Business Case Development — Produce business cases to justify financial investment decisions for technology tools, upgrades, and platform expansion.

• Best Practices & Continuous Learning — Stay current on AVEVA PI System releases, historian technologies, industrial data architectures, and relevant industry trends, and incorporate best practices and lessons learned into daily operations.

JOB REQUIREMENTS

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering (Electrical, Computer, Instrumentation and Controls), Computer Science, Data Science, or a related technical field — required.

• Master's degree in Engineering (Electrical, Computer, Instrumentation & Controls), Computer Science, Data Science, or a related technical field — preferred.

Experience

Required

• Historian System Administration: Minimum 5 years of experience using AVEVA PI and Asset Framework (AF) or a similar data historian, including at least 2 years in a system administration capacity.

• Hands-On Administration Depth: Hands-on administration of PI Data Archive and AF servers — archive management, backups, security and access control, licensing, buffering, and interface/connector configuration — preferably in an electric generating facility or other operational environment.

• Data Integration: Experience with data management techniques to access, integrate, and present data from multiple sources (SCADA, Excel, relational databases, etc.).

• Scripting & Automation: Proficiency in Python or an equivalent scripting language for extracting, transforming, and automating data tasks across multiple sources.

• PI Developer Interfaces: Hands-on experience with PI AF SDK, PI Web API, and PI Integrator for Business Analytics.

• Display Development: Experience developing PI Vision and/or AspenTech displays and graphics.

• Industrial Protocols & Networking: Working knowledge of OPC DA/UA, DNP3, Modbus, and similar industrial communication protocols, including troubleshooting network connectivity issues.

• Troubleshooting: Demonstrated ability to troubleshoot communication and system issues associated with plant controls, historian, and communication components.

• Project Management: Experience organizing and managing multiple projects at the same time, with a proven ability to plan and to discern problems needing immediate attention from those that allow more time to resolve.

• Business Applications: Proficiency with Excel, Visio, Word, PowerPoint, and similar applications.

Preferred

• Other Data Historians & Migrations: Experience with non-AVEVA historians such as AspenTech IP.21, dataPARC, or eDNA, and with historian migration or consolidation projects.

• IT Infrastructure: Knowledge of the IT infrastructure components that support historians, including servers, virtualization, storage, networking, and Windows domain and security administration.

• SCADA Configuration: Experience with SCADA configuration (Ignition or similar platforms).

• Data Visualization / BI: Experience with Power BI, Tableau, or similar BI tools for dashboard development and operational reporting.

• Energy Sector: Experience in power generation, renewables, or utilities operations.

• PI Accreditation: AVEVA PI Infrastructure Specialist certification, or an equivalent AVEVA/OSIsoft PI System accreditation.

Plus

• SQL: Proficiency in SQL for querying, integrating, and manipulating data across relational databases and data platforms.

• Cloud & Data Platforms: Familiarity with Databricks, Azure, or equivalent cloud data platforms and how historian data is delivered into them.

• AI/ML Awareness: Understanding of how curated historian data feeds anomaly detection, predictive analytics, and AI/ML pipelines.

• OT Cybersecurity: Familiarity with NERC CIP or similar operational technology cybersecurity and compliance requirements.

BEHAVIORAL ATTRIBUTES

• Must be able to make timely decisions, apply seasoned judgment, and display personal responsibility.

• Demonstrate Southern Company Values: Safety First, Intentional Inclusion, Act with Integrity, and Superior Performance.

• Be a team player — able to quickly build good, productive working relationships across operations, plant, IT, and vendor organizations, and actively promote teamwork.

• Customer-service oriented — responsive to ROC, plant, and analyst needs, with the ability to translate technical detail for non-technical audiences.

• Detail-oriented and proactive — anticipate platform and data quality issues before they impact downstream consumers.

• Results-oriented self-starter that can work independently while contributing to team objectives.

• Able to think strategically and tactically — balancing the long-term platform roadmap against day-to-day operational demands.

• Creatively solve issues, think outside the box, and find innovative ways to meet current and emerging fleet needs.

• Proven interpersonal and communication skills, including with all levels of plant and corporate management.