Job descriptions for automation and robotics companies: define the skill, not just the task

Most job descriptions in controls firms read alike. 'PLC and HMI programming. Testing and commissioning. Good communication. Three to five years' experience.' Such a text could describe a panel tester, a robot programmer or a SCADA engineer. It tells a candidate nothing about the work and gives an interviewer nothing to test. The firm then hires on gut feel and finds the gap at the first factory test.

A better description defines the skill: what the person must be able to deliver alone, on which platforms, under what conditions. That one change sharpens the advert, the interview panel's questions and the probation review at once.

Automation roles overlap. A controls engineer may wire-check, program, commission and support. A robot programmer may also design grippers. Listing tasks does not say which of these the person owns, how complex the work is or how much happens at a customer's plant. Years of experience do not help either. Five years of copying the same conveyor logic differs sharply from two years of building cells from a blank functional description.

• Purpose: one sentence on the seat's reason to exist, such as 'turns a mechanical design and sequence description into a tested robot cell program'.
• Deliverables: three to six outputs the holder answers for, each observable.
• Platforms: the controller, robot, vision or SCADA families used, marked must-have or trainable.
• Conditions: expected desk and site split, typical posting length, on-call duty and travel.
• Decision rights: what they may change on a live plant, sign off or accept from a customer without asking.
• Proof of skill: how the firm will test it at interview and during probation.
• Reporting and support: their manager, whose eyes check their logic and which juniors they coach.

The same word, engineer, covers very different work across this hub. A single line of real skill per seat already does more than a page of duties.

• Panel wireman: wires a drive panel from a schematic and terminal plan, ferrules and labels every core, and leaves no loose strands in the trunking.
• Panel tester: runs continuity, insulation and functional checks against the drawing and traces a planted fault without help.
• Robot programmer: teaches paths and approach points, sets payload and tool frames, and writes recovery routines after a gripper drop.
• Vision application engineer: chooses lens, backlight or dome light for a glossy part and holds false rejects down across a shift's lighting changes.
• SCADA configuration engineer: builds the tag database from the I/O schedule, sets alarm priorities and historian logging rates, and proves them on a simulator.
• Service engineer: diagnoses a stopped line over remote access, decides whether a visit is needed, and closes the call with a written cause.

1. 1

   Begin with outputs

   Ask the technical head what a good person in this seat produces in a typical job, from FAT logic to signed site acceptance. Write those as deliverables, not as duties.

2. 2

   Name platforms honestly

   List the controller and robot families you use. Mark one or two as must-have and the rest as trainable, so you do not shut out a strong engineer from another platform.

3. 3

   State the site share

   Write the expected weeks on site per quarter as a range, plus on-call duty. Candidates who dislike travel then filter themselves out before interview.

4. 4

   Write decision rights

   For example, 'may push online changes to a live line only with the site lead's nod, and uploads them before leaving the plant'. This one line prevents many site incidents.

5. 5

   Link each deliverable to a test

   A wiring fault-finding exercise for testers, a sequence on a simulator for programmers, a lighting choice for vision engineers, a tag-mapping task for SCADA roles.

6. 6

   Review after each hire

   Ask the new joiner and their lead after probation what the description got wrong, and correct it before the next advert.

• 'Hands-on PLC knowledge' becomes 'writes and tests sequences for indexing tables and transfer lines from a functional description'.
• 'Robot programming experience' becomes 'teaches spot-weld or palletising paths and sets tool frames without supervision'.
• 'Good with vision systems' becomes 'selects optics and illumination for glossy or transparent parts and documents the reasoning'.
• 'SCADA exposure' becomes 'builds historian tags, alarm classes and trend screens from an I/O schedule'.
• 'Willing to travel' becomes 'spends roughly a stated range of weeks per quarter at customer plants, usually in stretches of a few weeks'.

Purpose: turns a cell layout and sequence description into a tested, documented robot program ready for site.
Deliverable 1: robot and cell PLC programs that meet cycle time at factory test.
Deliverable 2: safe-zone, interlock and fault-recovery logic checked with the safety lead.
Deliverable 3: program backup, comments and handover note stored on the server at FAT and SAT.
Deliverable 4: customer operator training on starting, stopping and clearing faults.
Platforms: one named robot family must-have; a second family and offline simulation trainable.
Conditions: site postings of a few weeks at a time, a set number per quarter as a range; on-call rota shared.
Decision rights: may change teach points at site; logic changes need the lead's review.
Proof of skill: simulator exercise at interview; first cell reviewed by the lead in probation.
Reports to: controls lead; guides one trainee once cleared.

Panel builders get most from precise descriptions of wiring and testing levels, as our page on how panel shops grade wiring and testing roles show. SCADA firms need decision rights and support duties written down, because one engineer often ends up holding each plant; the guidance on SCADA seats covers that. Machine builders separate fitters, designers and trial engineers, and the machine builders' role guide set out how.

The technical head or project lead drafts deliverables, platforms and decision rights, because only they know the work. HR shapes the format, checks it reads clearly and links it to pay levels. Review each description after a hire, yearly at minimum, and again whenever a role changes, for example when commissioning is split from design. GullyHR's job design service runs this with your leads, and what makes a job description hold people accountable explains the wider idea. The trade's other people patterns sit in our sector overview for integrators and machine builders.