From Beer Bar Conversations to Ignition Buildathons: Margarita Rosenkrans on Career, Community, and Curiosity

I didn’t get to be part of this Automation Ladies conversation in real time.

After OT SCADA CON, I came home with a nice case of pneumonia (or at least a convincing impression of it). My voice was in no shape for podcasting, so Courtney and Alicia took the reins. I listened to this one later while editing, raspy voice and tea in hand, and honestly, I found myself wishing I had been there to jump in.

The guest? Margarita Rosenkrans, Sales Engineer at Inductive Automation. You might also know her as “Maggie” if you have met her in person. She has one of those career origin stories that perfectly captures how unpredictable and sometimes serendipitous our industry can be.

The Beer Bar SCADA Origin Story

Picture it: Margarita is working as a beertender, wrapping up her computer science degree in 2020 during the pandemic’s hiring freeze. A customer tells her she has to get into SCADA, compares it to traffic lights, and then leaves her with this mysterious acronym bouncing around in her head.

Fast-forward to her last semester, where her professor (who happens to be a developer at Inductive Automation) mentions the company is hiring. She attends an open house, sees a live Ignition demo from Travis Cox, and that is all it takes. She applies, lands in support, and a few years later moves into sales engineering.

From that one beer bar conversation to a five-year (and counting) career at Inductive. You cannot make this stuff up.

This Isn’t the First Time We Have Heard This Plotline

It reminded me immediately of our previous guest, Emily Merritt, OT SCADA CON’s coordinator, whose own entry into industrial automation began while she was behind the bar. She met Tracy Williams of Trace Automation when he was on-site for a vaccine manufacturing startup during COVID. That conversation ended up changing her entire career trajectory.

Two different bars. Two different timelines. Two women who had no idea “industrial automation” was even a thing until someone in the industry struck up a conversation.

It makes you wonder how many future automation professionals are out there right now, making your drink or serving your food, just waiting for the right spark.

Support vs. Sales Engineering: The Proactive Shift

One thing that stood out to me listening was how Margarita describes the difference between support and sales engineering.

In support, you are reactive and inherit problems after something breaks or stops working. In sales engineering, you are proactive and help design systems so those issues do not happen in the first place.

She also talked about how support made her a better engineer overall: learning to ask better questions, see the situation from the customer’s side, and not jump to conclusions. (She is right. Nine times out of ten, what the customer thinks is wrong is not actually the root cause.)

OT SCADA CON and the Networking Leap

This was Maggie's first time really attending an event solo.

She admitted the first half of the first day was mentally exhausting, but by the end she had found her rhythm, demoing Ignition, asking people how they use it, and gathering feedback she could take back to her team.

She also won points for karaoke bravery, streaming it to her husband via Dan White’s phone. That is not exactly a line item in most job descriptions, but it is a very OT SCADA CON thing to do.

The Inductive Automation Culture

I have been around long enough to know that culture is the make-or-break factor in keeping good people. Margarita described Inductive’s approach as hiring for personality and motivation as much as technical skill, and investing in career growth from day one.

Her own path proves it: she moved from support engineer to manager to sales engineering without decades of experience or the “perfect” leadership resume, just capability, curiosity, and the right environment to grow.

Ignition Everywhere (Even Weddings)

In what might be my favorite part of the episode, Margarita casually mentioned she used Ignition Maker Edition to build her wedding website, complete with dates, location, photos, and even a Spotify playlist integration.

If you ever doubted Ignition’s flexibility, there is your proof.

Why This Episode Works Even if You Are Not an Ignition User

This one is not just for Ignition superfans. It is about:

• How careers can pivot from the most unexpected places

• The difference between fixing problems and preventing them

• Building confidence in networking by actually doing it

• The culture that keeps good people around

• Finding creative ways to use the tools you love

I may have been coughing my way through the edit, but listening to Courtney and Ali with Margarita reminded me why we started Automation Ladies in the first place: the real stories behind the job titles, the shared wins and mistakes, and the unexpected moments like hearing about a wedding website running on an industrial automation platform.