Automation Engineer

OT Network & HMI Engineer | Industrial Cybersecurity

Gelderland, Netherlands | Hybrid | Freelance or Permanent

The Opportunity

I'm currently working with a well-established Dutch manufacturer of industrial bakery equipment, with more than a century of engineering heritage.

The company designs and builds everything from standalone machines to complete, integrated production lines for customers across the US, Africa, Asia and Australia.

They are now looking to strengthen their Line Control team with an experienced engineer who can work across OT networking, HMI development and industrial cybersecurity.

This is not a traditional PLC programming role. The focus is on the layer that connects individual machines together into a complete production line — including the HMI, OT network infrastructure, secure remote connectivity and line-level control.

The Role

You'll work closely with the existing engineering lead and wider line control team, taking ownership of the technical areas where the team currently needs additional capacity.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Developing and maintaining HMI applications using Siemens TIA Portal and WinCC Unified
• Designing, configuring and maintaining OT/industrial networks connecting multiple machines across complete production lines
• Working with network segmentation, VPNs and secure remote connectivity
• Applying industrial cybersecurity principles within the OT environment
• Supporting the integration and communication between individual machine PLCs and higher-level line control systems
• Troubleshooting network, communication and HMI issues across the line control environment
• Working with engineering colleagues to improve the reliability, security and performance of the overall control architecture
• Supporting commissioning and project delivery where required

What We're Looking For

We're looking for someone with genuine hands-on OT/network engineering experience, ideally combined with HMI development.

Essential / strong experience:

• OT / industrial network engineering
• Industrial cybersecurity
• Network segmentation and secure OT architecture
• VPN / secure remote access
• HMI development
• Siemens TIA Portal
• WinCC Unified
• Industrial automation / manufacturing environments
• Strong troubleshooting and problem-solving skills
• Fluent English

Useful additional experience:

• Profinet / Industrial Ethernet
• OPC UA
• VLANs and managed industrial switches
• Firewalls
• IT/OT networking
• IEC 62443
• Siemens S7
• SCADA systems
• Food & beverage or other high-volume manufacturing environments

Dutch is not required.

Important

This role is specifically focused on the OT network, HMI and cybersecurity layer of the production line.

If your background is primarily in machine-level PLC programming, this is unlikely to be the right opportunity. We're particularly interested in engineers who have worked with the networking, connectivity and security layer that sits between individual machines and the wider production environment.

Contract & Compensation

Freelance

• Contract basis
• Flexible working arrangement

Permanent

• Permanent/payroll option available
• Salary to be discussed based on experience

The client is genuinely flexible on employment structure and is open to discussing the option that works best for the right engineer.

Location & Working Pattern

Gelderland, Netherlands

• Initially 1–2 days per week on-site
• Genuine potential for increased remote working once you are established within the team
• International project exposure across production lines delivered to customers worldwide
• Immediate requirement with the ability to move quickly for the right person
• Fast start possible

Interested?

If you have experience across OT networking, HMI development and industrial cybersecurity, I'd be interested in hearing from you.

Please get in touch for more information or to discuss the project confidentially.