Job benefits
About the position
Your responsibilities and tasks
Strategic & Technical Leadership
Lead automation software, hardware, and controls engineering teams delivering batch and material‑handling execution systems.
Define and execute long‑term automation roadmaps for software and hardware platforms, ensuring alignment with business strategy and emerging technologies.
Ensure automation designs and engineering practices comply with all relevant industrial and regulatory standards, including GAMP, FDA, CE, ATEX, IECEx, NEC, EN13849, EN62061, and IEC62443‑4‑1.
Drive continuous improvement in engineering quality across documentation, software, hardware, and control panels.
Department Planning, Capacity & Governance
Create, maintain, and report on departmental resource and capacity plans to ensure delivery against project milestones and business commitments.
Conduct regular project reviews with stakeholders, providing governance, issue resolution, and performance transparency.
Support hot‑prospect planning and ensure the department is prepared for upcoming opportunities.
Define, maintain, and enforce departmental procedures to ensure efficient workflows and consistent execution.
Budget Ownership & Financial Performance
Manage and report on departmental budgets, project forecasts, and financial performance.
Ensure projects are delivered efficiently and within financial constraints, controlling departmental non‑recoverable costs.
Drive cost‑reduction initiatives internally and in collaboration with project management, supply chain, and other teams.
Make data‑driven decisions that optimize efficiency, quality, and project profitability.
People Leadership & Capability Development
Build a strong leadership pipeline and develop future leaders through structured capability‑building programs.
Drive in‑house competency development to strengthen internal capability and reduce reliance on external resources.
Develop and maintain external resource partnerships to supplement departmental capacity when required.
Manage the departmental skills matrix and lead training programs to ensure the team’s technical and leadership growth.
Customer & Commercial Engagement
Maintain a strong customer‑centric approach, ensuring timely responses, high satisfaction, and professional engagement.
Support sales teams with technical input for front‑end quotations and proposals.
Provide expertise to after‑sales service teams for upgrades, retrofits, and maintenance support.
Travel as required to support customer engagements, project execution, team activities, and company initiatives.
Your profile and qualifications
- Education: Degree or Master’s in Automation or related field
10+ years of experience in automation engineering, with at least 3 years in a leadership role.
Extensive experience in automation within life sciences or similarly regulated industries.
Strong knowledge of automation standards, regulatory frameworks, and functional safety.
Proven track record of leading engineering teams and delivering complex automation projects.
Demonstrated experience in budget ownership, financial reporting, and cost‑control initiatives.
Excellent communication, stakeholder management, and decision‑making skills.
Customer‑focused, quality‑driven, and committed to delivery excellence.
Collaborative leader who inspires teams, drives accountability, and navigates complexity effectively.
About GEA
GEA is one of the largest suppliers for the food and beverage processing industry and a wide range of other process industries. Approximately 18,000 employees in more than 60 countries contribute significantly to GEA’s success – come and join them! We offer interesting and challenging tasks, a positive working environment in international teams and opportunities for personal development and growth in a global company.
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Join a top employer
GEA is certified as a Top Employer by the Top Employers Institute for Europe. We have high scores for Leadership, Ethics & Integrity and Sustainability.
GEA careers
A world of opportunities
We’re a global industrial engineering company and one of the world’s largest systems suppliers for the food, beverage and pharmaceutical sectors, and many others. GEA offers exciting and diverse training and career opportunities around the world.
GEA careers
About GEA
GEA’s heritage stretches back more than 140 years. Today, we operate in resilient customer industries with a dedicated workforce of more than 18,000 employees and conduct business with more than 150 countries.
