Automation Engineer - Advanced Manufacturing

About the role

You will partner with cross‑functional teams across operations, product engineering, maintenance, quality, procurement, IT, OT, EHS, and business leadership to deliver advanced manufacturing automation solutions across the global supply chain. The role collaborates closely with manufacturing sites, technical specialists, external automation suppliers, and system integrators to identify, design, simulate, deploy, and optimize automation solutions that improve safety, quality, delivery, productivity, and cost performance. As part of the Automation & Advanced Manufacturing organization, you will support the development and deployment of automation solutions for machining, fabrication, assembly, material handling, and related processes across multiple sites and business units, converting manufacturing needs into safe, repeatable, production‑ready concepts.

Responsibilities

• Support automation projects from concept through production launch.
• Evaluate manufacturing processes and identify practical automation opportunities.
• Develop automation concepts, layouts, simulations, cycle‑time estimates, and technical specifications.
• Perform robot reach, payload, interference, and process simulations to reduce project risk.
• Support capital estimates, ROI business cases, equipment scopes, and project documentation.
• Participate in vendor selection, RFQs, design reviews, FAT, SAT, commissioning, and startup.
• Work with controls, manufacturing, quality, maintenance, EHS, suppliers, and integrators to resolve technical issues.
• Troubleshoot and optimize existing robotic and automated manufacturing systems.
• Document lessons learned and help replicate successful automation solutions across sites.
• Support Automation & Advanced Manufacturing standards, roadmap, and preferred technology strategy.
• Evaluate emerging technologies including robotics, vision, simulation, digital twins, and AI‑enabled manufacturing.
• Provide hands‑on technical support and knowledge sharing for site engineering teams.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical, Mechanical, Manufacturing, Mechatronics, Automation/Controls, Robotics Engineering, or a related discipline.
• 3+ years of industrial automation, manufacturing engineering, robotics, controls, or advanced manufacturing experience.
• Hands‑on experience applying industrial robots and automation equipment in a production environment.
• Ability to design automation concepts, cell layouts, tooling approaches, and equipment interfaces.
• Experience with robot or manufacturing simulation, offline programming, or digital manufacturing tools.
• Strong understanding of machine safety, controls, integration, manufacturing processes, and production readiness.
• Effective project execution, problem‑solving, documentation, and cross‑functional collaboration skills.
• Ability to travel as required to support enterprise manufacturing sites.

Preferred Qualifications

• Automation or robotics experience in a high‑volume manufacturing environment.
• Experience with industrial robots (FANUC preferred; ABB, KUKA, or Yaskawa/Motoman also valuable).
• Robot simulation and offline programming tools such as FANUC ROBOGUIDE, Process Simulate, Visual Components, or equivalent.
• 3D CAD, equipment layouts, reach studies, cycle‑time analysis, and design‑for‑automation.
• Machine vision, inspection, and robotic guidance systems.
• Automated material handling, end‑of‑arm tooling, fixtures, and sensor integration.
• PLCs, HMIs, industrial networking, MES, SCADA, OEE, or manufacturing data systems.
• FAT, SAT, commissioning, production launch, and structured root‑cause problem solving.
• Lean or Six Sigma certification.

Pay

The salary range for this role is $68,900 – $98,200, subject to factors such as training, transferable skills, work experience, education, business needs, market demands, and work location.

Benefits

• Health, welfare, and retirement plans.
• Potential annual bonus, if eligible.

About Wabtec

Wabtec is a leading global provider of equipment, systems, digital solutions, and value‑added services for the freight and transit rail sectors. With more than 150 years of experience, the company drives safety, efficiency, reliability, innovation, and productivity across freight, transit, ports, logistics, mining, industrial, and marine markets. Wabtec’s global workforce of about 30,000 employees delivers performance that moves the world forward, fostering a culture of inclusion, leadership, and continuous learning.