Windchill PLM Business Process Architect

Our Leidos Defense Sector is seeking a talented and experienced Windchill PLM Business Process Architect to support the continued evolution, expansion, and optimization of our enterprise Product Lifecycle Management (PLM). The candidate would be joining a diverse team to create unique solutions for complex problems. With offices across the United States engaging in the defense, space, cyber and commercial fields. Leidos provides responsive, cost-effective engineering, scientific and IT solutions.

Our organization has established PTC Windchill as a strategic enterprise PLM platform and is focused on expanding its capabilities, refining existing processes, and further developing a scalable framework that can support programs of varying size, complexity, and product-development needs.

The successful candidate will be an experienced Windchill professional who can operate with a high degree of independence while working within the strategic PLM architecture and governance framework established by the Chief PLM Architect. Given a business need and overall architectural direction, this individual should be capable of engaging stakeholders, analyzing current processes, defining requirements, developing future-state solutions, and working with technical teams to carry those solutions through implementation.

This is not primarily a Windchill system administration or software-development position. We are seeking someone who understands how Windchill functions as a full lifecycle product-development and configuration-management platform, with hands-on experience across areas such as Parts and product structures, Documents, CAD data management, Change Management, workflows and lifecycles, and MCAD/ECAD integrations.

The ideal candidate will combine strong existing Windchill knowledge with the judgment, initiative, technical curiosity, and leadership potential needed to grow into broader enterprise PLM architecture responsibilities. This position offers the opportunity to help shape a mature, sustainable, and scalable PLM framework while balancing common enterprise processes, program-specific needs, system maintainability, product-data integrity, and long-term Digital Thread objectives.

Primary Responsibilities

• •Partner with Windchill administrators, developers, integration teams, enterprise architects, and external vendors to ensure functional requirements are translated into effective technical solutions.
• •Serve as a Windchill PLM functional subject matter expert and business process architect supporting the continued development of enterprise PLM capabilities.
• •Operate independently within the overall strategy and architecture established by the Chief PLM Architect, escalating significant architectural decisions, exceptions, or deviations for enterprise review.
• •Support the further development and refinement of a common, scalable PLM framework that promotes standardization, reuse, governance, and maintainability while supporting the varying needs of individual programs.
• •Support development, functional testing, User Acceptance Testing (UAT), deployment, user adoption, and post-implementation process refinement.
• •Lead or facilitate business-process discovery and AS-IS / TO-BE process-development activities with Engineering, Configuration Management, Manufacturing, Quality, Supply Chain, Program Management, and other stakeholders.
• •Translate business and engineering needs into clear functional requirements, process models, solution concepts, user stories, acceptance criteria, and implementation recommendations.
• •Develop and refine business processes using Windchill objects and capabilities including:
• •WTParts and engineering product structures/BOMs
• •WTDocuments and controlled product documentation
• •EPMDocuments and CAD data
• •Product structures and product relationships
• •Change Requests, Change Notices, Change Tasks, Variances, and related Change Management objects
• •Lifecycle states and lifecycle templates
• •Workflows and approval processes
• •Revision and version management
• •Baselines and configuration-control concepts
• •Effectivity and product configuration concepts
• •Types, attributes, classifications, roles, teams, and access controls

• •Develop, evaluate, and improve Engineering Change and Configuration Management processes, including change initiation, impact assessment, technical review, approval, implementation, release, and downstream communication.
• •Support functional architecture for MCAD and eventually ECAD integrations with Windchill, including CAD data management, product structure development, CAD-to-Part relationships, release processes, and engineering collaboration.
• •Evaluate existing business processes and identify opportunities to simplify, standardize, automate, or better leverage native Windchill capabilities.
• •Perform functional fit-gap assessments and recommend whether requirements should be addressed through:
• •Standard Windchill functionality
• •Business-process changes
• •Windchill configuration
• •System integration
• •Custom development

• •Promote an out-of-the-box and configuration-first approach where practical to minimize unnecessary customization and improve long-term system maintainability and upgradeability.
• •Support integrations between Windchill and other enterprise systems, including ERP, MES, manufacturing, reporting/analytics, requirements-management, supplier, and Digital Engineering systems.
• •Support development of an integrated Digital Thread connecting engineering product definition with downstream manufacturing, supply chain, quality, and sustainment processes.
• •Participate in PLM capability planning and prioritization and support the development of short- and long-term enhancement roadmaps.
• •Facilitate workshops, demonstrations, design reviews, requirements reviews, and other working sessions with business and technical stakeholders.
• •Develop and maintain PLM process documentation, functional specifications, process flows, architecture decisions, standards, and implementation guidance.
• •Identify opportunities to establish reusable patterns and common solutions rather than creating unnecessary program-specific configurations.
• •Serve as a trusted PLM advisor to Engineering, Configuration Management, and program stakeholders.
• •Continue developing knowledge and experience in enterprise PLM architecture with increasing responsibility for solution architecture, governance, and strategic capability planning.

Required Qualifications

• •Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Information Systems, Manufacturing, or a related technical discipline with relevant professional experience. Equivalent combinations of education and directly applicable experience may be considered.
• •8+ years of professional experience in PLM, primarily working directly with engineering systems, product development, configuration management, manufacturing systems, and related disciplines.
• •5+ years of hands-on experience administering or providing functional or business process direction with PTC Windchill, including experience using Windchill as a PLM platform (WTParts/Documents & Change Management) . This does not include experience where Windchill was used solely as a CAD only vault (PDM) or basic document file vault location without any workflows.
• •Demonstrated ability to work independently, analyze complex business-process problems, develop practical solutions, and carry assigned initiatives from requirements development through implementation.
• •Demonstrated experience with deep knowledge across multiple Windchill functional areas, including several of the following:
• •WTParts and product structures/BOMs
• •WTDocuments
• •CAD data management
• •Engineering Change Management
• •Workflows and lifecycles
• •Revision/version management
• •Configuration Management
• •Product release processes
• •MCAD or ECAD integrations

Strong understanding of the relationships between WTParts, WTDocuments, EPMDocuments/CA