Automation & Digitalization Lead for Production

Destinusgroup

Hengelo

On-site

EUR 110,000 - 140,000

Full time

14 days+

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Job summary

Destinus in Hengelo seeks a Lead Industrialization Engineer to drive automation, robotics, and digital tooling across production and test lines. You will lead a team of industrialization engineers, selecting and integrating automated equipment, PLCs, and sensor systems, and connect the floor to MES and data pipelines for smarter operations.

This hands-on leadership role blends hardware and software, requiring strong English and a bias for action on the production floor.

Qualifications

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Mechatronics, Automation, Electrical, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field.
Strong experience in industrialization, automation engineering, or manufacturing engineering within aerospace, defense, automotive, or another complex hardware environment.
Proven experience specifying, integrating, or programming automated equipment, robotics, or PLC-based systems in a production or test environment.
Understanding of how shop-floor equipment connects to digital systems (MES, SCADA, data pipelines) and what it takes to make that connection reliable.
Strong understanding of lean manufacturing principles, line balancing, and Theory of Constraints / bottleneck management.
Experience with routing documentation, MBOM structures, and translating process design into production-ready documentation.
Ability to read and interpret engineering drawings, electrical/controls schematics, and technical specifications.
Experience leading technical projects or teams and coordinating across engineering, controls, and production functions.
Strong hands-on problem-solving skills and willingness to spend time directly on the production floor.
Professional working proficiency in English. Dutch is a plus.

Responsibilities

Lead industrialization engineering activities and provide technical direction to engineers, with a strong focus on automation and digitalization of production and test processes.
Identify manual, repetitive, or error-prone steps and lead the design and rollout of automated solutions to replace them.
Specify, select, and integrate automated equipment, robotics, PLCs, and sensor-based systems for production and test cells.
Own the architecture connecting shop-floor equipment to MES, data pipelines, and station-level software so data flows automatically.
Lead the industrialization of new products and engineering changes into production, collaborating with NPI, Design Engineering, and Data & Validation teams.
Apply lean manufacturing and Theory of Constraints to identify bottlenecks and target automation where it adds value.
Define and maintain routing documentation and station-level work content to reflect automated and manual steps.
Partner with software, controls, and electrical engineering to bring automation projects from concept to running floor equipment.
Use production data to identify improvements and drive throughput, quality, and labor efficiency.
Mentor engineers and build automation capability across the team.
Collaborate with Production, Production Engineering, Data & Validation Engineering, Quality, and Supply Chain to keep initiatives on track.