Role: Commissioning engineer / assembly technician
The same person as the service technician.
Different phase, different message.
Commissioning engineers decide on travel, not on technology. Quantify it and you win exactly the candidates your arrangement suits.
The commissioning engineer is the same person as the service technician – just at a different point in the equipment’s life. That is exactly why one system carries both roles. What differs is not the training but the imposition: project windows, international travel, weeks on end at a customer site.
Deloitte names very intensive travel explicitly as one of the two main causes of the field shortage. That is not a footnote, it is the central selection question. Part of the market wants precisely that – travel on the company, allowances, variety. Another part will not accept it under any circumstances.
Companies that soften the travel profile get neither group: one does not apply because it assumes the worst, the other resigns in year one because it underestimated. Both mistakes are avoidable – with a number instead of an adjective.
It is rarely the market.
Three causes that are the same in almost every company – and all of them sit inside your own house.
Project peaks cannot be advertised away
Weeks separate an incoming order from the staffing need. A posting with 106 days to fill does not fit that window. A system you launch yourself on the day of signature does.
“Willingness to travel required” is not information
The phrase appears in every other ad and means anything between 20 and 200 travel days a year. Leave it unquantified and you hand the interpretation to the applicant – who interprets conservatively.
Onboarding is long, patience is short
Someone commissioning your equipment becomes productive after months, not weeks. A resignation in year one is therefore more expensive than any placement fee – and its most common cause is an expectation created during hiring.
What your job ad does not say.
The points where a technician compares your offer with the one they already have. Leave them out and they compare against the worst they know.
Travel days per year, as a number
Not “occasional”, not “project dependent”. A range with a floor and a ceiling. It costs applications and saves resignations – with long onboarding, that is the cheaper side.
The rule for coming home
Weekend trips home, time off in lieu, travel time counted as working time. These three decide more often than base salary among experienced fitters, and they almost never appear in the ad.
How long the project runs
A candidate calculating eight straight weeks in Mexico decides differently from one assuming two. Show the project reality upfront and the acceptances hold.
Built once. After that you hire yourself.
One build that stays in the company.
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Engagement per role -
Monthly contract -
Fee off the annual salary
Two profiles from one system
Service technician and commissioning engineer run on the same build with different messaging. You pay for the build once and use it for both roles – and for the third that arrives in two years.
Travel profile before company profile
Travel days, destination countries, return arrangement, allowances, project duration. The template is yours and takes minutes to adapt for the next project.
Ready to launch on the day of signature
From day one, ad accounts and audiences sit with you. New outreach starts in hours, not in weeks through a supplier.
Pre-selection before the project manager loses time
Your technical criteria are asked before anyone reaches an interview. For a role with this onboarding period, pre-selection matters more than volume.
Honest answers.
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01 We need worldwide travel readiness. Does that still exist?
Yes, but not with the same message as for a regional technician. Worldwide travel is a hard no for some candidates and precisely the appeal for others. The role profile separates the two groups before they apply. -
02 Can we develop service technicians into commissioning engineers?
In many companies that is the more realistic route, and it then belongs on the careers page – with duration, milestones and who carries the cost. That opens an inflow your competitors do not advertise. -
03 How fast do we see the first application?
Within 72 hours of launch. We make no commitment on the number of applications – the guarantee is on the hire. -
04 What if the project starts before the role is filled?
Then the system is still faster than commissioning a new agency – and the only route that is already standing for the project after next. For the acute gap there is no honest trick, and we will not claim one.
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