Team Lead Automation

J-Tec Material Handling is part of the Katoen Natie group. Katoen Natie is a global logistics and applied engineering provider. To optimally serve its customers, the organization is decentralized in business units. Each business unit acts independently and offers its clients tailor made solutions. J-Tec Material Handling is the process engineering business unit of the group, offering material handling and process engineering solutions to the industry market leaders, in the chemical and food industries all over the world. We build turnkey process installations for our customers. Our company always strives to make a difference in terms of inventively, flexibility and performance. We execute both green
- and brownfield projects of different sizes with an average implementation time of one to two years. We are a fast-growing company with an international team of more than 350 employees (and counting). We have offices in Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Thailand and the US. As an Automation Team Lead, you combine technical automation expertise with project coordination, people leadership, and improvement development. You are responsible for the successful execution of the automation scope within our projects. You combine technical automation expertise with project coordination and leadership. You are the main point of contact for the automation scope and ensure that the team delivers a high-quality solution according to the agreed functionality, schedule, and budget.

Key Responsibilities
Project Start & Team Coordination
• Review the project scope, requirements, milestones, interfaces, and automation deliverables.
• Divide responsibilities and work packages within the automation team.
• Lead the preparation and review of the functional analysis for the automation scope.
• Ensure that the functional design forms a solid basis for PLC, HMI/SCADA.
• Define activities, deliverables, milestones, dependencies, and required resources based upon their competences.
• Provide clear status updates on progress, priorities, risks, and outstanding actions.
• Monitor the automation engineering budget throughout the project.
• Track engineering effort and remaining workload against the project budget.
• Identify potential overruns at an early stage.
• Support decisions regarding priorities, resources, scope changes, and additional work.
• Ensure that automation documentation is created, reviewed, updated, and delivered according to project requirements.
• Maintain consistency and traceability between functional requirements, software implementation, testing, and final project documentation.
• Coordinate the preparation and execution of the Factory Acceptance Test (FAT). Strategic Development & Continuous Improvement:
• Contribute to the development and execution of the automation department strategy.
• Identify opportunities to improve engineering efficiency, project execution, standardization
• Drive continuous improvement related to tools, workflows, engineering.
• Support the implementation of new technologies, innovation initiatives.
• Monitor industry trends and technological developments People Management & Team Development
• Lead, coach, and support the automation engineering team.
• Identify training and facilitate technical and personal development programs
• Foster a collaborative, motivated, and high-performing team culture.
• Participate in recruitment, onboarding, and retention activities.

Your profile
• A Bachelor’s or master’s degree in Automation or Industrial Engineering.
• 10 years of experience in industrial automation and project execution.
• Strong knowledge of PLC, HMI/SCADA, industrial networks and instrumentation.
• Experience with functional analysis and automation software design.
• Experience coordinating engineers or leading an automation work package.
• Good understanding of project planning, resource allocation.
• Experience with FAT, SAT, commissioning, and troubleshooting.
• A structured approach to technical documentation and document control.
• Experience in coaching, mentoring, and developing automation engineers.
• Interest in driving continuous improvement, standardization, and departmental growth. Your Strengths
• Technically strong, structured and organized.
• A team leader, capable of assigning responsibilities and supporting engineers.
• Cost-conscious, understanding the relationship between engineering decisions.
• Quality-driven, ensuring that software, documentation, and testing.
• Communicative, acting as a clear interface between the automation team, project management and the customer.
• A people developer, passionate about coaching and helping engineers.
• A strategic thinker, capable of balancing project execution with long-term departmental improvements and innovation initiatives. Required Experience 10 years

We offer
•The opportunity to join a growing, international company with a flat hierarchy and short communication lines.
• You will be part of a team of experienced and highly motivated colleagues in a position where dialogue, brainstorming and teamwork are the key elements.
• You will join a stable team in a dynamic working environment with an emphasis on personal development.
• Internal and external training to support the growth of your skills and knowledge.
• A competitive salary package with extra-legal

benefits:
mealvouchers, ecocheques, bicycle lease, company car, ...
• Autonomy in the organization and carrying out of your work, flexible

working hours
and the possibility of working occasionally from home.