Automation Engineers in Germany
in minutes from 15,000 CVs with the power of AIPLC control, SCADA integration, robotic cells, and industrial commissioning need people who can keep systems stable and code clean. FRATCH matches you fast with vetted, available freelancers who know the work.
Meet FRATCH Automation Engineers in Germany
William N.
Last position:
Power BI Solutions Architect/Engineer & AI Consultant at AVERDUNG GmbH
- Redesign of the company's BI infrastructure: replacement of a fragmented landscape of manually maintained Excel solutions and CSV imports with a centralized Power BI environment featuring a unified data model as the company-wide single source of truth
- Consolidation of previously isolated reporting logic into a central semantic model – eliminating redundant files, manual data transfers, and inconsistent metrics between departments
- Forecasting & planning: Design and implementation of company-wide liquidity planning in Power BI – from business logic to a fully automated, data-source-driven planning model replacing the previous manual Excel process; enables rolling forecasts and continuously up-to-date cash flow transparency for management
- Optimization of existing Power BI dashboards in terms of performance, structure, and analytical value using an AI-native approach
- Analysis and improvement of the data model, including data quality analyses, data cleansing, and consistent modeling using star schema, DAX, and Power Query
- Incident & anomaly analysis: Identification, investigation, and explanation of data anomalies, including root-cause analysis and concrete recommendations for action
- AI solution architecture: Connecting Business Central and Power BI to LangDock via MCP (Model Context Protocol) for AI-supported data usage
- Creation of a historical data layer as a basis for trend and time-series analyses
- AI-supported automation: Design and development of AI skills, agents, loops, and processes for the automated analysis and interpretation of reports
- Automated reporting workflow: Setup of scheduled, automated email distribution of AI-generated analyses and recommendations to stakeholders
- Gathering and documentation of business requirements and coordination with business departments and IT as part of requirements engineering / product owner activities
- Breaking down overall requirements into clearly defined work packages and tasks
- Definition, prioritization, and management of milestones throughout the entire project lifecycle
Tools: POWER BI, M365, Copilot Studio, MIRO, Microsoft Business Central, Microsoft Fabric, Claude AI, ChatGPT, LangDock, MS VS Code
Emil O.
Last position:
Automation Engineer In House at Prevas AB
Working as an Automation Engineer in Prevas' in-house engineering team. My primary assignment involves developing and expanding ABB 800xA SCADA systems for a large-scale data center project. Responsibilities include SCADA graphic design, alarm management, system integration using OPC UA and Modbus, testing, verification, documentation, and commissioning support. In addition, I contribute to PLC and HMI development projects using Siemens, Rockwell, and ABB platforms and provide 24/7 remote support for industrial customers.
- ABB 800xA & ControlBuilder/ AC800M
- Rockwell Studio 5000 Logix Designer
- Siemens TIA Portal
- ABB 800xA
- Remote Support
- Troubleshooting hardware/software
Philipp S.
Last position:
Solution Architect, Software Engineer, UX/UI Designer, Full-Stack Developer, Data Engineer, IT Consultant at Geigenbau-Meisterwerkstatt
- A digital system made up of special software and hardware components. The overall system replaces the traditional process with job slips and handwritten notes and enables more efficient order intake. Orders and work steps for the violin-making company’s projects can now be recorded, processed and logged in real time directly on the workshop’s touchscreen PC, by mobile phone or on the desktop. This gives customers a more transparent view of the work on their instruments and allows them to track the status and progress of their instrument through their customer account.
Tech stack: next.js, React, Flutter, Dart, Raspberry, Linux, Directus
Julian H.
Last position:
IT Project Manager AI Product for Automating Knowledge-Intensive Processes at Leading provider of large-scale catering & food services
Project: Design and implementation of an AI product for four business use cases
Project management for an AI project at a leading provider of large-scale catering and food services, where a production-ready AI product for four use cases was implemented together with an external development partner: automated briefings based on CRM and document data, voice-based capture and structuring of reports, detection and consolidation of duplicates in master data, and data-based market analyses. A key focus was a data-protection-compliant architecture that passed the internal IT security review and enabled production use.
- Translation of business requirements into clearly defined AI use cases with a focused product scope and clear value proposition
- Selection and evaluation of models and architecture options for text extraction, speech-to-text, and context enrichment from business systems, including LLM integration, function calling, and retrieval
- Development and implementation of an architecture with European hosting, data minimization, and masking of personal data as a prerequisite for approval
- Management of interfaces between business departments, IT, IT security, and the external development partner under restrictive data access conditions
- Coordination with the CIO and executive management levels on data access, risk assessment, and approval decisions
- Preparation for the transition to production use
Piet A.
Last position:
Founder at RubberMetrics.com
- Self-hosted table tennis equipment platform.
- Development of a custom “Racket Builder” that uses a co-evolutionary genetic algorithm to identify, evaluate, and recommend the optimal combinations of racket blades and rubbers based on physics heuristics and player data within a search space of over 4 billion combinations.
- Development of a custom fully automated web crawler to capture equipment specifications, integrating an automated pipeline for image normalization as well as data harmonization via DeepSeek.
- Cloudflare Edge Workers written in Rust to perform low-latency data searches and offload computationally intensive simulations from the main server.
- High performance and accessibility standards across a large Nuxt 4 codebase achieving 95–100/100/100 Lighthouse scores.
Youness R.
Last position:
Communication modernization and recipe management between S7-300, S7-1500 and WinCC V7 at Siemens AG
- Consulting and development of suitable communication concepts between S7-300 and S7-1500, taking the existing PROFIBUS infrastructure into account
- Technical support for connecting the S7-300 controllers to the existing recipe data block of the S7-1500
- Assisting in the development of the communication sequence for recipe access (read, write, acknowledge, status handling)
- Configuration of S7 communication (PUT/GET)
- Creation and adaptation of WinCC V7 scripts (C scripts and VBS scripts) for WinCC-based recipe management
- Development, optimization, and integration of recipe processes into the existing WinCC project structure
- Commissioning of the new communication interfaces and recommissioning of the recipe logic on existing systems
- Creation of technical documents: communication sequences, functional descriptions, commissioning documentation
Jens M.
Last position:
Automation project manager at Capgemini Engineering @ ACC Battery Factory
PSA, Peugeot Citroën, France (10/2023 – 05/2024)
- Launch Manager for electrode production rolling lines
- Setup, modernization, and commissioning of cleanroom production equipment
- Management of a team of 15 Chinese technicians
- Recovery of a three-month delay and on-schedule delivery
Artyom N.
Last position:
AI Automation Engineer & Solution Architect at Technology Research Project
Designed and developed an AI-powered automation platform using n8n to analyze social media niches, identify target audiences, and automate marketing strategy generation. The solution combined AI agents, workflow orchestration, and data analysis to automate research processes and generate data-driven insights.
- Designed and implemented complex automation workflows using n8n
- Developed AI-powered analysis agents for market and audience research
- Integrated multiple APIs and AI services into automated workflows
- Built automated market, competitor, and target audience analysis pipelines
- Leveraged Large Language Models (LLMs) for information summarization, classification, and prioritization
- Containerized and deployed the platform using Docker
Technologies: n8n, AI Agents, OpenAI APIs, Prompt Engineering, LLMs, Docker, Linux, REST APIs, Webhooks
Victor O.
Last position:
AI Training Engineer at Confidential AI Research Client
- Codebase Evaluation & Problem Design: Designed and stress-tested complex software engineering problems against large open-source Python codebases (including pandas), requiring deep context acquisition and architectural understanding to produce well-scoped, realistic problem statements aligned to strict correctness guidelines.
- Agent Failure Analysis: Assessed LLM coding agent solutions for correctness and completeness, identifying meaningful failures across edge case handling, dtype behaviour, and multi-column NaN propagation logic; documented findings with precision for downstream evaluation use.
- Programmatic Test Suite Development: Authored comprehensive pytest suites to programmatically verify agent-generated solutions against defined requirements, with deliberate coverage of boundary conditions and failure modes not caught by naive implementations.
- Containerised Environment Engineering: Built and debugged Docker environments for reproducible agent execution, including git-based repository provisioning, dependency pinning with npm ci, and multi-stage Dockerfile authoring across Linux-based containers.
Thomas M.
Last position:
Software Architect for Wix, Stripe & SaaS Integration at Axxessio / Sign2x (via DLB Studio)
Overall architecture and technical implementation of a Wix-based subscription frontend with Stripe payments and connection to Axxessio's SaaS backend. Implemented Stripe Checkout, subscriptions, webhooks, and transaction logging end to end. Customer data and contract information transferred automatically via a JWT-protected REST API. Designed and documented proxy and security architecture for IP whitelisting, HMAC, and operations, and aligned it with the backend team.
Stack: Wix Studio, Wix Velo, JavaScript, Stripe, Webhooks, JWT, HMAC, REST API, Hetzner, Cloudflare
Matthias L.
Last position:
Full Stack & AI Engineer at Elephant Technologies
Loom and Bloom
Python · TypeScript · n8n · Claude Code · Whisper · Gemini · Supabase · Notion · HubSpot · Digital Ocean
- Built an end-to-end content pipeline: one Loom video → marketing images, bilingual LinkedIn posts, newsletter and Help Center updates.
- n8n webhook → SSH → Claude Code session on a Digital Ocean VPS; three MCP servers (video, Notion, Supabase).
- Whisper word-level transcription, ffmpeg screenshots, Gemini UI annotation, PIL device mockups.
- Next.js upload UI plus a bilingual newsletter composer with HubSpot push.
Adnan U.
Last position:
Independent AI & Automation Projects
- Development of an automated job-scouting workflow for the aggregation and LLM-based evaluation of job postings from RSS feeds and APIs.
- Development of a Telegram bot for voice and text messages, featuring LLM-supported processing, summarization, and structured JSON output.
- Implementation of a personal task-planning assistant using n8n, OpenRouter, and Supabase for automated daily and knowledge organization.
- Development of LLM chatbots for structured knowledge retrieval utilizing prompt constraints, guardrails, and forced output formats.
René A.
Last position:
Test (Automation) Engineer at BWI GmbH
Introduced a unified test strategy to establish quality gates and define test activities for the 'ICaruS' subproject of the Bundeswehr
Built and implemented manual and automated tests, set up the test infrastructure, and introduced test management tools
Established KPIs and dashboards to present and distribute test metrics to project team members and stakeholders
Technologies used: Playwright, TypeScript, REST, PEGA Systems, Jira, HP ALM, GitLab Runner, Kubernetes, Git, VS Code, Angular, Scrum
Oliver F.
Last position:
Modernization of a multi-company backend system at Energy utility company
Enhancement and modernization of a mature Aspire backend application in the environment of a utility company, focusing on new business requirements, testing, legacy code cleanup, and stable backend delivery.
Core contributions & results Implemented new business requirements in the context of customer orders, subcontractors, and cross-company backend processes, and ensured consistent workflows in a distributed system landscape. Modernized existing backend components step by step and reduced technical debt through targeted legacy code cleanup, refactoring, and structured code reviews. Improved the testability of business-critical services by expanding automated tests with xUnit, AutoFixture, and clearer validation structures. Supported the further development of workflow automations and integration processes via microservices, messaging, and API-based communication. Took over source code from external firms, systematically checked code quality, and derived technical improvements for maintainability, stability, and integration. Worked in agile development processes with Jira, Confluence, and Azure DevOps and supported cross-team alignment on architecture, quality, and implementation. Technical metrics Technologies & methods C#, .NET, ASP.NET, ASP.NET Core, Aspire, Docker, RabbitMQ, gRPC, REST API, Swagger, Microservices, NServiceBus, AutoMapper, Autofac, xUnit, AutoFixture, FluentValidation, Entity Framework Core, MediatR, Redis, Consul, Serilog, SonarQube, Azure DevOps, Azure Monitor, GitLab, Google Protocol Buffers, IronPDF, Mailjet, Jira, Confluence, Miro, agile development, Scrum, code reviews, refactoring, legacy code cleanup, workflow automation, power grids
Matthias D.
Last position:
Project Building Automation WAGO at Ingenieurbüro Dräger
- Topic: Programming of heating controls
- Client: Hoffbauer Foundation
- Requirements: Analysis of existing systems, reprogramming, commissioning, documentation
- Focus: Development of automation solutions and control systems
- Technology: Codesys 3.5
Discover over 15,000 top freelancers
Automation Engineers statistics
Aggregated from the professional profiles of matched freelancers.
Experience
15 years
Position duration
2.4 years
Positions per freelancer
11
Top business areas
Product Development, Information Technology, Operations
Top industries
Manufacturing, Information Technology, Education
Certification focus areas
Information Technology, Product Development, Quality Assurance
Bachelor's degree or higher
86%
Master's degree or higher
53%
Doctorate
8%
Certifications per freelancer
2
Most common languages
German, English, French
Speak two or more languages
93%
Based on our profile pool as of 10 Sep 2026.
Daily rate distribution
The chart shows how the daily rates of freelancers in this role in Germany are distributed, based on recent contracts on our platform. Each bar covers a rate range — its height shows how many freelancers charge within that range.
Discover detailed Automation Engineers rate benchmarks:
Explore rate insightsAverage rates for Automation Engineers in Germany
Rates are based on recent contracts and do not include FRATCH margin.
The average daily rate is the mean of all daily rates from recent contracts of comparable freelancers on our platform.
The median daily rate is the middle value of all daily rates — half of comparable freelancers charge less, half charge more. Unlike the average, it is barely affected by outliers.
Calculated based on our freelancers’ daily rates as of 10 Sep 2026. Actual rates may vary depending on seniority level, experience, skill specialization, project complexity, and engagement length.
Automation Engineers experts industry focus
See which industries our matched freelancers work in most often — every figure is calculated live from the freelancers on FRATCH.
- Manufacturing (69%)
- Information Technology (57%)
- Education (38%)
- Automotive (36%)
- Energy (31%)
- Banking and Finance (31%)
- Food and Beverage (29%)
- Healthcare (24%)
Please note that freelancers can work across multiple industries, so percentages overlap.
About the role
What they do
Automation engineers design, build, and improve control systems that keep machines and production lines running. They turn process logic into reliable code, connect sensors and actuators, and make sure equipment behaves as the plant needs it to.
- PLC programming and control logic
- SCADA and HMI setup
- Robot and machine integration
- Commissioning and troubleshooting
- Documentation and handover support
Core skills
Strong automation work needs more than coding. A good engineer understands electrical systems, industrial safety, process flow, and how operators use the line every day. They can read schematics, debug faults under pressure, and coordinate with mechanics, electricians, and production teams.
Common tools and environments include PLC platforms, SCADA systems, industrial networks, motion control, and versioned control code. In practice, the right person is comfortable moving between office design work and plant-floor reality.
When companies hire
Companies bring in freelance automation engineers when a project needs extra capacity, specialist knowledge, or temporary cover for an internal team. That is common during plant upgrades, new line launches, retrofit work, and fault-heavy commissioning phases.
In Germany, this is often useful for manufacturers, machine builders, automotive suppliers, packaging companies, and process plants that need someone who can work with local teams, technical documentation, and on-site constraints. Remote support can help with code review and testing prep, but on-site time is often needed for commissioning and debugging.
Typical deliverables
A strong automation engineer leaves behind working systems, clear documentation, and fewer recurring faults. The exact output depends on the site, but the best freelancers can own a defined part of the control stack from design through startup.
- PLC software and control sequences
- HMI screens and alarm logic
- Test and commissioning support
- Fault analysis and root-cause fixes
- Technical handover documents
What good looks like
Good automation professionals write code that is readable, maintainable, and safe to modify later. They test carefully, document changes clearly, and flag risks early instead of hiding them until startup.
They also know how to work with production pressure. A reliable automation engineer stays calm during line stops, communicates clearly with operations, and focuses on getting the system stable without creating new problems.
How to choose
The best fit depends on your stack and your plant environment. Look for real experience with the control platform you use, the kind of machinery you run, and the phase of work you need help with.
For Germany-based projects, it also helps if the freelancer can work comfortably with local technical teams and, when needed, be present on site for testing, commissioning, or acceptance work. That mix matters more than a generic CV.
Frequently asked questions
Questions about Automation Engineers? Start with the answers below.
A Automation Engineer builds, adapts, and troubleshoots control systems for machines, production lines, and process equipment. In a freelance setup, the work often includes PLC logic, HMI or SCADA changes, commissioning support, and fixing issues that block startup or stable operation.
Look for strong PLC programming, control-system troubleshooting, and the ability to read electrical diagrams and machine behavior together. A good automation engineer also understands testing, documentation, and how to work with production and maintenance teams. For many projects, practical experience matters more than general software skills.
The terms often overlap, but an Automation Engineer usually covers a broader scope than a pure PLC programmer. They may handle control logic, plant integration, HMI work, commissioning, and support after startup. A controls engineer can be similar, depending on the company and industry.
A freelancer makes sense when you need specialist help for a defined project, extra capacity during a busy period, or fast support for a plant issue. That is common in upgrades, new line launches, and commissioning work. It is also useful when your internal team knows the plant but lacks time for hands-on implementation.
Part of the job can be done remotely, especially software review, documentation, simulation, and preparation work. But an Automation Engineer often needs at least some on-site time for wiring checks, I/O tests, startup, and fault finding. The right mix depends on the machine, the risk level, and the phase of the project.
In Germany, automation work is common in manufacturing, automotive supply, packaging, food production, and process industries. These clients usually need people who can fit into existing engineering teams and work with local technical standards and plant routines. On-site collaboration is often important during commissioning and acceptance.
A good Automation Engineer should deliver working control code, clear HMI or SCADA changes, test support, and documentation that others can maintain. Depending on the project, they may also provide fault reports, commissioning notes, and handover material for operations or maintenance teams. The key is not just delivery, but stable behavior after startup.
Ask for examples of machines or lines they have supported, the control platforms they know, and the problems they solved under time pressure. Strong candidates explain how they test, document, and hand over their work instead of only listing tools. For freelance work, proven project delivery is usually the best signal.
The average hourly rate for Automation Engineers in Germany is 93 €, which corresponds to a daily rate of about 747 € based on an 8-hour working day.
Of the freelancers working as Automation Engineers in Germany, 86% hold at least a Bachelor's degree, 53% hold at least a Master's degree, and 8% hold a doctorate.
On average, freelancers working as Automation Engineers in Germany have 15 years of professional experience, with a single engagement typically lasting around 2.4 years.
The most common languages among freelancers working as Automation Engineers in Germany are German (100%), English (90%), and French (19%).
The most common industries among freelancers working as Automation Engineers in Germany are Manufacturing (69%), Information Technology (57%), and Education (38%).
The most common business areas among freelancers working as Automation Engineers in Germany are Product Development (83%), Information Technology (81%), and Operations (67%).
FRATCH Automation Engineers main locations
Our freelancers and interim experts are at home across the DACH region — available on-site in the major business hubs or fully remote. Choose a location to discover matched specialists, local market insights and up-to-date availability.
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Philipp Thomaschewski
FRATCH CEO
