Sr. Engineer - Advanced Manufacturing Automation

Carrier•Charlotte, NC

1d•Onsite

About The Position

As a Sr. Engineer - Advanced Manufacturing Automation, you will lead the full lifecycle of automation delivery—from design and commissioning to long-term sustainment. You’ll pair deep technical expertise in PLC, HMI, and safety systems with a sharp financial lens, using cost modeling and ROI analysis to prioritize high-impact projects. By bridging the gap between engineering and Finance, you will identify and validate "hard savings" while providing technical leadership to external integrators. A data-driven problem solver at heart, you will ensure all automated solutions are high-performing, cost-effective, and rooted in a rigorous safety-first culture.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree
10+ years of experience delivering manufacturing automation in production environments
8+ years of experience building business cases and delivering verified savings (labor, scrap, uptime, FPY)
8+ years of experience in commissioning and sustaining automation systems in a live factory
5+ years of experience translating manufacturing problems into measurable improvement initiatives
Ability to travel up to 25% of the time (international as needed)

Nice To Haves

Bachelor’s degree in mechanical, Electrical, Mechatronics, Manufacturing, or Industrial Engineering
Masters degree
Experience with heat exchanger manufacturing (shell-and-tube and/or finned-tube coils) and/or commercial HVAC chiller assembly.
Experience with automated welding, brazing processes, and/or automated leak/pressure testing.
Familiarity with MES/traceability, test data acquisition systems, and industrial networking.
Lean/Six Sigma certification or equivalent CI leadership experience.
Control Panel process and automation is a plus: Standardize and automate panel build processes where feasible: wire processing/labeling, poka-yoke terminations, torque verification, functional test, PLC/VFD parameter loading, and traceability.

Responsibilities

Lead the full lifecycle of automation delivery—from design and commissioning to long-term sustainment.
Pair deep technical expertise in PLC, HMI, and safety systems with a sharp financial lens, using cost modeling and ROI analysis to prioritize high-impact projects.
Identify and validate "hard savings" while providing technical leadership to external integrators.
Ensure all automated solutions are high-performing, cost-effective, and rooted in a rigorous safety-first culture.
Implement automation for heat exchanger manufacturing (shell-and-tube and finned-tube coils), including tube handling, joining, welding, and testing.
Implement flexible automation/assist solutions for final assembly, including heavy assembly, refrigerant charging, piping, brazing, welding, sensor installation, control integration, and end-of-line testing.
Own or support PLC/HMI/safety logic for manufacturing automation systems (Rockwell/Allen Bradley, Siemens).
Drive reliability improvements through enhanced diagnostics, alarm rationalization, and fault recovery.
Build/expand automated test capabilities (pressure/leak/functional) with recipe-based execution and data capture (LabVIEW).
Enable or improve traceability and test data capture through MES interfaces or structured data collection.
Identify and quantify hard savings opportunities tied to automation (labor reduction, scrap/rework reduction, downtime reduction, yield improvement, warranty reduction, energy/consumables reduction).
Build clear automation investment cases (CapEx requests) including baseline losses, solution options, cost analysis, and implementation costs.
Prioritize project pipeline with a focus on fast payback and scalable solutions.
Own benefits realization by creating savings tracking plans, validating savings post-implementation, and putting controls in place to sustain savings.
Lead vendors/integrators end-to-end: requirements, RFQ, technical evaluation, acceptance criteria, FAT/SAT, commissioning, ramp, and handoff.
Define run-at-rate metrics and require demonstrable performance.
Ensure maintainability through documentation, code management, spare parts, PM plans, and training packages.
Embed safety and compliance into automation design and commissioning (risk assessments, guarding, interlocks, LOTO readiness, safety validation).
Partner with NPI Engineers, Manufacturing Engineering, and Quality to maintain PFMEAs, control plans, reaction plans, and capability checks.
Drive defect reduction and escape prevention across welding/brazing/leak test operations.
Develop standards for automation (preferred sensor types, safety architectures, HMI conventions, test data formats).
Reduce "tribal knowledge" dependence by building repeatable processes and troubleshooting playbooks.