Automation Engineer
Atomic Industries · Detroit
About Atomic Industries
Atomic Industries is reinventing how the world makes things. From cars and aerospace systems to medical devices and packaging, most physical goods begin life in a mold or are shaped by a manufacturing tool. Producing these tools has always been slow, manual, and dependent on scarce expertise, taking weeks or months. We’re changing that.
At our Detroit headquarters, we combine the industrial DNA of America’s manufacturing heartland with the speed, intelligence, and precision of Silicon Valley. Our AI-driven platform tackles the hardest problems in geometry, process planning, and fabrication, collapsing production timelines from months to days and soon, minutes. We don’t just build software; we run a fully operational factory where our technology produces production-grade tooling every week, enabling tight feedback loops and rapid iteration.
Backed by top-tier investors, we’re restoring speed, flexibility, and capability to the American industrial base. Our mission is to make manufacturing as agile and scalable as the digital world, and in doing so, rebuild the infrastructure of the physical economy.
About the Role
As an Automation Engineer at Atomic, you’ll build the systems that connect our physical factory to our software platform. You’ll work across sensors, electronics, industrial controls, robotics, machine interfaces, data infrastructure, and simulation to make our equipment observable, programmable, and increasingly autonomous.
This is not a traditional plant controls role focused on maintaining an installed base of PLCs. You’ll help define the architecture, standards, and tools through which Atomic’s machines, molds, robots, and production workflows operate as one integrated system. This role is ideal for a software-capable automation generalist who enjoys building real hardware, commissioning it on the factory floor, and owning systems from first prototype through reliable production use.
What You’ll Do
- Design, build, and commission automation across injection molding cells and the mold-making factory, including presses, CNCs, EDMs, robots, auxiliary equipment, and material handling
- Connect machines and devices to Atomic’s centralized platform using OPC UA, Modbus/TCP, MQTT, industrial Ethernet, and vendor-specific interfaces
- Build data-acquisition systems for temperature, pressure, force, flow, position, power, vision, and other process signals, linking them to machine cycles, process settings, simulation results, and part-quality data
- Develop closed-loop workflows that compare physical production with simulation, including systems for characterizing thermolator performance and monitoring waterline health
- Establish reusable hardware standards for sensor interfaces, signal conditioning, controllers, connectors, wiring, enclosures, networking, and commissioning
- Program and integrate PLCs, robot controllers, motion systems, HMIs, machine interlocks, and safety systems
- Develop digital twins and hardware-in-the-loop environments that allow work cells and production sequences to be programmed before the physical mold or line exists
- Productionize successful prototypes with version-controlled configurations, automated testing, diagnostics, observability, documentation, and clear failure behavior
- Help define and execute the path toward a mold-making factory where programs queue automatically, jobs and materials move between machines, inventory is robotically managed, and assembly is increasingly autonomous
- Work across software, simulation, manufacturing, tooling, and operations to identify high-value opportunities and define both immediate solutions and long-term architecture
What We’re Looking For
Minimum Qualifications
- 3+ years of experience in automation, controls, robotics, mechatronics, test engineering, or a related field
- Demonstrated experience taking automation systems from concept through installation, commissioning, and reliable production operation
- Strong programming skills with AI assistance, and the ability to build maintainable production software rather than one-off scripts
- Experience with industrial communications such as OPC UA, Modbus/TCP, MQTT, or comparable machine protocols
- Hands-on experience with sensors, data-acquisition hardware, calibration, analog and digital signals, and electrical troubleshooting
- Fluency in at least one PLC or industrial controls ecosystem, with an understanding of machine states, interlocks, fault handling, and deterministic control
- Experience integrating robots, motion systems, machine tools, vision systems, or other production equipment
- Ability to read electrical drawings and create clear schematics, wiring documentation, interface specifications, and commissioning procedures
- Understanding of industrial safety and the boundary between higher-level orchestration software and safety-rated machine control
- Excellent communication skills and the ability to work across software engineers, manufacturing engineers, technicians, toolmakers, operators, and external vendors
- A bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, computer engineering, mechatronics, computer science, or a related discipline—or equivalent practical experience
Bonus Points
- Experience with injection molding, mold tooling, thermolators, scientific molding, or plastics processing
- Familiarity with CNC machines, EDMs, CMMs, automated material handling, or high-mix manufacturing
- Experience with digital twins, virtual commissioning, or robotics simulation using OpenUSD, Isaac Sim, ROS, or comparable platforms
- PCB design, embedded systems, microcontrollers, edge Linux devices, or custom industrial electronics experience
- Experience with time-series data, event-driven systems, industrial observability, or real-time factory monitoring
- Background in industrial computer vision, automated inspection, or synthetic-data generation
- Experience correlating physical experiments with CFD, FEA, thermal, or other physics-based simulations
- Understanding of ITAR, CMMC, or similar regulatory constraints
Injection molding experience is not required. We care more about demonstrated ownership of real hardware systems, strong software judgment, and the ability to learn unfamiliar manufacturing processes deeply.
How We Work
- Fast iteration: We deploy code daily and validate it in the factory every week
- Factory-first mindset: Engineers spend time on the shop floor to understand the real-world impact of their work
- Low ceremony, high ownership: We value well-written design docs, tested code, and real results—not meetings
- Collaborative culture: Geometry, AI, robotics, simulation, and manufacturing teams are tightly integrated and co-develop the product together
Benefits
- Competitive salary and generous equity package
- Full medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and dependents
- 401(k)
- PTO
- Hardware stipend and on-site prototype lab access
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