Robotic Welding & Automation Specialist

Ameritex Machine & Fabrication; Conroe (TX); On-site; USD 85,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Ameritex Machine & Fabrication seeks a Robotic Welding & Automation Specialist to own and expand our robotic welding operations. You will program, troubleshoot, and optimize OTC/Daihen robots and Miller cobots, develop fixtures, and push automation across the shop floor to boost throughput and consistency.

You will review schedules, identify repeatable welds, and implement strategies that reduce downtime while improving quality and labor utilization.

Qualifications

• Hands-on experience programming and operating industrial welding robots.
• Experience with OTC/Daihen robotic welding systems and Miller cobots.
• Ability to read fabrication drawings and weld symbols.
• Proven track record in automation and process improvement.

Responsibilities

• Own day-to-day operation and utilization of robotic welding equipment.
• Program, set up, operate, and troubleshoot OTC/Daihen systems and Miller cobots.
• Develop weld programs, sequencing, travel speeds, and welding parameters.
• Perform changeovers and bring new parts onto robotic welding systems.
• Troubleshoot defects, equipment faults, and automation components.
• Maintain equipment and coordinate preventive maintenance.
• Identify automation opportunities and move work onto robots.
• Develop fixtures and tooling for automation and prove out new processes.
• Track utilization and drive expansion of welding automation.

Skills

Robot programming

Robotic welding

Automation champion

Problem solving

Tools

OTC/Daihen robots

Miller cobots

CAD modeling

Job description

Ameritex Machine & Fabrication is seeking a Robotic Welding & Automation Specialist to take ownership of our robotic welding operations and help expand automation throughout our manufacturing facility.

This is not simply a robot operator or maintenance position. We are looking for someone who will actively identify opportunities for automation, pull appropriate work from our production schedule, program and implement jobs, develop fixtures and processes, troubleshoot equipment, and keep our robotic welding systems producing.

Our current robotic welding equipment includes an OTC/Daihen industrial welding robot and a Miller collaborative welding system (cobot). We intend to continue investing in robotic welding and automation as utilization and opportunities grow.

The successful candidate will become Ameritex’s internal champion for robotic welding and automation and will be responsible for demonstrating where these technologies can improve throughput, consistency, quality, and labor utilization.

Key Responsibilities

Robotic Welding Operations

• Own the day-to-day operation and utilization of Ameritex’s robotic welding equipment.
• Program, set up, operate, and troubleshoot OTC/Daihen robotic welding systems and Miller welding cobots.
• Develop and optimize weld programs, sequencing, travel speeds, torch angles, wire-feed settings, and welding parameters.
• Perform changeovers and bring new parts and assemblies onto robotic welding systems.
• Troubleshoot welding defects, programming issues, equipment faults, sensors, torch systems, wire-feed systems, and related automation.
• Maintain robots, welding equipment, tooling, and work areas to a high standard of reliability and cleanliness.
• Coordinate preventative maintenance and outside technical support when required.
• Help ensure robotic welding equipment is available, reliable, and production-ready.

Find Work for the Robots

A major responsibility of this position is proactively identifying opportunities for automation.

• Regularly review the production schedule, backlog, drawings, and upcoming jobs to identify components and assemblies suitable for robotic welding.
• Work directly with scheduling, production supervisors, engineering, and welding departments to move appropriate work onto the robots.
• Identify repetitive weldments, high-volume parts, product families, long-running jobs, and other automation opportunities.
• Maintain a pipeline of upcoming robotic welding work so machines do not sit idle simply because work has not been assigned to them.
• Evaluate whether existing manual welding processes can be redesigned or standardized to make them suitable for automation.
• Look beyond the current schedule for recurring products that should become permanent robotic welding candidates.

The expectation is that this person pulls work toward the robots rather than waiting for work to be pushed to them.

New Part and Process Implementation

• Review fabrication drawings, weld symbols, models, and production requirements to determine robotic welding feasibility.
• Develop welding strategies for new components and assemblies.
• Work with engineering and production teams to improve part design, tolerances, fit-up, and repeatability for robotic welding.
• Develop or coordinate the development of fixtures, positioners, locating systems, and tooling needed to automate parts.
• Conduct trials and prove out new robotic welding processes before releasing them to production.
• Establish repeatable setups that reduce changeover time and operator dependency.
• Document successful programs, setups, fixtures, weld parameters, and procedures so work can be repeated consistently.
• Build families of programs and standardized processes that allow similar parts to be introduced quickly.

Automation Expansion

Ameritex intends for this position to help drive future investment in welding automation.

• Track robot utilization, productive welding hours, throughput, labor savings, quality, and opportunities for additional automation.
• Identify capacity constraints that could be addressed through additional robots, cobots, positioners, fixtures, or welding automation.
• Help evaluate new robotic welding equipment and automation technologies.
• Participate in equipment demonstrations and vendor discussions when additional automation is being considered.
• Develop practical recommendations for where Ameritex should deploy its next robotic welding system.
• Help create repeatable automation processes that can be scaled across the company.
• Identify situations where automation can reduce bottlenecks, improve staffing efficiency, or increase production capacity.
• Support management with data and recommendations that help justify future automation investments.

What Success Looks Like

Success includes:

• Robots consistently have productive work scheduled.
• Robot utilization increases over time.
• New parts and assemblies are regularly converted from manual welding to robotic welding.
• Robotic processes run reliably with minimal unnecessary downtime.
• Programs, tooling, and processes become standardized and repeatable.
• Production throughput improves without sacrificing weld quality.
• Engineering begins considering robotic welding earlier in the design and manufacturing process.
• Automation opportunities are identified before they become capacity constraints.
• Clear business cases are developed for additional robotic welding equipment.
• Ameritex becomes increasingly capable of scaling output through automation instead of relying only on additional labor.

Qualifications

Preferred Experience

• Hands-on experience programming and operating industrial welding robots.
• Experience with OTC/Daihen robotic welding systems strongly preferred.
• Experience with Miller welding cobots or collaborative welding systems preferred.
• Strong MIG/GMAW welding knowledge.
• Understanding of welding parameters, joint design, fit-up, distortion, penetration, weld quality, and troubleshooting.
• Experience developing robotic welding fixtures and tooling.
• Ability to read fabrication drawings, weld symbols, and manufacturing documentation.
• Experience troubleshooting robotic equipment, welding power sources, wire feeders, torches, sensors, and automation components.
• Familiarity with positioners, safety systems, sensors, and basic robotic cell integration.
• Experience with offline robot programming, CAD, or 3D models is a plus.
• Experience in a production fabrication environment is strongly preferred.

Skills and Attributes

The ideal candidate is a combination of a welder, robot programmer, manufacturing problem-solver, and automation champion.

We are particularly interested in someone who:

• Enjoys figuring out how to automate work.
• Walks the floor looking for opportunities instead of waiting for assignments.
• Understands production and cares about throughput.
• Can work independently and take ownership of equipment and results.
• Is comfortable working directly with welders, supervisors, engineers, schedulers, and management.
• Can take a new part from drawing review through programming, fixturing, prove-out, and production.
• Understands that a robot sitting idle is an opportunity to find its next job.
• Can balance technical perfection with practical production needs.
• Is organized enough to maintain programs, documentation, tooling, and repeatable setups.
• Wants to build an automation program rather than simply operate one machine.
• Is comfortable being accountable for utilization and implementation, not just maintenance.

Why This Role Matters

Ameritex is continuing to grow its manufacturing capacity and intends to make robotic welding and automation a larger part of its production strategy.

The person in this position will have significant influence over how robotic welding is deployed within the company. As utilization grows and additional opportunities are identified, Ameritex intends to continue investing in robots, cobots, tooling, positioners, and other automation technologies.

This is an opportunity for someone who wants to own and build a robotic welding and automation program, not simply operate a robot.