A Winter at Ford's Louisville Plant, With $212 a Day on Top

One FANUC robot programmer is wanted at Ford's Louisville Assembly Plant in Kentucky from Monday, October 19, 2026 through February 28, 2027. The work is point touch-up on material handling robots, vision touch-ups as they come up, and troubleshooting to Ford's GVOS standard. It pays $52 an hour base, $72 an hour overtime and $32 an hour travel time, and on top of all of it comes a $212 per diem every day, with no receipts required. Day shift, an estimated 10 to 12 hours a day, 6 days a week.

The per diem, said plainly

A per diem is a daily allowance paid on top of your hourly pay, meant for the costs of working away from home: a place to stay, meals and the rest. On this contract it is $212 for every day, and the posting marks it receipts not required, so there is nothing to collect and nothing to submit. It comes on top of the hourly pay and the overtime a six-day week of 10 to 12 hour days brings, for every day of the contract.

What the work looks like on the floor

An assembly plant's robots are set up once and then live with change: fixtures wear, grippers are rebuilt, parts arrive from new suppliers, and points that were right in the spring are a few millimetres off by the fall. Point touch-up is the work of bringing them back without disturbing anything else. On a vision-guided cell there is a second layer, because the robot is only as good as what the camera tells it, so lighting, calibration and the vision process itself need touching up too. This contract asks for both, on a line where the robots move material all day.

FANUC, R-30iB, Handling Tool and iRVision

The robots are FANUC, marked mandatory, on R-30iB controllers running Handling Tool, FANUC's material handling software, with iRVision for the vision-guided picks. If you have touched up points on R-30iB robots in a running plant, worked iRVision processes back into shape and kept a handling cell picking clean through a shift, this is your kind of work.

Ford GVOS, and why it is on the posting

Ford sets its own standards for how robots and their controls are built and how faults are handled, so that equipment behaves the same way from one plant to the next. The posting asks for Ford GVOS knowledge for troubleshooting. A programmer who already knows how Ford's equipment is laid out and how its faults present gets to the cause faster, and on a plant that runs six days a week that speed is the job.

The schedule and the money

Day shift, an estimated 10 to 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, from October 19 through February 28. The base rate is $52 an hour, overtime is $72 an hour and travel time is $32 an hour, all in US dollars, plus the $212 daily per diem. This is a White Glove contract, so Automate America pays you, on Net 15 terms. Bring standard PPE (safety shoes, glasses and ear protection) and a safety vest, expect lockout/tagout to be part of every day, and have a current certificate of insurance with $1,000,000 in general liability and US work authorization before you start.

Louisville for a winter

Louisville sits on the Ohio River in north-central Kentucky, and building vehicles has been part of the city's working life for generations. For anyone building skills toward work like this, Jefferson Community and Technical College in Louisville runs manufacturing and industrial programs, and the Kentucky Education and Labor Cabinet covers workplace safety in the state.

If you run a service company

If you have a FANUC programmer finishing a job this month, you can apply them to this contract exactly as an independent professional would. They stay on your payroll and on your terms, the per diem comes with the work, and their winter stays billable into the spring.

For companies with robots of their own

Nineteen weeks of robot support did not need a new hire; it needed a posting. 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 sets the rate, and nobody bids it down: the rate on the contract is the rate, so you choose the professional who fits the work.

Professionals apply with their profiles, ratings and reviews from finished work, and service companies put their available people forward beside independent professionals. Once it 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 robot work coming up, post it free on the marketplace.

What a strong application shows

Name the FANUC robots and controllers you have touched up, the iRVision processes you have brought back into shape, and any time you have worked to Ford's GVOS standard. If a vision-guided pick once fought you for a whole shift, say what it turned out to be. Keep your profile current: ratings, reviews and completed contracts are what a customer reads first.

The contract, in one place

FANUC Robot Programmer, one needed, White Glove hourly contract. Ford Louisville Assembly Plant, Louisville, Kentucky. Point touch-up on material handling robots, vision touch-ups and Ford GVOS troubleshooting. FANUC (mandatory) on R-30iB with Handling Tool and iRVision; Ford GVOS knowledge required. October 19, 2026 through February 28, 2027. Day shift, an estimated 10 to 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. $52/hr base, $72/hr overtime, $32/hr travel time, plus a $212 daily per diem with no receipts, in US dollars, Net 15.

View the full contract and apply · Browse every open hourly contract · Search and request professionals · Find and follow customers · Join free

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