The Robots Already Run. Now They Need a Steady Hand

One FANUC robot programmer is wanted in Livonia, Michigan, from Monday, October 19 through December 31, 2026. The robots are material handling robots that already run; the job is to keep them running right: touch them up, work with the PLC, and troubleshoot I/O, all set up and programmed to GM standards. It pays $56 an hour base and $72 an hour overtime, in US dollars, on a day shift of an estimated 10 to 12 hours a day, 5 days a week.

What touch-up work really is

A material handling robot is only as good as its taught points, and taught points drift. A fixture gets bumped, a gripper finger is replaced, a conveyor is shimmed, a part supplier changes a tolerance, and a pick that was clean last month starts landing a few millimetres off. Nothing is broken in the way a downed line is broken, but the cell starts to stall, mispick or fault in ways that cost a plant hours across a week.

Touch-up is the craft of putting those points back where they belong without breaking anything else: knowing which positions are referenced from which frames, which moves a change will ripple into, and how to prove the fix with the robot running parts rather than in a single dry cycle. It is quiet, precise work, and the people who are good at it are worth a great deal to the plants that have them.

The PLC and the I/O are half the job

A handling robot never works alone. It waits on a part-present signal, tells the conveyor it is clear, hands the PLC a cycle complete and listens for a fault reset. When a cell stops, the answer is as often in that conversation as in the robot's program, which is why this contract puts PLC work and I/O troubleshooting next to the touch-up. Expect to chase a signal from the robot's I/O through the cell's wiring and into the PLC logic, find where it went missing, and leave the cell behaving the way the operators need it to.

FANUC, R-30iB and Handling Tool

The robots are FANUC, marked mandatory on the posting, on R-30iB controllers running Handling Tool, FANUC's application software for material handling. If you have taught and touched up FANUC robots on R-30iB, worked through the I/O screens to find a stuck signal, and kept a handling cell running at rate on a production floor, this is your kind of work.

Why GM standards are on the posting

Automakers write down how their robots must be set up and programmed, so that a robot in one plant is built and behaves like a robot in the next: the same structure, the same naming, the same way of handling faults and talking to the line. The posting asks for someone who knows how to set up and program a FANUC robot to GM standards. A programmer who already knows them starts on the first day instead of the second week, because nothing about the program's shape is a surprise.

The schedule and the rate

It runs from Monday, October 19 through December 31, on a day shift of an estimated 10 to 12 hours a day, 5 days a week, so a good share of those hours land on overtime. The base rate is $56 an hour and overtime is $72 an hour, both in US dollars. This is a White Glove contract, so Automate America pays you, on Net 15 terms. You will need US work authorization and a current certificate of insurance with $1,000,000 in general liability before you start.

On site, bring standard PPE (safety shoes, safety glasses and ear protection) and a safety vest, and expect lockout/tagout to be part of every day. If you want a refresher on the rules behind it, OSHA's page on the control of hazardous energy is the place to start, and in Michigan the state program is MIOSHA.

Livonia, in the middle of it all

Livonia sits in western Wayne County between Detroit and Ann Arbor, with I-96 and I-275 running through it, and it is surrounded by the plants, suppliers, integrators and machine builder that keep the region's automotive industry moving. For a programmer living anywhere in southeast Michigan, ten weeks of day-shift work here is a drive, not a move. And for anyone building the skills this kind of contract asks for, Schoolcraft College, right in Livonia, is a good place to look for manufacturing and automation courses.

If you run a service company

If you have a FANUC programmer coming off a job before October 19, you can apply them to this contract exactly the way an independent professional applies. They stay on your payroll and on your terms, they bring your shop's support with them, and ten weeks of their calendar stays billable through the end of the year.

For companies with robot work of their own

This customer did not need an integrator to rebuild a cell. Their robots already run; they needed one programmer for ten weeks to keep them right, so that is exactly what they posted. Any plant, integrator or machine builder can do the same. On Automate America it is free to post, free to apply and free to hire, the customer names the work and the rate, and nobody bids that rate down: the rate on the contract is the rate, so the choice is about who fits the work best.

Professionals apply with their profiles, ratings and reviews from work they have finished, and service companies can put their own available people forward beside independent professionals. Once the work is posted, carrying it to the right people is our part: we write it up and send it out by email, video, articles like this one and every social channel we run. Choose White Glove and Automate America is the one approved supplier you set up, paying the professionals and sending you one invoice. If you have robots that need a programmer, post the work free on the marketplace.

What a strong application shows

Be specific. Say which FANUC robots you have touched up and on which controllers, whether you have worked to GM's robot standards and on which kinds of cells, and how you have traced an I/O fault between a robot and a PLC. If a handling cell ever came down to one stubborn mispick, say what caused it and how you found it. Keep your profile current too: ratings, reviews and completed contracts are the first things a customer reads. For industry news between contracts, Automation World is worth a regular look.

The contract, in one place

FANUC Robot Programmer, one needed, White Glove hourly contract. Livonia, Michigan. Touch up the material handling robots, work with the PLC and troubleshoot I/O, set up and programmed to GM standards. FANUC (mandatory) on R-30iB with Handling Tool. Monday, October 19 through December 31, 2026. Day shift, an estimated 10 to 12 hours a day, 5 days a week. $56/hr base, $72/hr overtime, in US dollars, Net 15.

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Tony Wallace, Co-Founder · Automate America · Text first 586-770-8083 · TonyW@AutomateAmerica.com