Résumé

Martin Kockx, PE

Smart manufacturing · AI enablement · industrial data strategy — GMP life sciences.

Belmont, MA · kockx.martin.pub@pm.me · linkedin.com/in/martinkockx

Summary

Engineer and technology leader focused on the next generation of pharmaceutical manufacturing: AI enablement, industrial DataOps, smart manufacturing, and advanced analytics. I help manufacturing organizations turn fragmented systems and data into trustworthy, AI-ready foundations — defining the architecture, governance, and roadmaps that let data, intent, and analytics flow across the product lifecycle. Thirteen-plus years spanning digital transformation, manufacturing systems, and process automation give me the floor-level grounding to make higher-level strategy real in regulated environments.

Experience

Principal Manufacturing Systems Engineer

Sep 2024 – Present
Vertex Pharmaceuticals — Boston, MA
Own the full lifecycle of manufacturing systems and partner with manufacturing and technology leadership on smart-manufacturing strategy and roadmap. Led the search, evaluation, selection, and the deployment, implementation, and validation of a new SCADA system for the Cell & Gene Therapy (CGT) department. Drive manufacturing ontology and the knowledge/semantics layer, plus industrial DataOps investigations, to advance AI readiness, data enablement, and the next phase of the digitization journey — working closely with manufacturing, engineering, and quality leaders toward commercial readiness, with involvement in batch disposition. Ensure GxP, data-integrity, and system-lifecycle compliance (21 CFR Part 11, EU Annex 11, GAMP 5).

Digital Plant Program Manager

2023 – 2024
MilliporeSigma — Burlington, MA
Built and led a new global Digital Plant Program spanning 62 manufacturing facilities. Defined sector target architecture and digital strategy — MES, historian, batch, and analytics direction — and drove critical solution decisions across the program portfolio with accountability for fiscal, quality, and timeline outcomes. Established the digital roadmap connecting plant-floor systems to enterprise data and analytics.

Staff Automation Engineer

2021 – 2023
Thermo Fisher Scientific — Cambridge, MA
First operating-company role — embedded daily with manufacturing, quality, and validation, shifting from one-off technology deployment to full-lifecycle ownership of systems. Closed equipment integration gaps facility-wide (remote access, maintainability, and Active Directory onboarding to reduce password sprawl). Streamlined automation support with apps to request, track, and self-resolve issues against a known-issues knowledge base, plus an internal issue/resolution tracker for faster reuse of prior fixes. Led development and go-live of a facility-wide alarm management system — all alarms in a single pane of glass with escalation-based notifications — and a centralized batch reporting engine producing consistent reports across any vendor or system. Ran the vendor evaluation, scoring, and selection for an electronic batch record (eBR) system through to a recommended plan.

Senior Project Engineer

2020 – 2021
Constellation Brands — Napa, CA
Process and automation engineering for large-scale production operations.

Senior Controls Engineer

2019 – 2020
BW Design Group — Vacaville, CA
Lead controls engineer for life-science clients; project manager on large single-use-equipment CAPEX programs across the US.

Senior / Principal Automation Engineer

2015 – 2019
NNE (NNE Pharmaplan) — SF Bay Area, CA
West-coast Engineer of Record on greenfield biologics, single-use, and continuous-manufacturing programs; designed and implemented PI Historian from lab to production at a commercial biotech facility.

Field / Project Engineer

2011 – 2015
Panduit — Folsom, CA (Singapore & Hong Kong posts)
Delivered data-center monitoring and control solutions, with global assignments across Asia.

Selected projects

  • Smart manufacturing roadmap & AI/data enablement (Vertex). Leading the strategy and architecture to make manufacturing data AI-ready — data enablement, governance, and a prioritized portfolio of AI use cases across the manufacturing systems estate.
  • Global Digital Plant Program — 62 sites (MilliporeSigma). Stood up a worldwide digital plant program: sector target architecture, digital strategy, and portfolio governance connecting plant systems to enterprise data and analytics.
  • Facility-wide alarm management & centralized batch reporting (Thermo Fisher). Consolidated all facility alarms into a single pane of glass with escalation notifications, and built a reporting engine producing consistent batch reports across any vendor or system.
  • Greenfield biologics PCS/BMS. Design and commissioning of a full SCADA suite, process formulation and clean-utility systems, GMP HVAC, and equipment interfaces — SDS/HDS authoring, PLC programming, FAT/SAT.
  • GMP OSIsoft PI design & implementation. Historian solution and network architecture across manufacturing lab → pilot plant → production at a major biotech facility.

Education & licensure

  • B.S., Mechanical Engineering — California State University, Sacramento (2010)
  • Artificial Intelligence: Implications for Business Strategy — MIT Sloan Executive Education (Apr 2026) · Credential ID 180521792
  • Licensed Professional Engineer (PE) — California, CS7550

Affiliations & certifications

  • BioPhorum · ISPE · IAAE · Pistoia Alliance
  • ISA · NSPE · Tau Beta Pi

Core competencies

AI & Advanced Analytics

  • AI use-case readiness & governance
  • Advanced & predictive analytics
  • ML-enabled manufacturing
  • AI accountability (Attributable–Observable–Correctable)

Industrial DataOps & Data Enablement

  • AI-ready manufacturing data
  • Data architecture & semantic models
  • Manufacturing intent & context preservation
  • Data integrity (ALCOA+)

Smart Manufacturing & Digital Architecture

  • Target architecture, strategy & roadmap
  • MES · electronic batch records · historians (OSIsoft PI)
  • Review by exception · release by exception
  • ISA-88 / ISA-95

GMP, Regulatory & Compliance

  • 21 CFR Part 11 · EU Annex 11 · GAMP 5
  • Computer System Validation · IQ / OQ / PQ
  • CAPA · deviation · change control

Automation & Controls (foundation)

  • SCADA/HMI · PLC/DCS configuration
  • Batch execution (S88) · system integration
  • CAPEX/OPEX delivery, RFP through CSV
Working draft — current-role and Thermo Fisher detail still being expanded. Phone number intentionally omitted from the public page; include it in the downloadable PDF.