Automation Manager

Our strategic partner is a leading Vietnam-based manufacturer serving both domestic and international markets across the marine, aquaculture, agriculture, and industrial sectors. The company has built a strong reputation for operational excellence, product quality, innovation, and sustainable growth.

Job Responsibilities

Our strategic partner is seeking an Automation Manager to define and execute the automation and digital manufacturing strategy across four production facilities. This role leads automation engineering resources, develops and standardizes PLC, HMI, SCADA, MES, robotics, machine vision, barcode tracking, traceability, industrial data analytics, and IIoT solutions, and directly resolves complex control and system-integration issues to improve productivity, quality, safety, and production traceability.

Automation Strategy & Digital Transformation:

• Develop a three-to-five-year automation roadmap and establish technical standards for all manufacturing facilities.
• Prepare automation capital investment proposals and evaluate new technologies for production applications.
• Standardize the PLC-HMI-SCADA-MES architecture and deploy Smart Factory and Industry 4.0 initiatives.
• Deliver at least three major automation projects per year while meeting approved return-on-investment targets.
• Support annual objectives to reduce manual labor by at least 10% and maintain overall equipment effectiveness at a minimum of 85%. 

PLC, HMI & SCADA Management:

• Manage and standardize PLC programs and develop reusable code libraries.
• Upgrade machine control systems and control software while maintaining formal change control.
• Maintain complete backups of PLC and HMI programs and prevent program loss.
• Lead troubleshooting of complex control-system failures and reduce troubleshooting time by 30%.
• Maintain automation-system uptime at 99% or above. 

MES, Barcode & Traceability:

• Implement the manufacturing execution system across all production facilities.
• Develop barcode scanning solutions and integrate handheld terminals, scanners, and printers.
• Build end-to-end production traceability and synchronize production data with ERP or SAP systems.
• Standardize real-time production data with at least 98% real-time availability.
• Achieve 100% traceability coverage, barcode accuracy of at least 99.9%, and a 90% reduction in manual recording.

 Robotics, Vision & Machine Automation:

• Implement industrial robot applications and integrate automated vision-inspection solutions.
• Automate manual production processes and optimize servo and motion-control systems.
• Provide technical support for factory acceptance testing and site acceptance testing of new projects.
• Deliver at least two robotics projects per year to reduce direct labor, human-related quality defects, and improve line productivity.

 Data Analytics & Digital Factory:

• Develop production dashboards and connect data from PLC, SCADA, and MES platforms.
• Analyze overall equipment effectiveness, downtime, and yield data.
• Deploy Power BI, Grafana, or equivalent reporting platforms and apply artificial intelligence to support manufacturing operations.
• Provide dashboard coverage for all production lines, automate at least 90% of reports, and reduce data-consolidation time by at least 80%.

 Team Leadership & Continuous Improvement:

• Lead a team of Automation Engineers and related digital manufacturing resources across the assigned facilities.
• Recruit, evaluate, coach, and develop automation personnel, including succession and technical training plans.
• Provide training in PLC, SCADA, and MES technologies and expand multi-skilled engineering capability each year.
• Apply root cause analysis and failure mode and effects analysis, and support Lean and total productive maintenance projects.
• Target team engagement of at least 80%, internal promotion of at least 50%, and a minimum of five automation Kaizen initiatives per year.

 Technical Governance & Cross-Functional Coordination:

• Recommend automation capital expenditure, approve technical materials and software licenses within assigned authority, and escalate major investments or site-wide architecture changes.
• Approve controlled PLC program changes, MES deployment, and barcode and traceability standards within the assigned scope.
• Stop equipment when an automation-control condition creates a safety risk.
• Coordinate with Production, Maintenance, Quality, Planning, HSE, Procurement, Finance, IT, Warehouse, and Logistics teams on automation, reliability, data, safety, and capital projects.
• Work with international machinery suppliers, industrial robot providers, vision-system providers, automation platform providers, technical training organizations, and Smart Factory consultants.

 Job Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Automation Engineering; a Master’s degree in Engineering is preferred.
• Minimum 8 years of experience in Automation, including at least 4 years at Senior Engineer or Automation Manager level.
• Experience in industrial automated manufacturing is mandatory.
• Experience working with machinery supplied by international manufacturers from Germany, Italy, Austria, Denmark, Korea, or Taiwan.
• Direct experience leading a team of 3–5 technical employees or supervisors.
• Experience implementing SCADA, MES, IoT, and robotic systems.
• Experience in continuous manufacturing environments, including synthetic fiber, polymer, industrial textiles, chemicals, or continuous FMCG production.
• Native Vietnamese proficiency.
• Working or business-level English with the ability to read technical manuals and communicate with international equipment suppliers.
• Professional certifications such as CMRP, SMRP, PLC certifications for Siemens S7, Schneider, or Allen-Bradley, TPM certification from JIPM, Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, or a pressure equipment operation certificate are preferred.
• High integrity and strong professional ethics.
• Hands-on working approach with willingness to work directly on the production floor when technical incidents occur.
• Ability to make decisive decisions under pressure, particularly during emergency equipment breakdowns.
• Strong organizational discipline and commitment to compliance.
• Ability to explain technical matters clearly to non-technical stakeholders.
• Resilient, forward-looking, and capable of providing strong leadership to the department.