Sr Staff Automation Reliability Engineer

ZT Group Intl, Inc. dba ZT Systems; Secaucus (NJ); On-site; USD 116,000 - 155,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive base salary

Bonus eligibility

401(k) retirement plan

Tuition reimbursement

Wellness resources

Job summary

ZT Systems seeks a Sr Staff Automation Reliability Engineer to own and enhance the automation platform across robotics, PLCs, and pneumatics. You’ll lead specialists, set maintenance strategies, and serve as the escalation point for complex failures, driving preventative maintenance and continuous improvement.

You will partner with OEMs and operations to deploy new automation, analyze downtime data, and improve performance, controls architecture, and safety systems.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or relevant field, or equivalent experience.
• 8+ years of experience in industrial automation across robotics, PLCs, controls, electrical systems, conveyance, pneumatics, and electromechanical equipment.
• Preferred experience with Kuka robotics.
• Diagnose complex, multi-disciplinary automation failures and identify root causes across mechanical, electrical, controls, software, networking, or system integration.
• Experience with automation commissioning, equipment integration, preventive maintenance, troubleshooting, and reliability improvement in high-volume manufacturing.
• Ability to coach automation technicians and build organizational depth through cross-training and knowledge transfer.
• Strong understanding of industrial controls architecture, PLC/HMI systems, robotics, safety systems, industrial networks, and automated material handling.
• Data-driven reliability using MTBF/MTTR, downtime history, and equipment performance to prioritize improvements.
• Strong technical judgment and communication to work with OEMs, engineering, and operations to resolve issues.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office tools and strong verbal/written communication.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the technical owner for automation platform, providing engineering oversight for deployed systems across robotics, PLCs, controls, conveyance, and pneumatics.
• Lead and develop a team of specialized technicians, establishing standards, maintenance strategies, troubleshooting methods, and escalation practices.
• Be the primary technical escalation point for complex equipment failures, providing cross-functional support.
• Develop and drive the automation reliability strategy, including preventive maintenance, critical spares, health monitoring, downtime reduction, and continuous improvement.
• Partner with OEMs, integrators, engineering, and operations to commission new automation, resolve complex failures, and improve system performance.
• Use performance data to identify systemic issues, prioritize improvements, and boost automation availability and production capacity.
• Maintain technical documentation, system standards, recovery procedures, configuration controls, and engineering best practices across the platform.

Skills

Robotics

PLC/Controls

Electrical Systems

Conveyance

Pneumatics

Electromechanical Equipment

Kuka robotics

Data-driven maintenance

Reliability improvement

Communication skills

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering/CS

Tools

Microsoft Office

Outlook

Excel

Word

Job description

About the role:

The Sr Staff Automation Reliability Engineer serves on the Advanced Automation Infrastructure Team and is the technical owner of ZT Systems’ automated manufacturing platform, providing engineering oversight across robotics, controls, conveyance, pneumatics, and supporting systems. You’ll lead the automation reliability strategy, solve technical problems that arise in our deployed automation and support to a specialized team of technicians. In this role you will drive system performance through data-driven maintenance, troubleshooting, and continuous improvement. This is an opportunity to build the technical foundation required to scale high-performance automated manufacturing for one of the industry's leading hyperscale system integrators.

What you’ll do:

• Serve as the technical owner for the automation platform, providing engineering oversight across robotics, PLC/controls, conveyance, pneumatics, and supporting systems for deployed systems.
• Lead and develop a team of specialized technicians, establishing technical standards, maintenance strategies, troubleshooting methods, and escalation practices.
• Serve as the primary technical escalation point for complex equipment failures, providing cross-functional support when issues exceed individual technician expertise.
• Develop and drive the automation reliability strategy, including preventive maintenance, critical spares, equipment health, downtime reduction, and continuous improvement.
• Partner with equipment OEMs, integrators, engineering, and operations to commission new automation, resolve complex failures, and improve system performance.
• Use equipment performance, downtime, and failure data to identify systemic issues, prioritize improvements, and increase automation availability and production capacity.
• Establish and maintain technical documentation, system standards, recovery procedures, configuration controls, and engineering best practices across the automation platform.

What you bring:

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or relevant field, or equivalent experience.
• 8+ years of experience in industrial automation, with strong working knowledge across, robotic platforms, Festo PLCs, controls, electrical systems, conveyance, pneumatics, and electromechanical equipment.
• Preferred experience with Kuka robotics.
• Proven ability to diagnose complex, multi-disciplinary automation failures and determine whether the root cause is mechanical, electrical, controls, software, networking, or system integration.
• Strong experience with automation commissioning, equipment integration, preventive maintenance, troubleshooting, and reliability improvement in a high-volume manufacturing environment.
• Demonstrated ability to closely collaborate with technical teams to establish standards, provide coaching to automation technicians, and build organizational depth through cross-training and knowledge transfer.
• Strong understanding of industrial controls architecture, PLC/HMI systems, robotics, safety systems, industrial networks, and automated material handling.
• A data-driven approach to reliability, with experience using Mean-Time-Between-Failure (MTBF), Mean-Time-To-Recovery (MTTR), downtime, failure history, and equipment performance data to prioritize improvement efforts.
• Strong technical judgment and communication skills, with the ability to work directly with OEMs, engineering teams, operations leadership, and technicians to drive issues to resolution.
• Experience with Microsoft Office tools (Outlook, Excel, and Word).
• Strong verbal and written communications skills.

ZT Systems assesses market data to ensure a competitive compensation package is created for all our employees. The typical base salary for this position is expected to be between $116,250 - $155,000. If hired, the final base salary will be determined on an individual basis taking into consideration experience, skills, knowledge, education and/or certifications. Base salary is just one component of ZT Systems total rewards philosophy.

We take pride in offering a wide range of benefits and perks that appeal to the variety of needs across our diverse employee base. Other rewards may include bonus, paid time off, generous 401k match, tuition reimbursement, wellbeing resources, and more. We are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace, so if you’re excited about this opportunity but your experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

About ZT Systems

At ZT Systems, a Sanmina Company, you’ll get to do work you are proud of alongside smart, passionate people. Every day, there are opportunities to collaborate with the best in the industry to design, build, and deliver impactful solutions to world-class customers. Along the way, you will gain hands-on experience in a fast-paced environment that’s challenging, rewarding, and career-defining. A culture built around our values we work hard and think fast. We view challenges as opportunities—to do better, push harder, and be faster than we were the day before. When we fail, we learn from it and move on together. And when we succeed, we use the momentum to go even further. We create value with everything we do, building the foundation of today—and transforming the future of tomorrow.

Join ZT Systems and help us build technology infrastructure that connects the world.

What We Offer

Compensation & Financial Security

• Competitive base salary
• Performance-based annual bonus eligibility
• 401(k) retirement savings plan
• Tuition reimbursement for eligible education programs

Health & Wellness

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage with access to leading providers
• Mental health resources and employee wellness support programs
• Company-paid life and disability insurance

Time Away & Work-Life Balance

• Paid time off (PTO) and company-paid holidays
• Parental leave and family care support programs

Growth & Purpose

• Structured training programs and on-the-job learning opportunities
• Matching gifts and volunteer programs to support causes you care about

These benefits are available to eligible employees and are designed to grow with you as your career evolves. Full benefits and eligibility varies by work location. Learn more about our benefits here.

ZT Group Int’l. is an Equal Opportunity Employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any kind. ZT Systems provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws.

Please be aware that certain positions may require the applicant to either 1) be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or 2) be eligible to obtain an export control license or license exception from the Bureau of Industry and Science & U.S. Department of Commerce. All offers of employment will be conditional subject to the foregoing.