Senior Automation Engineer

If you're used to bouncing between sites and clients every other week, this is the opposite of that. It's one manufacturing operation, giving you the chance to get to know everything well: the manufacturing processes, the people, and how the control systems can be improved.

You'll spend your time split roughly 50/50 between small to medium automation projects (usually one to five weeks long) and day to day service and troubleshooting work. No two weeks look the same: one month you might be upgrading a PLC, the next installing a vision camera on a line, then adding pages to SCADA, then working through changes to a recipe or process parameter. The company is hungry for new technology, including implementing AI for predictive maintenance issues too, so that’s a new area to get into and there will be plenty of variety.

Why you'll love this

You get real ownership over one site instead of skimming the surface across many. You'll become the go-to person for how the plant works, translating what operators and stakeholders need into clear technical requirements, then implementing the control systems improvements yourself. And there are shares available too.

This is a personable, close-knit team, you’ll have other like-minded Automation Engineers as colleagues, and both your manager and the company's owner are switched-on, technical people who are easy to deal with. They handle the contract and commercial side of things, so your focus stays on the technical control systems side. The team gets together for a meal (and/or a beer) most months, and they like to celebrate when a project is completed.

What you'll do

• Manage a mix of small to medium industrial automation projects and ongoing service and troubleshooting work
• Get hands-on with PLC upgrades, vision camera installs, SCADA development, and process or recipe changes
• Build deep knowledge of the site's manufacturing processes
• Translate what operators and site stakeholders need into clear engineering requirements for the wider engineering team
• Help trial new technology on-site, including AI-driven approaches to predictive maintenance

What you'll need

• 7+ years' automation engineering experience (5+ considered for an outstanding candidate with strong interpersonal skills)
• Solid hands-on experience with Allen-Bradley and Siemens PLCs
• Ignition SCADA experience is a real plus. If you've got other SCADA platforms experience and you're keen to learn Ignition, that works too
• Some exposure to process or manufacturing environments (food, dairy or other liquid processing backgrounds are all relevant)
• Comfortable managing stakeholders and communicating clearly with people who aren't engineers

About the company

This is a well-established, New Zealand-owned operation that's invested in where automation and manufacturing technology are heading. It's not a site where the gear just gets patched up and left alone: there's a real appetite here for new technology, and you'll be part of trialling and implementing it.

You'll be joining a small, personable engineering team with a manager who's around often and easy to work with. It's a level-headed group that gets the job done without losing sight of enjoying the work.

Please Note: This role is open exclusively to New Zealand Citizens, Permanent Residents, and Resident Visa holders.

To Apply

Click the Apply button.

Or contact me for more information.

David Milmine (Director and Senior Engineering Recruiter) at PeopleLogic

W: https://www.peoplelogic.co.nz/

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