Automation Engineer - 12-month Secondment / Fixed Term Contract (FTC) in Barnard Castle

At GSK’s Barnard Castle site, we are looking to recruit an Automation Engineer to join our team. GSK Barnard Castle is a key secondary manufacturing site and has invested heavily in industry 4.0 state of the art, bespoke equipment to support sustained new product introductions and volume increases. The automation engineering team provides technical expertise to support the manufacturing automation and control systems for all production operations across the manufacturing site. This role would predominantly be site-based (although there are flexible working policies in place). We provide external training where required and support personal development and progression alongside opportunities for further education and professional registration.

Job Purpose

As an Automation Engineer, you will provide technical expertise for all automation and control system activities on new and existing equipment and facilities across the site. This will include providing support to members of the team and making strategic decisions on situations within areas of expertise.

Key responsibilities:

• Provide technical expertise on advanced automated manufacturing/packaging processes, inputting into user requirement specifications and signing off automation elements of capital projects as system owner.
• Work alongside cross-functional groups through complex technical challenges and improvement initiatives, ensuring alignment with engineering standards and guides.
• Ensure compliance of owned areas with internal and external standards, including OT Security Standards, and build cybersecurity awareness within engineering/production teams.
• Review and assess obsolescence risks for the allocated Production Business Unit, collaborating with the Capital Projects team to drive facility improvements.
• Maintain and manage the site asset register for automation equipment within the allocated Production Business Unit.
• Liaise with central teams to develop new automation technologies and standards, and review supplier performance on costs, compliance, and milestone delivery.
• Provide technical expertise to engineering technicians, including assisting with complex equipment failures, CAPA implementation and improvement activities.
• Act as the point of contact for production automation support, focusing on equipment performance, with flexibility in working hours as required.
• Participate in Continuous Improvement activities, including DMAIC, RCA, and CAPA processes and input into deviations as automation SME.

Please Note: This secondment / Fixed Term Contract (FTC) is expected to last circa 12 months in duration. Please ensure you have spoken with your line manager to ensure they are supportive of your application.

About You

This role is suited to a motivated person with good influencing, communication, and teamworking skills. A successful candidate will have a passion for understanding and mastering a variety of complex automation systems and must have a keen interest in the development and deployment of emerging technologies into beneficial use.

Basic Qualifications / Skills:

• Relevant engineering qualification (e.g., Recognised Apprenticeship in Electrical, Instrumentation/Controls Engineering or Computer Science discipline or similar) or Engineering degree.
• Experience working in a Pharmaceutical or highly regulated industry including Manufacturing Environments.
• Technical and operational knowledge of Automation systems (SCADA, PLC, HMI, Servo, Vision, Field Instrumentation) for off the shelf and bespoke process and production equipment.

Preferred Qualifications / Skills:

• Knowledge / experience of Siemens equipment including S5, S7, PCS7, TIA portal and WinCC.
• Appreciation of Operational Technology Cyber Security.

If you would like to learn more about our company-wide benefits and life at GSK, we would suggest looking at our webpage Life at GSK | GSK.

GSK is an Equal Opportunity Employer. This ensures that all qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment without regard to race, colour, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation), parental status, national origin, age, disability, genetic information (including family medical history), military service or any basis prohibited under federal, state or local law.

We believe in an agile working culture for all our roles. If flexibility is important to you, we encourage you to explore with our hiring team what the opportunities are.