Pharmacia & Upjohn Company Posted October 14, 2026

Automation Engineer

Rocky Mount, United States Full time
Notify me about similar jobs

Pharmacia & Upjohn Company is the source of truth for this posting and owns the application process. We surface normalized context and market comparison you won't find on the original listing.

About this opportunity

Use Your Power for Purpose

Whether you are involved in the design and development of manufacturing processes for products or supporting maintenance and reliability, engineering is crucial to ensuring customers and patients receive the medicines they need, precisely when they need them. By collaborating with our forward-thinking engineering team, you'll play a key role in accelerating the delivery of medicines to the world. Your innovative ideas and proactive actions will help us imagine new possibilities and bring them to life, ensuring that vital medications reach those in need more swiftly and efficiently. Your contributions will be instrumental in enhancing manufacturing information systems, boosting success rates, and ensuring zero downtime. By integrating manufacturing processes, operational knowledge, equipment control, and data into cohesive systems, you will enforce seamless operations across various departments. Your dedication will be pivotal in meeting project objectives and goals, fostering a collaborative team environment, and driving your colleagues towards success.

The Automation Engineer is a member of the Site Digital & Automation Team and is responsible for supporting automation operations, maintenance, and lifecycle activities for site automation and digital systems supporting manufacturing operations. This role provides hands-on technical support to ensure production continuity, system reliability, validated state, and regulatory compliance, working closely with Operations, Engineering, and Core Digital & Automation partners.

What You Will Achieve

In this role, you will:

Support day-to-day operation and technical performance of production-critical automation and digital systems to maintain system reliability and production continuity.

Troubleshoot automation system issues and support investigations, deviations, unplanned events, escalation, recovery, and root-cause data gathering.

Maintain automation systems in a validated and compliant state by following established change management, validation, engineering, and documentation practices.

Develop and maintain lifecycle documentation, including standard operating procedures, system specifications, change records, incident documentation, and resolution steps.

Operate and support control systems and automation infrastructure, including DCS, PLC, SCADA, HMI, and PC-based production systems.

Support the installation, testing, commissioning, and implementation of automation system and software changes using approved processes and coding standards.

Participate in business continuity planning, system recovery testing, regulatory inspections, and audits to support operational resilience and compliance.

Collaborate with Operations, Engineering, and Digital and Automation partners on cross-functional problem-solving, standardization, and continuous improvement initiatives that enhance system reliability and performance.

Execute Good Manufacturing Practices and verification protocols.

Provide continuous 24x7x365 support for automation systems.

Monitor and identify issues to develop preventative solutions.

Support the development of Preventive Maintenance Procedures for process control systems.

Adhere to safe work practices consistently.

Contribute to project milestones, organize work to meet deadlines, and communicate progress and issues to peers.

Learn and apply basic team effectiveness skills within the immediate Work Team.

Make decisions to resolve basic problems with limited options and decision-making authority, under supervisor's direction.

Work in a structured environment using established procedures, seeking guidance from colleagues, with regular reviews for technical judgment, completeness, and accuracy, relying on the supervisor's judgment.

Here Is What You Need (Minimum Requirements)

Applicant must have a bachelor's degree with 0+ years of experience; OR an associate's degree with 4 years of experience; OR a high school diploma (or equivalent) and 6 years of relevant experience

Hands-on experience with engineering design and validation

Demonstrated organizational skills to meet project task deadlines effectively

Excellent communication and interpersonal skills

Experience with automated systems and equipment

Knowledge of Good Manufacturing Practices

Ability to provide 24x7x365 support for automation systems

Bonus Points If You Have (Preferred Requirements)

Experience supporting automation control systems in pharmaceutical industry engineering

Knowledge of automation systems such as PLC, SCADA, and HMI.

Familiarity with Preventive Maintenance Procedures for process control systems

Ability to monitor issues and develop preventative solutions

Experience with manufacturing information systems

Excellent judgment and decision-making skills

Experience using common AI tools, including generative technologies such as ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot, to support problem solving and enhance productivity. Demonstrated curiosity for exploring how these tools can improve outcomes and understanding of responsible AI practices, including risk management and ethical use

Work Location Assignment: On Premise

The annual base salary for this position ranges from $68,600.00 to $114,300.00. In addition, this position is eligible for participation in Pfizer’s Global Performance Plan with a bonus target of 7.5% of the base salary. We offer comprehensive and generous benefits and programs to help our colleagues lead healthy lives and to support each of life’s moments. Benefits offered include a 401(k) plan with Pfizer Matching Contributions and an additional Pfizer Retirement Savings Contribution, paid vacation, holiday and personal days, paid caregiver/parental and medical leave, and health benefits to include medical, prescription drug, dental and vision coverage. Learn more at Pfizer Candidate Site – U.S. Benefits | (uscandidates.mypfizerbenefits.com). Pfizer compensation structures and benefit packages are aligned based on the location of hire. The United States salary range provided does not apply to Tampa, FL or any location outside of the United States.

Relocation assistance may be available based on business needs and/or eligibility.

Candidates must be authorized to be employed in the U.S. by any employer.

U.S. work visa sponsorship (such as TN, O-1, H-1B, etc.) is not available for this role now or in the future.

Sunshine Act

Pfizer reports payments and other transfers of value to health care providers as required by federal and state transparency laws and implementing regulations.  These laws and regulations require Pfizer to provide government agencies with information such as a health care provider’s name, address and the type of payments or other value received, generally for public disclosure.  Subject to further legal review and statutory or regulatory clarification, which Pfizer intends to pursue, reimbursement of recruiting expenses for licensed physicians may constitute a reportable transfer of value under the federal transparency law commonly known as the Sunshine Act.  Therefore, if you are a licensed physician who incurs recruiting expenses as a result of interviewing with Pfizer that we pay or reimburse, your name, address and the amount of payments made currently will be reported to the government.  If you have questions regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to contact your Talent Acquisition representative.

EEO & Employment Eligibility

Pfizer is committed to equal opportunity in the terms and conditions of employment for all employees and job applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, gender identity or gender expression, national origin, disability or veteran status.  Pfizer also complies with all applicable national, state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment as well as work authorization and employment eligibility verification requirements of the Immigration and Nationality Act and IRCA.  Pfizer is an E-Verify employer.  This position requires permanent work authorization in the United States.

Pfizer endeavors to make   www.pfizer.com/careers   accessible to all users. If you would like to contact us regarding the accessibility of our website or need assistance completing the application process and/or interviewing, please email   disabilityrecruitment@pfizer.com . This is to be used solely for accommodation requests with respect to the accessibility of our website, online application process and/or interviewing. Requests for any other reason will not be returned.

To learn more about acceptable and prohibited uses of AI during the recruitment process, please review our candidate AI-use guidelines available on  Pfizer Careers .

Engineering

Job details

Seniority
Not listed
Function
Manufacturing & CMC
Therapeutic area
Not listed
Location
Rocky Mount, United States
Employment type
Full time

How this role compares

Computed from every other active Manufacturing & CMC role in our database, not just this employer's listings.

We currently track 3720 comparable Manufacturing & CMC roles across 172 biopharma companies.

3720Comparable roles tracked
3319Currently active
172Companies hiring similar roles
64Countries represented

Salary context

905 of 3720 peers report a salary range (USD, annualized)

Peers share this role's job function. This posting doesn't list a seniority level, so peers aren't narrowed by seniority either -- the range below may span more levels than usual.

This roleSubject $68,600/yr – $114,300/yr
Highest disclosed · Head of Analytical Development · ModernaTX, Inc. $272,200/yr – $490,100/yr
Peer group range $0 – $381,150 (median $127,600)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 3720 comparable roles

United States1723
Germany246
India162
France148
Ireland133
China121

+ 58 more countries

Seniority mix

1647 of 3720 peers have a known seniority level

Senior429
Manager374
Intern/Fellow/Postdoc251
Associate165
Principal134
Director118
Associate Director114
Senior Director53
Executive/VP9

Therapeutic area mix

24 of 3720 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Vaccines & Infectious Disease15
Rare Disease3
Oncology3
Respiratory1
Dermatology & Aesthetics1
Immunology1

Similar opportunities

The closest matches from our peer group, ranked by how similar they are, not how well you'd qualify for them -- treat this as market context, not a guaranteed shortlist; a weak match is labeled as one below.

40%similar
AstraZeneca New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America
Same function Same country
40%similar
40%similar
Lilly Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America Director
Same function Same country
40%similar
Lilly Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America Director
Same function Same country
40%similar
Lilly Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America Intern/Fellow/Postdoc
Same function Same country
40%similar
Lilly Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America Director
Same function Same country

Notify me about similar jobs

Get an email when we spot other openings like this one – same job function, comparable seniority, roles you'd actually want to see.

Or follow a whole field: get every new Manufacturing & CMC job in the United States, and choose locations and companies.

How we calculate "similar"

No black box, no LLM guesswork: a deterministic score built from four normalized attributes. Here's this role's own peer group at different match levels, so you can see the mechanism, not just the result.

Every comparison starts from the same 100-point budget: 25 for working in the same function, 40 for the same therapeutic area, 20 for the same or adjacent seniority, 15 for the same country. A dimension we can't confirm on both sides contributes nothing, never a guess, never a free pass.

40%
Development Scientist III, Analytical Development and Clinical Quality Control
AstraZeneca · New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America · Seniority not listed
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
40%
Director - Analytical Chemistry
Lilly · Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America · Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
40%
Director, Global Regulatory Affairs - Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls (CMC), Platform Innovation - Small Molecules
Lilly · Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America · Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
40%
Principal Scientist/Engineer, Drug/Device Combination Products - Device Characterization
Merck · Rahway, New Jersey, United States of America · Principal
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
Unmatched or unknown dimensions score exactly the same: 0 points, never a partial guess. A role we know almost nothing about beyond its function bottoms out at 25%; it never inflates to 100% just because there's little to compare against. Seniority uses a defined ladder (Associate → Manager → Associate Director → Senior → Principal → Director → Senior Director → Executive/VP) so "Director" and "Senior Director" count as adjacent, but "Director" and "Executive/VP" do not.