Automation Engineer

Talent Corp; Wollongong City Council; On-site; AUD 110,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Talent International has partnered with a major Australian industrial and manufacturing organisation seeking Automation Engineers for a large-scale upgrade program. The roles, initially 12-month contracts, offer strong potential for rolling extensions and involve a mix of technical delivery and vendor management.

You will work on electrical design, control systems, PLC/HMI/SCADA, with exposure to 60% technical work and 40% vendor management across brownfield environments.

Qualifications

• Approximately 5–15 years of relevant engineering experience.
• Background in Electrical Engineering, Automation Engineering or Control Systems.
• Experience in complex industrial, engineering or automated environments.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Good communication and interpersonal skills across internal teams and external vendors.

Responsibilities

• Deliver automation and control systems engineering across allocated project work packages.
• Contribute to electrical, control systems and software design activities.
• Support the design and implementation of PLC and HMI/SCADA solutions.
• Define technical requirements, engineering scopes and system interfaces.
• Develop technical and performance specifications.
• Review and coordinate engineering work delivered by external vendors and consultants.
• Manage relationships with vendors ensuring outputs meet requirements.
• Work with internal teams across project lifecycle including testing and cutover.
• Contribute to project documentation, standards and design processes.
• Ensure activities are delivered safely and in line with project requirements.
• Manage work packages against scope and schedule.

Skills

Engineering experience

Electrical Engineering

Automation Engineering

Control Systems

Analytical skills

Communication skills

Education

Electrical Engineering

Computer Engineering

Telecommunications Engineering

Computer Science

Diploma or strong technical background

Tools

PLC

RTU

HMI/SCADA

MES

Ethernet/IP networking

Job description

Talent International has partnered with a major Australian industrial and manufacturing organisation seeking Automation Engineers to join a large-scale automation and control systems upgrade program.

The program has a stable, long-term pipeline of work and is expected to continue for years. With several streams of engineering work underway, the team is looking to bring on additional capability across automation, electrical and control systems.

These positions will initially be offered as 12-month contracts, with strong potential for rolling extensions.

Talent International has partnered with a major Australian industrial and manufacturing organisation seeking Automation Engineers to join a large-scale automation and control systems upgrade program.

The program has a stable, long-term pipeline of work and is expected to continue for years. With several streams of engineering work underway, the team is looking to bring on additional capability across automation, electrical and control systems.

These positions will initially be offered as 12-month contracts, with strong potential for rolling extensions.

The role:

This is a broad Automation Engineering position combining hands-on technical delivery with vendor and external engineering management.

The role is expected to be approximately 60% technical and 40% vendor management, although there is flexibility around the exact scope. With several work packages underway, the team can align responsibilities to the successful candidate's strengths and experience.

Upcoming work will span a combination of electrical design, control systems design and software, with the wider automation environment incorporating PLC, networking and HMI/SCADA systems.

You will work alongside experienced engineering professionals and contribute across the project lifecycle, from defining technical requirements and developing design solutions through to testing, cutover and implementation.

Key responsibilities:

• Deliver automation and control systems engineering across allocated project work packages.
• Contribute to electrical, control systems and software design activities.
• Support the design and implementation of PLC and HMI/SCADA solutions.
• Define technical requirements, engineering scopes and system interfaces.
• Develop technical and performance specifications.
• Review and coordinate engineering work delivered by external vendors and consultants.
• Manage relationships with vendors while ensuring technical outputs meet project requirements.
• Work closely with internal engineering, operations and project teams.
• Support testing, system shadowing, cutover and rectification activities.
• Contribute to project documentation, engineering standards and design processes.
• Ensure engineering activities are delivered safely and in line with relevant project and engineering requirements.
• Manage allocated work packages against scope, schedule and project requirements.

Skills & experience:

The team is open to candidates from different technical backgrounds.

Ideally, you will bring:

• Approximately 5-15 years of relevant engineering experience.
• A background in Electrical Engineering, Automation Engineering or Control Systems.
• Experience working within complex industrial, engineering or automated environments.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Good communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to work effectively across internal teams and external vendors.
• The ability to manage competing priorities and maintain strong attention to detail.

Experience in brownfield project environments would be particularly valuable.

Exposure to mining, heavy industry, oil and gas, automated manufacturing or a similar environment would also be highly regarded, but not essential.

Technical experience:

You do not need experience across every area below. Depending on your background, exposure to some of the following would be beneficial:

• PLC, RTU, I/O and IoT systems
• HMI/SCADA and historian applications
• Electrical and control systems design
• Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES)
• Ethernet and IP networking
• Computing hardware
• Windows, Linux and virtualisation
• Active Directory
• Databases and systems integration

Qualifications:

A relevant engineering degree would be preferred, including qualifications across Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Telecommunications Engineering or Computer Science.

However, candidates with a relevant Diploma or strong technical engineering background will also be considered.

Working arrangements:

This is predominantly an office-based engineering role with regular interaction with the onsite project team.

• Approximately 80% office-based and 20% onsite
• Some WFH flexibility, typically around one day per week, depending on project requirements
• Flexible working hours

Contract and start date:

• Initial 12-month contract
• Strong potential for rolling extensions for the right person
• ASAP start

If you are an Automation Engineer looking for long-term project exposure, varied technical work and the opportunity to contribute to a major industrial automation program, we would be interested in hearing from you.