Most engineers in this industry aren’t ready to hear how quickly the floor is changing — and the ones who are have already noticed that the new automated lines look nothing like the ones they cut their teeth on. If that is you, this one will make sense.
There is a kind of controls engineer who can read a stack — Allen-Bradley (Rockwell) PLCs and HMIs, Fanuc robots, Keyence 3D vision — and immediately start sequencing the commissioning in their head. They rarely get told they are the reason a launch hit its date. We notice anyway. Right now there are two contracts open that were practically written for that person: one in Kansas City, Missouri, and one in Louisville, Kentucky. Two different cities, two separate builds, the same leading-edge stack. Both start June 1, 2026. Both pay $76.00 an hour, with travel and expenses covered.
The Two Contracts at a Glance
These are two independent postings. What they share is the work and the standard — not a single program.
Kansas City, MO — Controls Engineer
- Scope: help install and commission a new automated tire assembly line
- Stack: Allen-Bradley (Rockwell) PLCs and HMIs, Fanuc robots, Keyence 3D vision systems
- Application: automotive manufacturing systems
- Window: starts June 1, 2026, through end of the year
- Rate: $76.00/hr, travel and expenses paid
Louisville, KY — Controls Engineer
- Scope: help install and commission a new automated tire assembly line
- Stack: Allen-Bradley (Rockwell) PLCs and HMIs, Fanuc robots, Keyence 3D vision systems
- Application: automotive manufacturing systems
- Window: starts June 1, 2026, through end of August (possibly longer)
- Rate: $76.00/hr, travel and expenses paid
One is an open-ended, run-the-year build. The other is a defined summer sprint with room to extend. Pick the shape that fits your calendar.
Why This Stack Is the Story
The reason to pay attention is not the geography — it is the machine. The exact combination of technologies on these two lines is the same combination defining the front edge of automation this year.
Walk the floor at Automate 2026 in Chicago, June 22–26, and FANUC America is showcasing physical AI, AI-enabled robotics, 3D vision-guided systems, and real-time adaptive robot motion, debuting its next-generation R-2000/E series. In May, FANUC announced a collaboration with Google to accelerate physical AI in robotics. On the inspection side, Keyence rolled out a wave of 3D machine-vision tools this spring — the VK-X4000 3D optical profiling microscope, the LJ Developer 3D vision software suite, and the LJ-X8000 2D/3D laser profiler — and Tier-1 automotive suppliers using self-calibrating vision are reporting 60–80% reductions in vision setup time during changeovers. Rockwell brought its tire-industry automation roadmap to the International Tire Exhibition & Conference in Akron this May, where Allen-Bradley control and FactoryTalk analytics anchor the modern line.
In other words: an engineer who commissions one of these tire lines this summer is putting hands on the same machine-vision-plus-robotics stack the rest of the industry will be crowding around a trade-show booth to see.
What the Work Actually Involves
Installing and commissioning a new automated tire assembly line is not maintenance work, and it is not babysitting an existing cell. It is the part of the job a lot of engineers got into this field for: bringing a line from bare steel to running product.
That means standing up Allen-Bradley PLC and HMI architecture, integrating Fanuc robots into the assembly sequence, dialing in Keyence 3D vision so the system sees parts correctly at production speed, and proving the whole thing out under real cycle times. It is a tight loop of control logic, robot interplay, and vision feedback — exactly where a strong controls engineer earns the rate.
What Would Make This an Easy Yes?
It is worth asking yourself the honest version of the question: what would a contract need to have before you would take it without a second thought? For most engineers, the answer is some combination of a rate that respects the skill, a stack worth adding to the résumé, and an employer that does not make you eat travel costs. Both of these contracts clear that bar — $76.00/hr, a genuinely current toolset, and travel and expenses covered. Once those are settled, the only real decision left is which city.
Skills That Map to These Contracts
If you are sharpening the exact skill set these lines call for, two vendor programs are worth bookmarking:
- Rockwell Automation Workforce Development / Studio 5000 training — Logix Designer and ControlLogix fundamentals through advanced project development: Rockwell Automation training
- FANUC Academy robot training — operator, programming, and integration courses straight from FANUC America: FANUC Academy
Pair those with hands-on Keyence 3D vision experience and you are describing the profile these two postings are looking for.
The Part That Is Easy to Undervalue
Travel time and covered expenses are not a footnote — they are a real piece of the compensation. A contract that pays $76.00 an hour and also pays for getting you there and keeping you there is a different deal than a number on its own. And a defined scope — install, commission, hand over a line that runs — is a feature, not a limitation. You know what you are walking into and what done looks like.
Why the Work Is Here in the First Place
You are the kind of engineer who sees a hiring problem and recognizes it is usually a scope-and-speed problem instead. Specialized commissioning work used to crawl through recruiter pipelines and supplier lists. Automate America exists because the people who do this work are already in one place. We are a marketplace and an automation service company — not a staffing agency — and thousands of verified automation professionals are already on the platform. That is the entire reason two specialized contracts can open in two different cities at the same time and still get filled fast. Customers who post specialized work see qualified applicants within minutes of posting.
A Summer From Now
A summer from now, one of these is the line a controls engineer points to — the build they took from install to running, the one that proves what they can do with a current stack. The technology on these tire lines is where the whole industry is headed; the only question is whether you are standing next to it when it starts up.
If you run automation, you already know whether one of these is yours. You probably knew it the moment you read the stack. Two cities are open today — pick the one that is yours and apply. And if you are on the other side of the table, with specialized work and no one to run it, you can post your own opportunity on Automate America for free.
Apply / Post
- Apply — Controls Engineer, Kansas City, MO: Apply on Automate America →
- Apply — Controls Engineer, Louisville, KY: Apply on Automate America →
- Post your own opportunity (free): Post a contract free →
- Browse all hourly contracts: Hourly contracts
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Founder, Automate America