Northern Italy or the DACH region preferred. Other European industrial hubs will be considered. Extensive field travel across system-integrator workshops, OEM facilities and operator sites.
Technical Qualification Engineer, Robotics & Automation
This is a high-impact field engineering role for an exceptionally rigorous robotics and automation operator to determine whether a system integrator can deliver, whether an automation system is sufficiently proven, and whether the evidence supports a financing decision.
We are not hiring a desk-based reviewer or a generic engineering consultant. We are hiring a technical truth-teller with direct plant-floor judgment: someone who can inspect the machine, challenge the evidence, understand the delivery system around it, and turn technical reality into a structured qualification that Commercial, Finance, customers, and capital partners can trust.
Context
Robotics and industrial automation are entering an explosive adoption phase, comparable to the formative super-cycle decades of aircraft leasing, telecom tower infrastructure, and hyperscale data centers. Yet a fundamental financing and commercialization gap constrains global deployment at scale. Traditional leasing models fail due to their inherent need for residual value, redeployability, and secondary markets. OEMs and system integrators shoulder financing risk, while operators resist capex and stranded risk. Cenotian has solved this structural problem. Cenotian provides asset-backed financing infrastructure that enables OEMs and integrators to scale globally, operators to deploy automation without balance-sheet exposure or stranded risk, and institutional investors to access a new, prime fixed-income asset class without operational involvement in warehousing, spares, maintenance, or asset operations. A conventional lender can review financial statements and identify the hardware. That is not enough for a project whose outcome also depends on engineering discipline, integration quality, objective acceptance, software continuity, service capacity, and the capability of the team delivering it. Cenotian's Technical Qualification Services close that gap by turning factory-floor reality into decision-grade evidence.
Position overview
The Technical Qualification Engineer, Robotics & Automation conducts qualifications of system integrators, solution OEMs, and live automation projects. You will inspect technical and operating evidence, define the limits of what Cenotian can rely on, and translate findings into conditions, escalation, monitoring, or rejection. This is also a builder's seat. You will improve the method after every visit and help turn Technical Qualification Services into a repeatable internal capability and an external service customers value.
- Reports to:
- Head of Platform & Infrastructure, with functional accountability to Finance and Underwriting
- Location:
- Northern Italy or the DACH region preferred. Other European industrial hubs will be considered. Extensive field travel across system-integrator workshops, OEM facilities and operator sites.
Key responsibilities
- 01
Counterparty technical qualification
- Assess the engineering and delivery capability of system integrators and solution OEMs.
- Review organization, key technical personnel, design controls, project management, quality systems, supplier management, software practices, commissioning, and service capacity.
- Inspect representative projects, workshops, equipment, documentation, and customer references.
- Determine which system types, applications, project sizes, and geographies the counterparty can execute reliably.
- State clear strengths, limits, conditions, evidence gaps, and reasons not to proceed.
- 02
Project and system assessment
- Review system architecture, bill of materials, component maturity, configuration history, customization, interfaces, safety concept, software dependencies, and servicing model.
- Evaluate whether acceptance criteria are objective, measurable, and aligned with the intended production process.
- Examine schedules, milestone definitions, FAT and SAT plans, change control, contingency, spares, maintenance, and backup capacity.
- Identify technical risks that affect delivery probability, payment timing, collateral value, or continuity.
- Work with Finance and Underwriting to translate technical findings into conditions, holdbacks, monitoring, or rejection.
- 03
Field evidence, data and decision support
- Collect visual, documentary, interview, and system evidence in a consistent format.
- Preserve traceability from field observation to qualification conclusion.
- Turn findings into structured fields that enrich Cenotian's ontology, scorecards, benchmarks, and future decisions.
- Produce concise reports that state what was observed, what remains unverified, and what Cenotian can rely on.
- Present findings to Finance, Commercial, executive leadership, and the Investment Committee when required.
- 04
Productize Technical Qualification Services
- Convert the qualification process into repeatable checklists, scoring logic, customer workflows, evidence standards, escalation rules, and training.
- Distinguish work that requires an expert site visit from evidence that can be captured remotely.
- Improve the evidence request list so counterparties know what good preparation looks like.
- Support a qualified partner network for inspections, cybersecurity, compliance, and backup servicing.
- Help develop external Technical Qualification Services where customers value an independent Cenotian assessment.
- 05
Continuous technical intelligence
- Identify new signals that can predict execution quality earlier.
- Feed recurring system, integrator, acceptance, and servicing patterns into Finance, Data, Commercial, and Platform & Infrastructure.
- Participate in follow-up reviews when a project changes materially or monitoring exposes a concern.
- Improve the qualification method after every engagement without weakening comparability or auditability.
You will know it is working when
Qualification reports are used in live financing decisions and trusted by the Investment Committee.
Weak engineering, subjective acceptance, supplier fragility, and service gaps surface earlier.
Technical conclusions trace cleanly back to direct evidence.
Structured technical data improves future qualification speed and portfolio insight.
The method scales without turning expert judgment into a superficial checklist.
Candidate profile
Experience
- At least 5 years inside industrial automation, robotics, system integration, machine building, commissioning, field service, manufacturing engineering, or technical project delivery.
- A degree or equivalent foundation in automation, controls, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, mechatronics, robotics, manufacturing engineering, or a related discipline.
- Direct familiarity with PLCs, industrial robots, safety systems, machine vision, motion, conveyors, end-of-arm tooling, and integrated production equipment.
- Practical experience with FAT, SAT, acceptance criteria, change control, quality evidence, and customer handover.
- Ability to read technical drawings, bills of materials, schedules, risk registers, and service documentation.
- Professional English. Italian or German fluency is strongly valuable.
Personality
- Direct, evidence-led, and comfortable surfacing an inconvenient technical conclusion early.
- Curious enough to inspect the full delivery system rather than focus only on the machine.
- Respectful with capable engineering teams while unwilling to accept unsupported claims.
- Field-oriented and energized by workshops, plants, and operating sites.
- Disciplined about documentation, traceability, and continuous improvement.
- High stamina and comfort with substantial European travel.
Skills and competencies
- Strong engineering judgment across automation design, integration, commissioning, acceptance, and service.
- Ability to separate normal project complexity from evidence of weak control.
- Ability to write for financiers and commercial leaders without diluting the engineering facts.
- Structured evidence capture, risk articulation, and decision support.
- Credibility with system-integrator owners, technical directors, project managers, and plant teams.
Organizational context
The Technical Qualification Engineer, Robotics & Automation will work most closely with:
- Head of Platform & Infrastructure - manager and owner of the permanent Technical Qualification capability and service backbone.
- CFO / Head of Finance and Underwriting - users of technical evidence for transaction conditions, approval, and monitoring.
- CCO / Head of Commercial - customer context, account progression, and communication of evidence requirements.
- VP, Data - ontology, structured field evidence, benchmarks, lineage, and data-quality standards.
- Special Missions Group - design and validation of new qualification, telemetry, simulation, and deployment propositions before handover.
- The role evaluates execution and continuity risk. Final financing authority remains independent within Finance and the Investment Committee.
Apply for this role
Tell us who you are and where to find you. A CV is welcome, not required.