Ask a seasoned controls engineer to make the case that a string of two-week gigs beats one long commissioning contract, and the argument falls apart about halfway through. The short jobs mean constant repositioning, half-finished context, and a new badge every other Monday. The long one means you see a line from bare steel to running production \u2014 and you get paid steadily the whole way. Most engineers already know which they’d take. They just don’t see the right long one come up very often.<\/p>\n
Here’s one that’s open right now, on Automate America.<\/p>\n
An automotive manufacturer is standing up a new automated tire assembly line in Oakville, Ontario<\/strong>, and needs two controls engineers<\/strong> to help install and commission it. The work is exactly what it sounds like: PLC program, debug, and commissioning support at the end-customer site, on the floor, until the line runs the way it’s supposed to.<\/p>\n It starts June 8 and runs through the end of the year<\/strong> \u2014 a genuine long-term contract, not a long-tail of maybes. It’s a day shift, ten hours a day, six days a week<\/strong> while the build is hot. The rate is $76 an hour<\/strong>, with travel time paid at $52 an hour<\/strong> and expenses covered<\/strong> \u2014 per diem, hotel, airfare, and mileage. One travel trip a month is built in. For the engineer who’s done this before, that combination \u2014 steady duration, paid travel, covered expenses \u2014 is the part that actually matters.<\/p>\n The stack is the part that tells you what kind of build this is:<\/p>\n If you’ve spent your career in Studio 5000 with FANUC cells and a vision system tying it together, this contract reads like your own r\u00e9sum\u00e9.<\/p>\n A quick clarification, because plant managers and engineers both get it wrong on first glance: Automate America is a marketplace and an automation service company \u2014 not a staffing agency.<\/strong> We’re the place where specialized automation work and the people who do it find each other. Thousands of verified North American professionals are here; companies post contracts, jobs, and RFQs free; and the person hiring decides who they talk to.<\/p>\n That’s why a contract like this one fills here when it struggles elsewhere. A generic job board can’t tell the difference between someone who’s heard of<\/em> Studio 5000 and someone who’s commissioned a FANUC cell at 2 a.m. with the line down. The professionals on Automate America are specific, and so are the contracts.<\/p>\n If you’ve watched automotive lines over the last few years, you already know the direction: more vision, more robots, tighter integration between them. FANUC is showcasing AI-enabled robotics and 3D vision at Automate 2026 in Chicago this June<\/strong> \u2014 vision-guided arms that adjust on the fly, inspection built into the motion. The Oakville tire line is a working example of that same shift: FANUC arms on an R-30iB controller, Keyence 3D vision reading the parts, and Allen-Bradley controls orchestrating all of it.<\/p>\n What would it actually take for a line like this to come up cleanly the first time? Honestly, it takes the engineer in the middle of it \u2014 the one who can read a Studio 5000 program, talk to a FANUC controller, trust a Keyence scan, and hold the whole sequence in their head while the integrator and the end customer both want answers. That’s the role. That’s why there are two seats, not one.<\/p>\n The mandatory skill set is clear: Allen-Bradley \/ Rockwell with FactoryTalk and Studio 5000<\/strong>, plus your own lockout\/tagout kit, laptop, and basic electrical tools. FANUC robot experience (R-30iB) and Keyence LJX vision are the strong “good to have” that make you the obvious pick.<\/p>\n If you’re close but want to sharpen a corner of that stack before you apply, the manufacturers run the training that matters:<\/p>\n Either one moves you from “I’ve touched it” to “I can commission it” \u2014 which is the line that gets you hired.<\/p>\n Beyond the rate, the things engineers tell us they actually weigh: this is long-term<\/strong> (June through year-end), so you’re not job-hunting in August. Travel time is paid<\/strong> \u2014 your hours on the road are billable, not donated. Expenses are covered<\/strong>, so the per diem, the hotel, the flights, and the mileage aren’t coming out of your rate. And it’s one continuous build<\/strong>, which means the satisfaction of seeing a line you commissioned actually run \u2014 not a fragment you handed off.<\/p>\n There’s a particular kind of engineer this contract is written for, and if you’re one of them, you felt it three paragraphs ago. You’ve stood in front of a half-wired cell with a laptop balanced on a rail. You know the difference between a program that compiles and a line that runs. The only real question left is whether your profile shows it.<\/p>\n So before you apply, make your profile shine \u2014 a complete, specific profile is what gets you talked to first. Then click through and apply. A year from now, the version of this line that’s running in Oakville will have been commissioned by someone. It might as well be you.<\/p>\n And if you’re on the other side of this \u2014 the one building the line, not working it \u2014 post your own contract, job, or RFQ on Automate America. It’s free, and you’ll see qualified profiles within minutes.<\/p>\n Useful links:<\/strong><\/p>\n Follow Automate America<\/strong><\/p>\n Tony Wallace<\/em><\/p>\n Automate America<\/em><\/p>\n\n
Automate America is where this kind of work lives<\/h2>\n
Why this line looks the way it does<\/h2>\n
The skills \u2014 and where to sharpen them<\/h2>\n
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What you get out of it<\/h2>\n
You probably already know if this is yours<\/h2>\n
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