Per-MW pricing, regional variance, and cost drivers for owners scoping hyperscale & AI builds.
Salary benchmarks across the 14 mission-critical disciplines.
One practice: the systems and the people who make them run. iRecruit.co’s automation recruiters place the leaders who deliver factory and warehouse automation on mission-critical builds — robotics cells, material handling, controls packages — and the talent who designs, programs, and runs those systems, automation technician to VP of engineering, verified against the PLC, robot, vision, and safety stacks they claim.
Reshoring-driven automation demand is rewriting the hiring map: gigafactory lines and robotics cells going into new plants, warehouse automation retrofits across national fulfillment networks, humanoid-robot manufacturing ramps, and the automation integrators delivering all of it. Every one of those programs is two hiring problems wearing one badge — the automation being installed on a mission-critical build, and the controls engineering talent that has to program and run it. iRecruit.co’s robotics recruiters cover both lanes, alongside our aerospace & defense manufacturing practice, and map the live pipeline in our Robotics & Automation Projects Tracker — building candidate density ahead of the demand.
The construction lane is our home turf: factory and warehouse automation integration on mission-critical builds — gigafactory lines, robotics cells, material handling and ASRS, and the controls packages that tie them together. We are assembling the bench of automation project managers, integration leads, and commissioning talent that automation integrators and owners put on those scopes.
Inside the plant we are building the bench for the team the systems answer to — controls engineers, robotics engineers, PLC programmers, automation and manufacturing engineers, robotics technicians, and the integration leadership that carries a line from FAT to rate. The span is deliberate: automation technician to VP of engineering.
Which PLC and SCADA platforms, on which commissioned lines. Which robot OEMs — FANUC, ABB, KUKA, Yaskawa — and which cells actually ran at rate. Machine vision, servo and motion, safety-rated systems and functional-safety standards — checked in screening, not discovered at start-up. It is the same credential-first discipline our construction practice runs against NQA-1 and cGMP.
Automated production lines, robotic welding and assembly, palletizing, ASRS and goods-to-person systems across fulfillment networks — the warehouse automation wave where integrators, owners, and OEMs are competing for the same thin bench of controls engineering and field-service talent.
Humanoid-robot manufacturing ramps and robot factories are the newest lane — production lines where the product and the tooling are both robots. These programs hire manufacturing and test engineering, robotics technicians, and line leadership at startup speed, and they screen exactly like the mission-critical plants we already serve.
Semiconductor fab automation, battery gigafactories, and aerospace and defense production draw on the same talent physics — controls depth, commissioning-heavy schedules, credential-first screening. One network, shared across every automation recruiters engagement we run.
Every title links to a dedicated hiring page. The span is deliberate — iRecruit.co places from automation technician to VP of engineering, and most programs hire a coordinated set of these roles as a system goes in. Delivering the building around the automation? The construction lane — PMs, superintendents, MEP — runs through the same practice.
PLC, HMI, and SCADA depth across commissioned lines — the controls engineering hire every automated facility is short of.
Designs and debugs the automated processes themselves — cell layouts, cycle-time math, and the integration between robots, conveyance, and controls.
Robot programming, simulation, and cell design across FANUC, ABB, KUKA, and Yaskawa platforms — from weld cells to humanoid production tooling.
Keeps the fleet running — teach pendants, preventive maintenance, drives and servos, and the fault-recovery discipline automated operations live on.
Carries automation scope from proposal to buy-off — integrator-side or owner-side — across design reviews, FAT and SAT, install, and commissioning.
Power distribution, panel design, and code compliance for automated systems — the electrical backbone under every controls package.
Runs FAT, SAT, and start-up on automated lines and material handling systems — the discipline that turns installed equipment into accepted scope.
Owns integrated testing across automation, controls, and facility systems — test plans, punch lists, and the sign-offs owners hold schedules to.
Whichever model fits your program, every engagement runs on the same delivery discipline — clear scope up front, verified candidates, and full ownership of the process through offer and start.
30 minutes with a practice lead. We map roles, platform and safety-system requirements, and geography against your program milestones — and quote a concrete proposal, with pricing, within 48 hours.
A dedicated recruiter runs intake with your hiring managers and calibrates on the first candidates. Qualified slates in 14–21 days on retained engagements.
Every candidate verified against commissioned systems — PLC and SCADA platforms, robot OEM depth, vision, safety-rated design — and references who watched the line run at rate.
Offers structured for the market — relocation and competing-counter math, notice-period management, and replacement guarantees on retained roles.
30-minute scoping call — we map the install-side and run-side roles against your program schedule, and quote a concrete proposal within 48 hours.
Five models, each priced per solution — retained executive search where confidentiality and certainty matter most, success-fee support where speed matters, RPO and embedded where volume makes placement-by-placement pricing the wrong shape, and staffing where the need is contract. Most programs run two in parallel.
Retained search for directors of automation, VPs of engineering, and site leadership on automation-heavy plants — confidential, calibrated, and guaranteed.
Pricing — retained, 30% of first-year compensation, with replacement guarantee
Direct-hire search for controls engineers, robotics engineers, PLC programmers, and automation PMs — full practice sourcing depth, and you pay on placement.
Pricing — 20% success fee, no upfront fee on single roles
Full recruitment process outsourcing for plant ramps and automation programs — one team, one process, every open req from technician to director.
Pricing — from a $15k service fee plus volume pricing
A dedicated recruiter or pod working inside your systems and standups, scaled to monthly hiring volume — built for sustained automation programs.
Pricing — monthly volume-based fee + success fee
Contract and temp-to-hire staffing for install and commissioning surges plus field staff for the build-side lane — scale the site up and down without carrying the headcount.
Pricing — contract and temp-to-hire, quoted per scope
Automation demand maps to corridors, not coasts — robot OEMs and integrators in the Midwest, humanoid ramps on both coasts, warehouse automation everywhere the parcel networks run. These are the corridors our automation recruiters map — building candidate density ahead of the demand, with relocation and competing-offer math calibrated to each. Public programs named here reference market activity, not client work.
Platform depth against commissioned systems. On controls roles that means which PLC and SCADA platforms — Rockwell and Allen-Bradley, Siemens, Beckhoff — on which lines, and what the candidate personally programmed versus watched. On robotics roles it means robot OEM experience, cell design and simulation, machine vision, and servo and motion depth. And on everything we verify exposure to safety-rated systems — safety PLCs, risk assessments, functional-safety standards like ISO 13849 and SIL-rated design — because automated equipment that can hurt people is exactly where credential inflation is most dangerous. References come from engineers who watched the line run at rate.
Both, deliberately. Automation integrators — the firms that design, build, and commission robotics cells and material handling systems — hire project managers, controls engineers, and field-service talent against booked backlog. Owners and OEMs deploying automation hire the mirror image of those teams to specify, accept, and then run the systems. The same practice serves both sides, which is exactly why we can tell an integrator-side resume from an owner-side one in a single screening call.
Fees follow the engagement model. Direct-hire recruiting support runs at a 20% success fee with no upfront fee on single roles. Retained executive search — directors of automation, VPs of engineering, site leadership — runs at 30% of first-year compensation, with a replacement guarantee. RPO for plant ramps and automation programs starts from a $15k service fee plus volume pricing, and embedded recruiting runs on a monthly volume-based fee + success fee. A 30-minute scoping call gets you a concrete, per-role quote within 48 hours.
The span runs from automation technician to VP of engineering. Day to day that means controls and automation engineers, PLC programmers, robotics engineers and robotics technicians, automation project managers, commissioning engineers, integrated systems testing leadership, and the electrical engineers under every controls package — plus the executive tier: directors of automation, VPs of engineering, and site leadership on automation-heavy plants. Most programs hire a coordinated set of these as a system goes in.
Both — that is the point of the practice. The same program that needs automation project managers, integration leads, and commissioning engineers to deliver a gigafactory line or a warehouse automation retrofit this year needs controls engineers, robotics technicians, and maintenance leadership to run it the next. We recruit the systems and the people who make them run as one engagement, so owners stop running two disconnected searches with two agencies.
Yes — they are the two fastest-moving lanes in the practice. Humanoid-robot manufacturing ramps hire manufacturing, test, and controls engineering at startup speed as robot factories stand up, and national warehouse automation programs — new automated fulfillment centers and retrofits across existing networks — hire commissioning, controls, and robotics maintenance talent by the site. Our tracker follows the active programs, and we build candidate density in the corridors where they concentrate — from the Boston robotics corridor to Silicon Valley, Austin, and the Midwest — so the network is assembled before the volume arrives.
30-minute scoping call. We map the roles, the platforms, the safety stack, and the engagement model that fits your program — and quote a concrete proposal within 48 hours.
iRecruit.co is assembling a network of automation talent — automation technician to VP of engineering, plus the leaders who deliver the systems themselves — across every major U.S. automation corridor. Submit your resume to be matched as roles open.
