Sr Staff Automation Reliability Engineer

About the role: The Sr Staff Automation Reliability Engineer serves on the Advanced Automation Infrastructure Team and is the technical owner of ZT Systems’ automated manufacturing platform, providing engineering oversight across robotics, controls, conveyance, pneumatics, and supporting systems. You’ll lead the automation reliability strategy, solve technical problems that arise in our deployed automation and support to a specialized team of technicians.  In this role you will drive system performance through data-driven maintenance, troubleshooting, and continuous improvement. This is an opportunity to build the technical foundation required to scale high-performance automated manufacturing for one of the industry's leading hyperscale system integrators. What you’ll do: Serve as the technical owner for the automation platform, providing engineering oversight across robotics, PLC/controls, conveyance, pneumatics, and supporting systems for deployed systems. Lead and develop a team of specialized technicians, establishing technical standards, maintenance strategies, troubleshooting methods, and escalation practices. Serve as the primary technical escalation point for complex equipment failures, providing cross-functional support when issues exceed individual technician expertise. Develop and drive the automation reliability strategy, including preventive maintenance, critical spares, equipment health, downtime reduction, and continuous improvement. Partner with equipment OEMs, integrators, engineering, and operations to commission new automation, resolve complex failures, and improve system performance. Use equipment performance, downtime, and failure data to identify systemic issues, prioritize improvements, and increase automation availability and production capacity. Establish and maintain technical documentation, system standards, recovery procedures, configuration controls, and engineering best practices across the automation platform. What you bring: Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or relevant field, or equivalent experience. 8+ years of experience in industrial automation, with strong working knowledge across, robotic platforms, Festo PLCs, controls, electrical systems, conveyance, pneumatics, and electromechanical equipment.  Preferred experience with Kuka robotics. Proven ability to diagnose complex, multi-disciplinary automation failures and determine whether the root cause is mechanical, electrical, controls, software, networking, or system integration. Strong experience with automation commissioning, equipment integration, preventive maintenance, troubleshooting, and reliability improvement in a high-volume manufacturing environment. Demonstrated ability to closely collaborate with technical teams to establish standards, provide coaching to automation technicians, and build organizational depth through cross-training and knowledge transfer. Strong understanding of industrial controls architecture, PLC/HMI systems, robotics, safety systems, industrial networks, and automated material handling. A data-driven approach to reliability, with experience using Mean-Time-Between-Failure (MTBF), Mean-Time-To-Recovery (MTTR), downtime, failure history, and equipment performance data to prioritize improvement efforts. Strong technical judgment and communication skills, with the ability to work directly with OEMs, engineering teams, operations leadership, and technicians to drive issues to resolution. Experience with Microsoft Office tools (Outlook, Excel, and Word). Strong verbal and written communications skills. ZT Systems assesses market data to ensure a competitive compensation package is created for all our employees. The typical base salary for this position is expected to be between $116,250 - $155,000. If hired, the final base salary will be determined on an individual basis taking into consideration experience, skills, knowledge, education and/or certifications. Base salary is just one component of ZT Systems total rewards philosophy. We take pride in offering a wide range of benefits and perks that appeal to the variety of needs across our diverse employee base. Other rewards may include bonus, paid time off, generous 401k match, tuition reimbursement, wellbeing resources, and more. We are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace, so if you’re excited about this opportunity but your experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles. #LI-DH1 About ZT Systems At ZT Systems, a Sanmina Company, you’ll get to do work you are proud of alongside smart, passionate people. Every day, there are opportunities to collaborate with the best in the industry to design, build, and deliver impactful solutions to world-class customers. Along the way, you will gain hands-on experience in a fast-paced environment that’s challenging, rewarding, and career-defining. A culture built around our values we work hard and think fast. We view challenges as opportunities—to do better, push harder, and be faster than we were the day before. When we fail, we learn from it and move on together. And when we succeed, we use the momentum to go even further. We create value with everything we do, building the foundation of today—and transforming the future of tomorrow. Join ZT Systems and help us build technology infrastructure that connects the world. What We Offer At ZT Systems, a Sanmina Company, we believe that investing in our people is key to our continued growth and innovation. When you join our team, you’ll gain access to a comprehensive and inclusive benefits package designed to support your well-being, financial security, and professional development—both now and in the future. Compensation & Financial Security -Competitive base salary -Performance-based annual bonus eligibility -401(k)