automation engineer
Automation engineers research, design, and develop applications and systems for the automation of the production process. They implement technology and reduce, whenever applicable, human input to reach the full potential of industrial robotics. Automation engineers oversee the process and ensure all systems run safely and smoothly.
automation engineer automation engineers research, design, and develop applications and systems for the automation of the production process. They implement technology and reduce, whenever applicable, human input to reach the full potential of industrial robotics. The role shows moderate AI exposure (0.50 on a 0-1 scale) — some tasks are being automated but the role adapts. The most in-demand skills for the role include production processes, engineering principles, manufacturing processes, design drawings, electrical engineering.
Pay in the UK
UK: median £47,946 a year for Production and process engineers (ONS ASHE 2025, full-time)
Middle half of full-time jobs: £39,642 to £58,754 a year
UK jobs are grouped differently; this is the closest UK occupation group (ONS SOC 2020 2125). ONS rates this estimate precise. 2025 provisional figures; ONS revises them a year later. Source: ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (Open Government Licence)
Pay in India (occupation group)
Average monthly earnings of salaried employees in the occupation group “Professionals” in India, from the Government of India's Periodic Labour Force Survey (January–December 2025). It covers everyone in this group, not only automation engineer, and it is not US pay converted to rupees.
Source: MoSPI (Government of India), Periodic Labour Force Survey Annual Report 2025, Table 51 — average wage/salary earnings of regular wage/salaried employees, NCO-2015 division 2. Official India data gives one average per occupation group: there are no official India figures for single careers, experience levels or cities. Read the report
Top skills
Frequently asked questions
What does automation engineer do?
Automation engineers research, design, and develop applications and systems for the automation of the production process. They implement technology and reduce, whenever applicable, human input to reach the full potential of industrial robotics. Automation engineers oversee the process and ensure all systems run safely and smoothly.
What skills does automation engineer need?
The most in-demand skills for this role include production processes, engineering principles, manufacturing processes, design drawings, electrical engineering, mathematics. These are the skills O*NET identifies as most important for competent performance.
Will AI replace automation engineer?
Our AI-durability model gives automation engineer a score of 0.50 on a 0-1 scale (higher = more exposure). That places it at moderate AI exposure — some tasks are being automated but the role adapts. Learning to work with AI tools rather than against them is the path forward.