An automation engineer who knows your PLC brand and your type of line is something else than someone with automation on their CV. AltusConnect searches for PLC programmers, automation engineers and maintenance technicians with an automation background for machine builders, system integrators and manufacturers that automate their own lines.
Demand grows faster than the number of graduates, and the knowledge is tied to a brand: someone working on Siemens is not immediately productive on Rockwell or Beckhoff. VDAB lists both the industrial automation designer and the industrial automation maintenance technician as bottleneck professions, citing too few candidates and too few with the right training.
Integrator or manufacturer: two different searches
Integrators offer variety and pay well, which makes it harder for a manufacturer to attract an automation engineer. Conversely, engineers who have spent years on the road sometimes want one fixed site. We keep in touch with those people so we can approach them when your vacancy fits their next step.
What an automation engineer wants to know
Whether the projects are technically interesting, whether they get a say in the architecture rather than only fixing faults, and how much travel or nights away the role involves. A company car or mobility budget is also among the questions we go through with you beforehand.
The question. A process operator is a bottleneck profession: those who can do it already work somewhere in shifts and rarely apply actively. Waiting for a fitting application would have left this vacancy open for months.
What we did. We approached the right people ourselves: operators who were not looking but were open to a conversation. One of them was interested in the site and the shift system, and we guided that conversation step by step.
The result. A placement with the client, with a candidate no job board would have surfaced.
Food, Brussels region
Technical manager with a very specific profile
The question. The role combined requirements that rarely come together. The client was receiving profiles from all sides that looked right on paper but fell through in every interview. That cost time and trust.
What we did. A thorough intake, down to the installations and the management style, followed by strict screening. We only introduced candidates we had interviewed at length ourselves and who matched every hard requirement.
The result. Fewer profiles than the client was used to, but the right ones: the role is filled and the stream of unsuitable CVs has stopped.
Real assignments, anonymised. We name no clients and no figures that are not ours.
Yes, if your installation requires it. We search by platform and application: whoever works on your brand and your type of line today comes first. If the brand matters less than the engineering thinking, we widen the search after talking it through.
Do you also find maintenance technicians with automation skills?
Yes. The maintenance profile is shifting more and more towards automation, and VDAB treats it as a separate bottleneck category. With those candidates we check concretely whether they can read and adjust a program, or only reset a fault.
Do you also work for system integrators?
Yes. Integrators and machine builders often look for the same profiles as manufacturers, but offer a different kind of job with more on-site projects. We tell you honestly which profile fits your offer and where you compete with other employers.
What if our salary is not enough for an experienced automation engineer?
Then you hear it after the intake, not at the end of the search. We show what experienced candidates expect and look together at whether a junior with growth potential or an adjusted package is the better route.