Robotics & Automation Engineer II (Mid Level)
Job Description
Job Description
Department: Manufacturing Technology / Operational Excellence
Reporting: Engineering Manager (strategic alignment and prioritization via COO)
Location: On-site manufacturing (VT), with future support to NC facility buildout
Employment Type: Full-time
Why Atlas Gunworks
Atlas Gunworks builds the Ferrari of handguns.
Our products sit at the intersection of extreme precision, performance, and craftsmanship. No one in the world makes what we make, at the level we make it.
That position gives us something most manufacturers never have: room to invest intelligently in technology. We are not chasing automation to cut corners. We are using robotics, data, and advanced manufacturing to raise the standard for precision, consistency, and throughput while protecting what makes our product exceptional.
We are scaling deliberately. New CNC equipment, new automation cells, and a new facility in North Carolina are coming online over the next 12–18 months. The future is not theoretical here. It is being built now.
If you want to work where:
- Engineering decisions matter
- Ideas are tested, not debated endlessly
- Data beats opinion
- Automation is treated as a competitive weapon, not a novelty
Atlas Gunworks is that place.
The Problem We Are Solving
Atlas Gunworks operates in a tight-tolerance CNC environment with limited availability of qualified operators and programmers. As capacity increases, traditional labor scaling is not viable on its own.
We need to:
- Increase throughput without compromising precision
- Reduce dependency on scarce labor
- Stabilize processes and improve yield
- Build automation cells that operators trust and rely on
- Make disciplined CAPEX decisions backed by data and ROI
The Robotics & Automation Engineer exists to work backwards from these problems, design solutions, prove them through pilots, and deploy systems that work in the real world.
Role Summary
The Robotics & Automation Engineer II owns automation projects from concept through deployment. This role designs, integrates, and stabilizes robotic and PLC-based automation solutions in a high-precision CNC manufacturing environment.
This role is for engineers who want real ownership, real accountability, and the ability to shape how advanced manufacturing is applied in a premium product company.
Core Responsibilities
- Lead design and deployment of robotic automation cells including CNC tending, part transfer, deburring, washing, inspection staging, and packaging interfaces
- Define requirements including takt, cycle time, uptime targets, quality requirements, safety standards, and recovery logic
- Select and integrate robots, PLCs, sensors, vision systems, tooling, and workholding
- Design automation systems with defined fault states, alarms, and recovery procedures
- Develop or oversee PLC programming, HMI design, and CNC integration
- Build ROI models that balance CAPEX, labor displacement, throughput gains, and quality impact
- Partner with Operations, Quality, Maintenance, and Engineering to ensure stable, safe deployments
- Establish repeatable automation standards to support multi-site scalability
- Own documentation including schematics, I/O lists, safety validation, SOPs, and change control
Required Qualifications
- 2–5 years of experience in industrial robotics, automation engineering, or controls
- Demonstrated experience delivering automation in production environments
- Strong understanding of manufacturing flow, cycle time, constraints, and OEE
- Working knowledge of PLCs, sensors, and industrial communication
- Ability to communicate tradeoffs clearly to leadership
Nice to Have (Technology Leadership & Advanced Manufacturing)
Candidates who bring experience or serious curiosity in the following areas will be strongly differentiated:
- Application of AI or machine learning to manufacturing problems such as yield improvement, defect detection, anomaly detection, tool wear prediction, or process drift
- Advanced machine vision beyond basic presence checks, including dimensional inference or surface inspection
- Industrial data acquisition and analysis from machines, PLCs, sensors, or vision systems to drive decisions
- Industrial IoT (IIoT) approaches that measurably improve uptime, yield, or responsiveness
- Experience evaluating emerging technologies critically and running disciplined proof-of-concept trials
- Comfort working in micron-level precision environments
- Systems thinking across automation, tooling, quality, data, and people
This role is designed for engineers who want the autonomy to research, test, and deploy real solutions—not just maintain existing systems.
What Success Looks Like (Level II)
- Automation cells deliver measurable throughput and stability improvements
- Deployments are trusted by operators and production leadership
- Decisions are supported by data, not opinion
- The NC facility launches with automation as a deliberate, repeatable capability
Final Note to Candidates
We are not in a rush—but if the right person walks through the door, we will move fast.
If you want to:
- Build the future of precision manufacturing
- Work where engineering excellence is expected
- Have direct impact on how technology is applied at scale
Company DescriptionAtlas Gunworks is an industry leader in the premium handgun market. Every Atlas firearm is machined from billet aluminum and steel. We combine the art of hand metalworking with our state-of-the-art, multi-axis CNC machine shop to produce parts with precision and consistency.
Company Description
Atlas Gunworks is an industry leader in the premium handgun market. Every Atlas firearm is machined from billet aluminum and steel. We combine the art of hand metalworking with our state-of-the-art, multi-axis CNC machine shop to produce parts with precision and consistency.