Controls Engineer Needed in Warren, Michigan: Allen Bradley and Siemens Production Support
Warren, Michigan manufacturers are searching for a Controls Engineer with dual-platform expertise in Allen Bradley and Siemens PLC systems. This long-term production support contract starts November 3rd and runs through year-end with strong potential for extension into 2026. Apply to this contract and secure your next assignment before the end of October.
This position represents something many engineers overlook in their career planning. Production support contracts offer stability that greenfield projects cannot match. Furthermore, the dual-platform requirement means you will maintain proficiency across both major automation ecosystems simultaneously. Additionally, the seven-day schedule creates consistent overtime opportunities that significantly increase total compensation beyond the base rate.
Contract Details: What You Need to Know
The contract specifications tell an important story about what manufacturers actually need. This Warren facility operates automated assembly systems that require constant attention from someone who understands both Allen Bradley and Siemens architectures. The scope centers on cycle time improvements, nuisance fault reduction, and overall plant support rather than new equipment integration or major system overhauls.
Location: Warren, Michigan (#WarrenMI #Michigan)
Start Date: November 3, 2025
Duration: Through December 31, 2025, with extension potential
Schedule: Seven days per week, eight-hour shifts, every other weekend off, flexible shift assignments (first, second, or third shift as needed)
Compensation: $48.00 per hour straight time, $62.40 per hour overtime, $76.80 per hour Sunday and holiday double-time
Work Arrangement: Onsite at automated assembly facility
Contract rates vary significantly across the automation industry. Long-term production support assignments typically command different compensation structures than short-term integration projects or emergency troubleshooting calls. Several factors determine what customers are willing to pay: contract duration, scope of responsibilities, required expertise level, and hours per week. This particular contract reflects its long-term nature and focused scope. However, the seven-day schedule means overtime kicks in regularly, and the real earning potential becomes clear when you calculate weekly totals with consistent OT hours at $62.40 and Sunday premium rates at $76.80.
Technical Requirements: Dual-Platform Mastery
The mandatory skills reflect what most automotive-adjacent manufacturers need today. Allen Bradley remains dominant in American manufacturing, while Siemens continues gaining ground in precision assembly applications. Engineers who master both platforms position themselves for consistent contract opportunities.
Allen Bradley Platform Skills:
- FactoryTalk View HMI development and troubleshooting
- RSLogix 5000 programming and modification
- Studio 5000 Logix Designer implementation
- ControlLogix processor architecture understanding
Siemens Platform Skills:
- S7 PLC programming and diagnostics
- TIA Portal development environment proficiency
- Siemens HMI configuration and modification
The dual-platform requirement distinguishes this contract from single-vendor positions. Most engineers specialize in one ecosystem, which limits their market value. Consequently, professionals who maintain active skills in both Allen Bradley and Siemens command premium rates and enjoy more contract options. This assignment allows you to exercise both skill sets simultaneously rather than letting one atrophy between projects.
Why Automate America Fills These Positions Instantly
Our network of 40,000 automation professionals includes thousands of controls engineers with dual-platform experience. Manufacturing facilities post contracts on Automate America because we connect them with qualified talent immediately. Independent contractors and automation service companies both benefit from our marketplace approach.
Service companies use Automate America strategically. When their teams are fully deployed on long-term projects, they contract additional engineers through our platform to handle overflow opportunities. Conversely, when service company benches have availability, they apply their engineers to our posted contracts. This creates a dynamic marketplace that keeps talented professionals working consistently.
The platform operates without negotiation or bidding wars. Customers post contracts at the rates they are willing to pay, professionals apply, and either the customer or Automate America selects the best engineer for the assignment. This eliminates the race-to-the-bottom mentality that plagues other platforms. Therefore, professionals earn what their skills deserve rather than competing solely on price.
Warren’s Automotive Manufacturing Heritage
Warren sits at the heart of Michigan’s automotive supply chain. The city hosts numerous tier-one suppliers, precision machining facilities, and automated assembly operations that serve major automakers. Understanding Warren’s manufacturing landscape helps engineers appreciate the technical environment they will work in.
Automated assembly systems in this region typically combine multiple technologies. Vision systems verify component placement. Coordinate measuring machines check dimensional accuracy. Robotic cells handle repetitive assembly tasks. Throughout these processes, Allen Bradley and Siemens PLCs coordinate motion, monitor quality parameters, and communicate with plant-level systems.
Production support in these facilities differs from project-based integration work. You are not designing new systems or programming fresh code from specification documents. Instead, you optimize existing processes, eliminate recurring faults that slow production, and make incremental improvements that compound over time. This type of work requires different skills than greenfield development. You must read other programmers’ logic, understand their intentions, and improve their solutions without breaking existing functionality.
Cycle time improvement exemplifies this difference. Shaving two seconds from a thirty-second assembly cycle requires understanding the entire process. Which operations could overlap? Where do sensors delay the next step unnecessarily? What safety interlocks could be restructured without compromising protection? These questions demand both programming skill and manufacturing knowledge.
Nuisance faults present another common challenge. A proximity sensor occasionally reports false readings. A servo drive intermittently throws a following error. A barcode scanner misreads certain label formats. Each fault stops production briefly, but their cumulative impact wastes hours every week. Identifying root causes and implementing permanent solutions requires patience, diagnostic discipline, and comprehensive system knowledge.
Professional Development: Training Resources in Michigan
Michigan offers extensive training resources for automation professionals. Whether you are expanding your skills or helping team members develop dual-platform proficiency, quality educational programs exist throughout the state.
Macomb Community College in Warren provides comprehensive industrial automation training. Their programs cover PLCs, robotics, HMI development, and industrial networking. The college maintains partnerships with local manufacturers, ensuring curriculum stays current with industry needs. Many Detroit-area automation professionals began their careers in Macomb’s labs and classrooms.
Michigan Technical Education Center (MTEC) offers specialized training in advanced manufacturing technologies. Their programs include hands-on Allen Bradley and Siemens PLC training, with instructors who bring decades of manufacturing floor experience. MTEC’s apprenticeship programs help companies develop talent while providing structured career pathways for trades professionals.
Continuous learning separates average engineers from exceptional ones. The automation industry evolves rapidly. New hardware platforms emerge. Software tools gain capabilities. Communication protocols change. Engineers who invest in ongoing education maintain their competitive advantage and command higher contract rates.
The Strategic Advantage of Contract-to-Hire
Contract-to-hire arrangements benefit everyone involved. Professionals demonstrate their capabilities in real working conditions rather than through interviews and references alone. Companies evaluate technical skills, cultural fit, and work ethic before making permanent hiring commitments. This audition period reduces risk for both parties.
Automate America does not charge placement fees when contract relationships evolve into direct employment. Many platforms extract significant fees from either the professional or the customer when conversions occur. We believe talented engineers deserve their full compensation, and manufacturers should not pay penalties for recognizing quality talent.
The audition works both ways. Engineers evaluate company culture, management competence, and whether they actually want to work somewhere permanently. Many professionals discover that certain manufacturers talk a better game than they deliver. Contract assignments let you test the waters before committing your career to a particular employer.
For service companies, contract-to-hire creates additional value. Your engineers gain exposure to potential direct-hire opportunities while you earn revenue from their contracted time. If a manufacturing customer offers permanent employment to one of your contract engineers, you have demonstrated your company’s talent quality. Additionally, that relationship often leads to more business as the customer trusts your judgment on future staffing needs.
Manufacturing companies benefit from reduced hiring risk. Permanent employees represent significant commitments. Salaries, benefits, unemployment insurance, training costs, and separation expenses all add up. Bringing someone on contract first allows you to verify they possess the skills they claim and that they fit your operational needs. Consequently, your conversion to permanent employment starts from a position of confidence rather than hope.
HR managers particularly appreciate this approach. Traditional hiring processes waste substantial time and money on candidates who look perfect on paper but struggle in actual working conditions. Contract auditions eliminate most bad hires before they become permanent problems. Furthermore, contract professionals typically reach full productivity faster than new permanent hires because they are accustomed to learning new systems quickly.
The Philosophy of Independent Contracting
Working as an independent contractor or through automation service companies offers freedoms that permanent employment cannot match. You control which projects you accept, where you work, and how you structure your career progression. Moreover, you build expertise across multiple industries rather than deepening knowledge in a single facility’s specific systems.
Consider two engineers with ten years of experience. One spent that decade at a single automotive plant, becoming the undisputed expert on that facility’s particular Allen Bradley and Siemens implementations. The other spent ten years contracting across automotive, food processing, pharmaceutical, packaging, and material handling industries. Both engineers have valuable experience, but their career options differ dramatically.
The single-plant engineer knows one system intimately. However, their knowledge transfers imperfectly to different applications. They understand their plant’s quirks, workarounds, and historical decisions, but they have limited exposure to alternative approaches. When that plant closes or downsizes, their specialized knowledge loses much of its value.
The contracting engineer has seen dozens of different implementations. They understand which approaches work reliably across varied applications and which solutions only succeed in specific contexts. Additionally, they have learned to adapt quickly to unfamiliar systems, read documentation efficiently, and identify problems rapidly. Most importantly, they have built a reputation across multiple companies and industries rather than betting everything on a single employer.
Manufacturing companies increasingly recognize the value of flexible staffing. Permanent headcount creates fixed costs that become problematic during market downturns. Contract professionals allow manufacturers to scale technical resources up or down based on actual needs. During busy periods, they bring in additional talent. When production slows, they reduce contractor hours without layoffs, unemployment claims, or damaged morale among permanent staff.
The traditional model of hiring direct employees for every role made sense in an era of stable production volumes and predictable markets. Today’s manufacturing environment demands flexibility. Customer orders fluctuate. Product mix changes. Technology evolves rapidly. Equipment needs modification frequently. Therefore, maintaining permanent engineering staff sized for peak demand wastes resources, while sizing for average demand leaves you understaffed during busy periods. Contract professionals solve this dilemma elegantly.
For independent contractors, the production support assignment in Warren represents exactly the type of work that builds sustainable careers. You are not chasing emergency calls at 2 AM or working hundred-hour weeks during integration crunch periods. Instead, you are applying your skills systematically to improve manufacturing operations. The long-term nature provides income stability while the dual-platform requirement keeps your skills sharp across both major ecosystems.
Service companies benefit from these long-term support contracts as well. When your team is fully deployed, contracting professionals from Automate America lets you accept additional work without turning down opportunities. When you have bench availability, applying your engineers to contracts posted on our platform keeps them productive and billable. This flexibility transforms how automation service businesses operate, reducing the feast-or-famine cycles that plague traditional models.
Take the Next Step in Your Automation Career
This Warren production support contract offers stability, technical challenge, and income consistency. The dual-platform requirement ensures you maintain proficiency in both dominant automation ecosystems. The long-term nature provides predictable scheduling and the opportunity to see your improvements deliver measurable results.
Apply to this contract before November 3rd to position yourself for this assignment. If you represent an automation service company with qualified engineers available, this contract represents an excellent opportunity to keep your team productively deployed while building relationships with Michigan manufacturers.
Manufacturing leaders and HR managers should register on Automate America to access our network of 40,000 automation professionals. Post your automation contract and discover how quickly qualified talent responds when you offer fair compensation and clear project scope.
I appreciate you taking time to read this analysis of the Warren controls engineering opportunity. My goal with these posts extends beyond simply advertising open contracts. I want to provide actionable information that helps automation professionals make better career decisions and helps manufacturing leaders understand how modern technical staffing actually works. Whether you are an independent contractor evaluating your next move, a service company owner managing your talent pipeline, or a plant manager trying to solve staffing challenges, I hope this perspective adds value to your thinking.
Tony Wallace
Co-Founder, Automate America
586-770-8083
info@automateamerica.com
