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Automation Engineer IV Opportunity

HID Global is seeking an Automation Engineer to be an integral member of the Manufacturing Engineering team in Austin. This role is essential for developing and optimizing production equipment with a focus on equipment functionality, efficiency, and performance.

The Automation Engineer is a hands-on developer and builder of manufacturing automation equipment, responsible for designing, developing, modifying, and optimizing solutions to meet HID-specific manufacturing needs. This role requires actively researching and learning the automation equipment market to inform development decisions and accelerate implementation. The engineer will take a practical, build-focused approach—developing equipment from the ground up when required, or creating hybrid solutions by modifying and enhancing commercially available or internally developed base equipment.

This includes designing custom features, add-ons, and performance improvements to ensure each solution is purpose-built, robust, and optimized for HID's use cases.

As our Automation Engineer IV, you'll support HID's success by:

• Designing, building, and developing custom automation equipment and tooling to support HID manufacturing requirements, from early concept through production-ready deployment.
• Performing hands-on mechanical, electrical, and controls development, including fabrication, assembly, integration, testing, and iteration of automation systems.
• Researching and learning the automation equipment market to inform development strategies and identify opportunities to accelerate builds through hybrid solutions.
• Developing automation solutions using a build-from-scratch approach when required, or by modifying and enhancing commercially available or internally developed base equipment.
• Designing and implementing custom features, add-ons, and performance enhancements to existing equipment to meet HID-specific use cases.
• Modifying new or existing internal equipment designs to add functionality, improve reliability, increase throughput, or enable new product capabilities.
• Owning the prototype-to-production lifecycle, including proof-of-concept builds, validation testing, production handoff, and post-launch optimization.
• Troubleshooting and debugging mechanical, electrical, software, and system-level issues directly on the equipment.
• Collaborating closely with Manufacturing Engineering, Operations, Quality, and suppliers to ensure equipment designs are robust, manufacturable, and support production goals.
• Creating and maintaining technical documentation including design concepts, schematics, drawings, test results, and build instructions.
• Identifying continuous improvement opportunities and implementing design changes that improve equipment performance, uptime, and scalability.
• Partnering closely with Operations, Manufacturing Engineering, Quality, and Production teams to identify automation opportunities based on real-world operational pain points, capacity constraints, quality risks, and safety concerns.
• Observing and analyzing existing manufacturing processes on the shop floor to define functional requirements and automation concepts that directly address current and future production needs.
• Translating operational requirements into practical automation solutions, balancing technical feasibility, development effort, cost, and long-term scalability.
• Leading the hands-on development of automation solutions, including concept generation, design trade studies, prototyping, testing, and iterative refinement.
• Evaluating existing equipment and processes to determine when modification, enhancement, or partial automation is the most effective solution versus full replacement.
• Supporting deployment of automation into production, including on-site debugging, optimization, operator support, and early-life issue resolution.
• Acting as a technical problem solver during production challenges, identifying when automation improvements or design changes are required to restore or improve performance.
• Collaborating with suppliers and internal teams to integrate externally sourced equipment into HID operations, ensuring required modifications and…