Vice President, Automation & Robotics Engineering

ASURION

Vice President, Automation & Robotics Engineering

SCM  |  Reports to: SVP, SCM

Travel: Regular travel to Asurion's global operations and other production sites required

Position Summary

Asurion's Supply Chain is executing a three-year vision: an intelligent, automated device lifecycle in which AI and robotics run as one closed loop for every individual unit. Delivering the robotics and physical-automation half of that loop is what this role exists to do. This newly created Vice President role owns the automation, robotics, and applied-AI roadmap across Asurion's Supply Chain global production network. The role leads Asurion's existing automation engineering team on day one and is accountable for building a real automation presence at every site where production happens today, and at new sites as the network grows. This role owns automation end-to-end — the full hardware and software stack behind every solution — and runs it as an R&D-through-delivery function: researching and solutioning new automation capability, owning its implementation into production, and formally handing off steady-state operation to site Operations once a solution is stable.

Responsibilities

• Own the automation, robotics, and applied-AI roadmap and execution across the global Supply Chain sites.
• Lead and grow the automation engineering team of engineers, technicians, and project managers, expanding its footprint to match where production actually happens.
• Own end-to-end technical accountability for both the hardware and software behind every automation solution, from initial R&D through implementation and handoff to steady-state Operations.
• Own vendor contracts and SLAs for automation solutions — uptime, throughput, and reporting — holding vendors to committed service levels and zero-defect execution.
• Own technical escalation for automation issues beyond standard maintenance and troubleshooting, and coordinate how automation interacts with IT, Operations, Maintenance, and external vendors/integrators.
• Stand up automation capability at new production facilities as they come online, rather than retrofitting it after a site is already running.
• Hold the line on process readiness: partner with Operations and Continuous Improvement to question, delete, simplify, and accelerate a process before automating it, and qualify projects only once that work is complete.
• Apply AI-enabled capability — AI grading at intake, machine-vision quality control, predictive maintenance, robotic sort and repair, robotic process control — to remanufacturing and repair lines, and support maximizing at the unit level.
• Partner with site operations and equipment maintenance teams on reliability and uptime standards for automated systems.
• Partner with Planning, Procurement, Data, and Technology to close the loop — ensuring robotic execution feeds unit-level outcome data back into forecasting, grading, and routing models so the system self-corrects and accuracy compounds.
• Ensure automated systems are built on the shared demand, inventory, and returns data platform, so solutions run in production rather than as standalone pilots.
• Build and defend the multi-year investment case for automation and robotics capital, tied to cost, throughput, quality, and client-commitment outcomes.
• Manage vendor relationships for automation hardware, robotics, and software across a multi-site, international footprint.
• Build the robotics and automation talent bench — including external pipeline partnerships and reskilling floor teams as roles shift from execution to exception handling.
• Position automation capability for eventual externalization, so the solutions built for Asurion's own network can be offered to clients and partners as a service.
• Report roadmap progress, exit-criteria attainment, and site-level performance to senior Asurion leadership.

Skills and Qualifications

Experience

• 10+ years in automation, robotics, or process engineering leadership.
• Experience running or scaling multi-site or global manufacturing/production automation programs.
• Hands-on experience deploying automation and robotics in a high-volume operational environment — manufacturing, electronics repair/refurbishment, or distribution.
• Experience owning vendor contracts, SLAs, and performance management for outsourced or vendor-supported automation solutions.
• Experience running the full lifecycle of a technical solution from R&D through implementation and handoff to a steady-state operations team.
• Experience applying process improvement or Lean discipline ahead of automation — simplifying and stabilizing a process before deploying technology onto it, and turning down or deferring projects that aren't ready.
• Experience leading technical teams across multiple international sites, not just a single location.
• A track record of standing up new technical capability at a new site from the ground up.
• Experience securing and defending capital that is justified on strategic capability and market position, not solely on labor payback.
• Experience taking AI or machine-learning capability from pilot into sustained production operation, including the data foundations it depends on.

Technical Skills

• Robotics and industrial automation controls.
• Computer vision / machine vision inspection systems, including AI-based grading and automated quality verification.
• Working literacy in the data and AI stack automation depends on — demand forecasting, unit-level decisioning and routing logic, and the platforms that host them.
• Predictive maintenance and equipment reliability practices.
• Robotic process control and workflow/conveyance automation.
• Capital equipment planning, hardware/software integration, and vendor management.
• Vendor contract and SLA management, including uptime, throughput, and performance reporting.

Soft Skills

• Strong financial and business-case acumen; able to build and defend multi-year capital investment cases — including cases where the return is capability and competitive position rather than near-term labor payback.
• Cross-site, cross-cultural leadership; comfortable operating across geographies and time zones.
• Stakeholder management across operations, quality, engineering, IT, and external vendor/integrator partners.
• Comfortable building capability from the ground up in ambiguous, fast-scaling environments.
• Clear, credible communicator who can translate complex technical and automation concepts for executive, operational, and site-level audiences alike.
• Proven people leadership — able to hire, coach, and retain a technical team through a period of rapid growth and organizational change.
• Skilled at leading organizational and process change, including standing up new reporting lines, new sites, and new ways of working, with minimal disruption to ongoing operations.
• Executive presence; comfortable presenting roadmap, investment cases, and performance results directly to senior leadership.
• Able to influence and align peer leaders and cross-functional partners without direct authority over them.

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.