Ask a seasoned controls engineer to make the case that a string of two-week gigs beats one long commissioning contract, and the argument falls apart about halfway through. The short jobs mean constant repositioning and a new badge every other Monday. The long one means you see a line from bare steel to running production — and you get paid steadily the whole way. Most engineers already know which they’d take. They just don’t see the right long one come up very often.
Here’s one that’s open right now, on Automate America.
The contract at a glance
An automotive manufacturer is standing up a new automated tire assembly line in Oakville, Ontario, and needs two controls engineers to help install and commission it: PLC program, debug, and commissioning support at the end-customer site, on the floor, until the line runs the way it’s supposed to.
It starts June 8 and runs through the end of the year — a genuine long-term contract. It’s a day shift, ten hours a day, six days a week while the build is hot. The rate is $76 an hour, with travel time paid at $52 an hour and expenses covered — per diem, hotel, airfare, and mileage, with one travel trip a month built in. For the engineer who’s done this before, that combination — steady duration, paid travel, covered expenses — is the part that actually matters.
The stack tells you what kind of build this is:
- Allen-Bradley / Rockwell — FactoryTalk and Studio 5000. This is the must-have; it is the backbone of the line’s control system.
- FANUC robots on the R-30iB controller, handling and placement on the line.
- Keyence LJX 3D vision, inspecting and guiding in-line.
If you’ve spent your career in Studio 5000 with FANUC cells and a vision system tying it together, this contract reads like your own résumé.
Automate America is where this kind of work lives
A quick clarification, because plant managers and engineers both get it wrong on first glance: Automate America is a marketplace and an automation service company — not a staffing agency. We’re the place where specialized automation work and the people who do it find each other. Thousands of verified North American professionals are here; companies post contracts, jobs, and RFQs free; and the person hiring decides who they talk to.
That is why a contract like this one fills here when it struggles elsewhere. A generic job board can’t tell the difference between someone who has heard of Studio 5000 and someone who has commissioned a FANUC cell at 2 a.m. with the line down. The professionals on Automate America are specific, and so are the contracts.
Why this line looks the way it does
If you’ve watched automotive lines over the last few years, you know the direction: more vision, more robots, tighter integration between them. FANUC is showcasing AI-enabled robotics and 3D vision at Automate 2026 in Chicago this June — vision-guided arms that adjust on the fly, inspection built into the motion. The Oakville tire line is a working example of that same shift: FANUC arms on an R-30iB controller, Keyence 3D vision reading the parts, and Allen-Bradley controls orchestrating all of it.
What would it actually take for a line like this to come up cleanly the first time? It takes the engineer in the middle of it — the one who can read a Studio 5000 program, talk to a FANUC controller, trust a Keyence scan, and hold the whole sequence in their head while the integrator and the end customer both want answers. That is the role. That is why there are two seats, not one.
The skills — and where to sharpen them
The mandatory skill set is clear: Allen-Bradley / Rockwell with FactoryTalk and Studio 5000, plus your own lockout/tagout kit, laptop, and basic electrical tools. FANUC robot experience (R-30iB) and Keyence LJX vision are the strong advantages that make you the obvious pick. If you want to sharpen a corner of that stack first, the manufacturers run the training that matters: Rockwell Automation Training Services for Studio 5000 and FactoryTalk, and FANUC America Training for robot programming on the R-30iB family.
What you get out of it
Beyond the rate: this is long-term (June through year-end), so you’re not job-hunting in August. Travel time is paid — your hours on the road are billable, not donated. Expenses are covered, so per diem, hotel, flights, and mileage aren’t coming out of your rate. And it is one continuous build — the satisfaction of seeing a line you commissioned actually run.
You probably already know if this is yours
There’s a particular kind of engineer this contract is written for, and if you’re one of them, you felt it three paragraphs ago. The only real question left is whether your profile shows it. So before you apply, make your profile shine — a complete, specific profile is what gets you talked to first. Then click through and apply. A year from now, the version of this line running in Oakville will have been commissioned by someone. It might as well be you.
And if you’re on the other side of this — the one building the line, not working it — post your own contract, job, or RFQ on Automate America. It’s free, and you’ll see qualified profiles within minutes.
Useful links:
- Apply for this contract
- Build your profile / sign in
- Post your own contract, job, or RFQ — free
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Tony Wallace
Automate America
