Industrial Automation Specialist

Colas Canada is a national leader in transportation infrastructure, delivering materials, construction, and maintenance solutions that connect communities. Our approximately 8,000 employees across more than 300 Canadian locations combine local expertise with the global reach of Colas Group, the world’s largest transportation infrastructure company.

We are seeking a strategic, practical, and relationship-driven Manager, Learning & Development to lead enterprise learning, leadership development, onboarding, and capability-building across Colas Canada.

Reporting to the Vice President, Materials, you will be responsible for supporting Keystone manufacturing sites to provide field-level automation expertise and support for Materials activities in Canada. This role combines a foundation in technical knowledge in the automation field with strong project management skills required to drive automation efforts and, ultimately, operational improvements by enhancing the level of automation and process control within Materials activities.

Within the first 12 months, you will: 

• Assess the Canadian operations and complete a clear automation and process-monitoring gap analysis across priority sites.
• Establish a prioritized roadmap identifying which quarries, ready-mix plants, and other operations should be addressed first.
• Move from assessment into implementation, successfully delivering automation improvements at selected priority plants.
• Build strong partnerships with the field, becoming a visible, trusted resource for local operations, Equipment, Materials, and other stakeholders.
• Create accountability and follow-through, ensuring commitments made to business units are tracked and delivered.
• Demonstrate measurable operational improvement through automation, including areas such as production, equipment reliability, and preventive maintenance.

• Analyze, assess and benchmark Keystone Canada assets in terms of automation and process monitoring readiness.
• Assess parts and labour required for implementation and prepare budget requirement.
• Act as key technical support for the Materials department on a national level.

• Conduct site level technical needs assessment and prepare SOW for parts & labour in collaboration with the local team.
• Prepare RFQ’s, in conjunction with the procurement team, to gather competitive pricing and timeline to execute.
• Develop automation investment business cases and ROI analysis.
• Prepare CAPEX requests and monitor approved CAPEX spend versus budget.
• Align with Capex team, as required, regarding budget and timing.
• Coordinate, and assist as needed, execution of the work.

• Work with the local team, Materials department at a national level along with the Central team to prioritise automation and process monitoring needs for Keystone activities in Canada.
• Coordinate automation and process monitoring activities with representatives from the Colas Canada Inc subsidiaries.
• Work with all levels of the organization to recommend and implement new opportunities to leverage automation (eg. AI and preventive maintenance)
• Develop and monitor KPI to measure production improvement, equipment reliability, preventive maintenance compliance and preventive maintenance adoption through Automation

• College diploma or technical college diploma.
• 3 to less than 5 years of experience.
• Education and experience in industrial automation, electromechanical, or an equivalent field.
• Good knowledge of Excel.
• Excellent written and verbal interpersonal skills and an analytical mind.
• Strong sense of initiative, high productivity, ability to work independently, and willingness to learn.
• Fluid in French or English. Bilingual is preferred.

At Colas Canada, we believe in treating people with respect, delivering on our commitments, embracing innovation, and sharing knowledge to help others succeed. These values shape our culture, guide our decisions, and enable us to build strong teams, serve our communities, and deliver infrastructure that connects Canada.

• This posting is for a new role.
• Colas Canada may use artificial intelligence-assisted tools to support certain aspects of the recruitment and selection process.