Senior Automation Engineer – Machine Design & Electrical Hardware
Location: Jeffersonville, Indiana
Compensation: Up to $130,000 base salary + 5% annual bonus
Relocation Assistance: Available
Industry: Medical Device Manufacturing
Employment: Full-Time
The Opportunity
We're recruiting a Senior Automation Engineer for a growing medical device manufacturing operation in Jeffersonville, Indiana. This position offers an opportunity for an experienced automation engineer to help design, develop, and implement custom automated assembly and inspection equipment while contributing to the site's long-term automation strategy. The company has an established engineering team with strengths in mechanical design, PLC programming, and machine vision. They're looking to add an experienced engineer who brings complementary expertise in electrical hardware design, industrial control systems, machine safety, and equipment integration.
The ideal candidate has hands-on experience developing custom automation equipment and understands how mechanical, electrical, and control systems come together to create reliable manufacturing solutions. You don't need to be an expert PLC programmer or spend your days creating detailed mechanical drawings. You do need to understand how automated machinery is designed, built, integrated, and brought into production.
What You'll Be Doing
- Design and develop electrical hardware systems for custom automated assembly and inspection equipment, including control panels, power distribution, relay circuits, and safety systems.
- Develop and review electrical schematics, wiring diagrams, and control panel layouts.
- Select and integrate electrical and automation components, including sensors, actuators, motors, drives, safety devices, and industrial controls.
- Design and implement machine safety systems, including emergency stops, interlocks, safety relays, and other protective measures.
- Collaborate with mechanical designers and controls engineers to develop complete automation solutions from initial concept through equipment installation and startup.
- Support the integration of robotic and collaborative robotic systems, machine vision, and automated inspection technologies.
- Provide technical guidance and mentoring to less-experienced mechanical and mechatronics engineers.
- Work directly with equipment builders, technicians, machine shops, and outside suppliers to resolve design and integration challenges.
- Troubleshoot electrical, mechanical, and automation hardware issues during equipment development, commissioning, and production.
- Contribute to equipment specifications, technical documentation, qualification activities, and continuous improvement initiatives.
What We're Looking For
- Approximately 8 or more years of experience designing, developing, or integrating industrial automation equipment.
- Strong experience with electrical control panel design, industrial electrical hardware, and power distribution systems.
- Working knowledge of machine safety principles, safety circuit design, and electrical safety practices.
- Experience integrating custom automation equipment, including robotic systems, automated assembly machinery, or inspection stations.
- Hands-on understanding of mechanical machine design, mechanisms, tooling, and equipment construction.
- Ability to work across mechanical, electrical, and controls disciplines to develop practical engineering solutions.
- Experience taking automation projects from concept and design through equipment build, debugging, and implementation.
- Ability to provide technical direction and share practical machine-building knowledge with less-experienced engineers.
- Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Mechatronics, or a related discipline.
Additional Experience That Would Be Valuable
- Electrical CAD software such as AutoCAD Electrical or EPLAN.
- Familiarity with Allen-Bradley, Omron, or similar industrial control platforms.
- Experience with industrial robotics or collaborative robots.
- Machine safety risk assessments, arc flash awareness, and lockout/tagout procedures.
- Experience with SolidWorks or other 3D mechanical design software.
- Machine vision systems and automated inspection equipment.
- Experience designing equipment for medical device, pharmaceutical, or other regulated manufacturing environments.
- Equipment qualification and validation activities, including IQ/OQ/PQ.
Why Consider This Opportunity?
This is an opportunity to make a meaningful technical contribution within a small engineering team where your experience will be valued.
Rather than focusing exclusively on PLC programming or mechanical CAD design, you'll help shape the hardware architecture and integration of automated manufacturing equipment.
You'll have the opportunity to contribute to new equipment development, solve challenging automation problems, mentor younger engineers, and help establish the technical capabilities needed to support future manufacturing growth.
Experience in medical device manufacturing is not required. Engineers from custom automation, machine building, systems integration, automotive, aerospace, consumer products, and other automated manufacturing environments are encouraged to consider the opportunity.