A new automated production line in Sterling Heights, Michigan needs one PLC programmer for startup and commissioning. The work is on site from Monday, November 16, 2026, through November 30: two weeks, with 8-hour days planned. Pay is $80 an hour base and $120 an hour overtime, in US dollars. The contract is open for applications now.
What the two weeks are for
The posting asks for four things: commission the equipment, troubleshoot PLC, HMI and communications faults, support validation and launch, and document the changes you make. The equipment list is long for two weeks: preform cold roll, gear cutting, chamfer, heat treat, washers, presses, robotics, balancers and conveyors. A line like that is many machines from different builders brought together, so a good share of commissioning is at the handoffs between them, where one machine's ready signal has to mean what the next machine thinks it means.
Two platforms on one line
The posting names both: Siemens TIA Portal with S7-1200 and S7-1500, and Omron Sysmac Studio with NJ and NX. Plenty of programmers live in one of those and have visited the other. If that is you, say so plainly in your application and say which one you would lean on. Name the controllers you have brought up, the size of the systems, and what you did when a program that worked at the builder's shop did not work on the floor.
What commissioning asks of a programmer
Commissioning is mostly finding out what is true. Before the logic can be blamed, the I/O has to be proved: the sensor that reads the wrong way round, the valve wired to the neighboring output, the drive parameter that came from another machine. Then the sequences get walked at low speed, and then the faults get provoked on purpose, because a line that runs well but recovers badly will stop being a success on the first bad night after you leave.
HMI and network diagnostics are named on the posting for a reason. On a new line, a screen that shows the wrong state or a device that drops off the network can look exactly like a logic fault. A programmer who can read the network first saves everyone hours. So does one who writes down what changed and why, because the people running this line after November 30 will only have what you left them, which is why documenting changes is on the list of duties.
What you bring
This contract asks you to arrive equipped: your own laptop, licensed Siemens TIA Portal, licensed Omron Sysmac Studio or CX-One, communication cables and adapters, troubleshooting tools, and basic hand and electrical tools. Check your software versions and your licenses before you apply, not on the first morning. US work authorization is required.
Pay, dates and paperwork
The base rate is $80 an hour and overtime is $120, in US dollars. The work runs Monday, November 16, 2026, through November 30. Timesheets are signed by the customer representative before you submit them, and expense reports are signed the same way, with receipts.
How to apply
Applying starts on the contract page, and you apply with your profile. The application asks two short interview questions: one about a problem you found and solved without being asked, and one about the most recent PLC, software or automation skill you taught yourself. Answer them the way you would brief the next shift, with the machine, the fault and what you did. Bring your profile up to date first; it goes in with your application.
For service companies with a commissioning engineer
If you employ a controls engineer who is free in the second half of November, you can put them forward for this contract; the application is the same one an independent professional fills in. It is one position and two weeks, the kind of short job that keeps a good engineer billable between larger projects.
Posting startup work of your own
The customer behind this contract had a line to bring up and a short window to do it in, and wrote that need up as a posting with its own rate. Plants, integrators and machine builder with startup work ahead can do the same. Automate America is a marketplace where it is free to post, free to apply and free to hire. The customer writes the posting, sets the rate and decides who to hire, and each application arrives with the professional's profile, including ratings and reviews from contracts already finished.
This article is one of the ways a posting reaches people: the same contract also goes out by email, in a short video and across the social channels we run. If you have commissioning, controls or maintenance work coming, post it on the marketplace at your own rate.
The contract, in brief
PLC Programmer, startup and commissioning. One needed, on site in Sterling Heights, Michigan. Siemens (TIA Portal, S7-1200/S7-1500) and Omron (Sysmac Studio, NJ/NX), electrical controls troubleshooting, HMI and network diagnostics. Monday, November 16, 2026, through November 30, two weeks, 8-hour days planned. Your own laptop, licensed software, cables and tools. US work authorization required. $80/hr base, $120/hr overtime, in US dollars. Two interview questions on the application.
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