Industrial Automation Engineer

Position Title: Automation Engineer

Location: Dayton, TN - Relocation assistance provided

Job Type: Full-Time, Direct Hire

Compensation: $90,000-$120,000/Year (10% target annual bonus, with potential earnings up to 20%)

Job Overview:

Insight Global is seeking an Automation Engineer for one of their clients in the Chattanooga area within the manufacturing industry. This onsite role will support a highly automated manufacturing facility in the Dayton area, providing hands-on automation and controls support to improve equipment reliability, safety, quality, throughput, and overall performance. Day to day, the Automation Engineer will troubleshoot, repair, program, and optimize PLCs, HMIs, drives, robotics, sensors, actuators, safety circuits, and industrial control networks. They will analyze equipment downtime and recurring failures, perform root cause analysis, and implement corrective actions to minimize production disruptions and improve equipment effectiveness. The engineer will work closely with Maintenance, Production, Quality, Engineering, Safety, and IT/OT teams to resolve complex equipment issues and drive continuous improvement initiatives. They will also support capital projects and equipment upgrades through installation, commissioning, validation, documentation, training, and turnover to plant teams. This individual will maintain controls documentation, system backups, change management practices, and automation standards while supporting preventive and predictive maintenance strategies. The ideal candidate will bring experience from automotive or another highly automated manufacturing environment and be comfortable supporting urgent automation issues, planned shutdowns, overtime, and occasional weekend work. 

Must Haves

• 5+ years of automation/controls experience in a highly automated manufacturing environment
• Rockwell/Allen-Bradley or Siemens PLC programming experience
• Experience with HMIs, drives/VFDs, robotics, sensors, and automated equipment
• Strong electrical/controls troubleshooting and root cause analysis skills
• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering/Mechatronics or equivalent technical experience
• Able to work onsite in the Dayton, TN area and support occasional overtime, weekends, or shutdowns

Plusses

• Automotive or similar high-speed manufacturing experience
• TIA Portal, WinCC, or similar HMI/controls platforms
• FANUC or KUKA robotics experience
• Capital equipment installation, commissioning, and startup experience
• Preventive/predictive maintenance and continuous improvement experience