How to become an Automation Engineer
Automation engineer is really two jobs wearing the same name. One writes code that tests and deploys software, the other programs the machines on a factory floor. Figure out which one you're chasing before you touch your resume, because the routes in barely overlap.
Software automation or plant automation
Read the posting before you read the title. If it mentions Selenium, Playwright, Jenkins or pull requests, it's a software role, and you'll spend your days writing test suites and fixing pipelines that broke overnight. If it mentions PLCs, HMIs, SCADA, ladder logic or commissioning, it's a controls role, and you'll spend real time on a plant floor in steel-toe boots.
Both jobs share a mindset. You find the task a person does by hand over and over, and you make a machine do it reliably. The daily texture is very different, though. Software automation engineers live in Jira tickets, code review and stand-ups. Controls engineers live in panel drawings, startup schedules and late calls from a line supervisor whose conveyor just stopped.
The part people don't love is the same on both sides: when your automation works, nobody notices. When it breaks, everyone knows your name. You'll chase a flaky test that fails only on the build server, or a sensor that trips only on the night shift, and neither shows up on anybody's list of wins.
Four ways people get the job
From manual QA into test automation
This is the most common path on the software side. If you already test software by hand, start automating the regression checks you run every release. Pick one language your team uses, usually Python, Java or JavaScript, learn one framework properly, and get your scripts running in the team's CI pipeline. A working suite your team actually relies on is the best interview material you'll ever have.
From software development
Developers move into automation when they end up owning the build and test tooling nobody else wants. If you're the person who fixes the GitHub Actions workflow and writes the integration tests, you're already halfway there. Lean into it: learn Docker, learn how your test runner reports results, and make the pipeline faster. Those are the stories hiring managers want.
From an engineering degree into controls
Plant automation roles usually want an electrical, mechanical or mechatronics engineering degree. Graduates often start at a systems integrator, a firm that builds and commissions control systems for many different plants. The travel can be heavy and the startups run long, but you'll see more kinds of equipment in a short stretch than most in-house engineers see in years.
From technician or electrician
Maintenance techs and industrial electricians who already troubleshoot PLCs can step up into controls engineering. Take on the program changes your plant engineer usually handles, document what you did, and ask to sit in on the next line upgrade. Some employers will want a degree for the engineer title anyway. A technical college program or an ISA certification like Certified Automation Professional can help close that gap, though it's worth checking which one local employers actually recognize.
Words that show up in automation postings
Applicant tracking systems and recruiters both scan for the exact tool names, so use the posting's wording when it's true for you. Don't list a tool you've only watched a video about. Someone in the interview will ask you to use it.
Turn a duty into a result
Responsible for writing automated tests for the web application.
Built a Playwright regression suite of 340 tests that runs on every pull request in GitHub Actions, cutting release testing from 3 days to 40 minutes.
What gets you past the first screen
Hiring managers for automation roles don't care much about a long list of tools. They care whether something you built kept running after you walked away. So describe what you automated, where it runs, and what stopped happening because of it: fewer escaped bugs, a shorter release window, a line that stopped jamming at shift change.
For software roles, a public repo helps more than a certificate. Put a small but clean test framework on GitHub with page objects, a readable README and a pipeline that runs it. For controls roles, photos can't show much, so talk through a real startup instead. Say what the sequence was supposed to do, what went wrong on the first run, and how you found it.
One honest warning. Plenty of software teams still treat automation engineers as second-class developers. If the posting reads like a manual tester's job with the word automation bolted on, ask in the interview how much of the week is spent writing code. The answer tells you which job you're really getting.
What Automation Engineer postings ask for
Hiring the most
- Anduril Industries42
- Abbott26
- 360ITProfessionals112
- bah.wd1/BAH_Jobs12
- Bah11
Remote
7% of openings are fully remote.
Posted pay
$99,234.39 – $129,000
Typical range in the 27 of the newest 60 postings that list pay.
Questions people ask
Do I need a computer science degree to become an automation engineer?
Not for most software test automation jobs. Plenty of people come in from manual QA or a bootcamp and prove themselves with working code. Plant controls roles are different: they often ask for an engineering degree, though some employers promote experienced technicians who already program PLCs.
Which programming language should I learn first for test automation?
Learn the one the teams you want to join already use. Python and JavaScript are the easiest places to start, and Java still shows up in a lot of larger enterprise shops. Get good at one before you touch a second.
Is automation engineering a stressful job?
It comes in bursts. Most weeks are steady building and fixing. The stress lands around releases on the software side and around startups and line outages on the controls side, when everybody is waiting on your fix.
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