Drive about thirty miles north of Detroit, into Oakland County, and you arrive at one of the most consequential pieces of American manufacturing real estate that the casual driver would never notice. GM Lake Orion Assembly — four-point-three million square feet of vehicle production capacity, surrounded by the Oakland County tree cover that hides most of the heavy industry in southeast Michigan from anyone who isn’t actively looking for it. Lapeer Road runs past the front, the rail spur runs along the back, and inside the building, the line that has produced GM vehicles for decades is in the middle of being made ready for its next chapter.
The plant is in the middle of a production reset. The product profile inside Lake Orion is shifting toward the next phase, and the controls work that makes the line ready for that shift is happening right now, on the plant floor, in real time. Not in design review. Not in simulation. On the conveyors and the material-handling cells where the bodies move through final assembly.
A new contract on Automate America has just opened inside exactly that window.
The contract
One PLC programmer, on site at GM Lake Orion. Field commissioning of conveyors, lifts, and material-handling equipment for automotive final assembly. The systems are already programmed and tested — this contract is the work of taking the code live on the plant floor.
The stack is specific and non-negotiable:
- Allen-Bradley / Rockwell Automation, Studio 5000. This is the design environment for Rockwell’s ControlLogix family, and it is the everyday workspace for almost every PLC programmer working in automotive in the Detroit corridor. If your fingers know the routines, the structured-text patterns, the AOIs, and the trend-tag conventions of Studio 5000, this contract is shaped around your day-to-day.
- Siemens HMI. The operator-interface layer in this plant runs on Siemens panels. Tag-display configuration, alarm management, screen navigation, and the on-floor diagnostics that an operator actually sees during a startup run.
- GCCS-2 — GM’s Global Common Controls Software standard. This is the controls template that GM applies across its plants worldwide. Programmers who have already worked inside GCCS-2 know the structure: the prescribed routine architecture, the standard tag-naming conventions, the integration patterns for safety circuits, lock-out / tag-out, station handoffs, and line-side configuration. Engineers who have worked inside a GM facility before move faster on day one because they know what the standard expects.
The contract runs May 26, 2026 through June 12, 2026 — roughly three weeks of plant-floor work, possibly longer. Day shift. Ten hours a day, six days a week. $56 per hour.
Standard PPE applies: safety shoes, safety glasses, hearing protection, bump cap, hi-vis vest, full lock-out / tag-out compliance.
The full scope, the application path, and the message channel to the customer all live on the contract page on Automate America: https://automateamerica.com/app/automation_work/index/3607.
Who Automate America is
This is the part that tends to get misread when someone sees the platform for the first time, and it is worth stating directly: Automate America is a marketplace, and an automation service company. We are not a staffing agency.
The mechanic of the platform is simple. A customer posts a contract free. Qualified professionals see it, apply directly, and the customer sees the profiles — full work history, the specific GM / Tesla / Ford / integrator experience, references, peer ratings, the stack they actually work on. The customer picks who they talk to. There is no rate overlay added in the middle by us. There is no recruiter trying to convince either side to take something that doesn’t fit.
Thousands of verified automation professionals are on the platform — controls engineers, PLC and HMI programmers, robotics specialists, integrators, machine builders, and the experienced field-commissioning crews who specialize in the close-the-loop work this Lake Orion contract calls for. The customers posting work are plant managers, project engineers, automation directors, and the tier-one integrators running commissioning windows like this one inside GM plants and the broader Michigan automotive corridor.
Why this stack lives in this part of the country
Michigan is the place where Allen-Bradley plus Siemens HMI plus GCCS-2 is not an unusual combination — it is the combination. GM standardized on this template specifically so contractors can move from one GM plant to another without relearning the stack. A programmer who has commissioned a body-shop conveyor at Lansing Grand River can walk into Lake Orion and immediately recognize the routine architecture, the tag layout, the safety-circuit wiring, and the operator-screen conventions.
That standardization is the difference between a controls contractor being productive on day one versus day five. On a seventeen-day commissioning window, day one matters. Day five would already be late.
The work itself — commissioning of conveyors and material handling on automotive final assembly — is a particular kind of plant-floor work. It is the line that moves the body through the build, the lifts that transfer the body from one fixture to the next, and the carrier systems that thread the work through the cells. When the line is being brought ready for a new production phase, every one of these systems needs to be re-validated against the new program, the new sequence, and the new throughput target. The programming is done by the time this contract starts. The commissioning is what makes the program meet the metal.
Skills and training
For programmers who are mostly there but want to harden a corner of the stack before the window opens, two training programs are worth bookmarking:
- Macomb Community College, Global Common Controls Software (GCCS-2) Certification Course. Macomb runs the formal training that walks engineers through the standard’s structure, the RSLogix / Studio 5000 programming patterns it prescribes, the DeviceNet configuration conventions, and the Siemens HMI development workflow that pairs with it. The program is taught in the heart of the Detroit automotive corridor — Warren, Michigan — and is the recognized path for engineers who want a credential GM and tier-one integrators recognize. wce.macomb.edu → GCCS-2
- Rockwell Automation, Studio 5000 Logix Designer Level 1: ControlLogix Fundamentals and Troubleshooting. Rockwell publishes its own training catalog and runs sessions year-round, both in person and remotely. Studio 5000 Level 1 is the foundation course for anyone whose day-to-day is in ControlLogix — the configuration, the routine structure, the tag system, the online editing workflow, the trace and trend setup, and the diagnostic techniques that make a field engineer fast on a live plant floor. rockwellautomation.com → Training Services
These are not gate-keeping requirements for the Lake Orion contract. They are reference points for the programmers who want to walk in deeper than the customer was expecting.
The discipline of commissioning already-programmed code
The work this contract calls for — commissioning systems that are already programmed and tested — is its own discipline.
It is not design work. Someone has already done that. The routines exist, the screens exist, the safety logic exists, and on paper the line should run.
It is not pure troubleshooting either. The code is supposed to work. The HMIs are supposed to show what they show. The conveyor segments are supposed to hand off cleanly.
It is the close-the-loop work. Confirming the program meets the physical line as built. Validating the integration between the controller, the drives, the safety circuits, the operator panels, and the line-side hardware that runs in front of all of them. Clearing the punch list that always exists between the line is built and the line is making parts. Catching the one place where a tag got renamed and the HMI didn’t pick it up. Walking through the start-up sequence on the actual hardware and watching what the controller does when it sees the real I/O instead of the simulated I/O.
Contractors who specialize in this work are a specific category. They know controls. They know plant-floor pace. They know how to leave the line running cleanly when their window closes — which is what this contract ultimately asks for.
If that is your discipline, this is the kind of contract you watch the platform for.
Apply, or post your own
If you’re a controls programmer reading this and the contract fits your week:
Apply on Automate America →
If you’re a plant manager, project engineer, integrator, or automation director with commissioning, controls, integration, or build-out work coming up:
Post your own contract free →
Posting takes a few minutes. You see qualified applicants within minutes of posting. You decide who you talk to.
And if you ever need a hand with the platform, the contract structure, or anything else — we’re a message away. Reach out anytime: info@automateamerica.com.
Thanks for being part of what we’re building here. The Lake Orion window opens May 26. If this is your stack, your standard, and your geography — the door is open.
— Tony Wallace
Founder, Automate America
