Automation Technician CV (Automation and Control Technology EFZ): Example and Template
How to structure your CV as an Automation Technician EFZ so that your control systems expertise, commissioning experience and knowledge of standards are immediately visible.
Currently 57 open Automation Technician EFZ positions in Switzerland, across 7 cantons, 12 of them from the last 7 days. SBB CFF FFS advertises the most.
CV example — two-page template
This template is editable straight away — or upload your existing CV and it is carried into this layout automatically.
Which qualifications and permits belong on an Automation Technician's CV?
State your Automation Technician EFZ with specialisation, any professional examinations, and your electrical licensing status as early as possible.
Always spell out the qualification in full: 'Automation Technician EFZ, specialising in Automation and Control Technology', together with the training company, vocational school and year of completion. HR professionals in the machinery and plant engineering sector clearly distinguish between Automation Technician EFZ, Automation Fitter EFZ and Electronics Technician EFZ - an imprecise title will cost you interviews. If you hold a foreign qualification, add the recognition status issued by the SBFI.
Position further training directly below this: the professional examination for Automation Specialist with Federal Professional Certificate, Maintenance Specialist (Professional Examination), Electrical Safety Advisor, or Technician HF Systems Engineering. Add the concrete benefit these bring to the business, for example responsibility for test protocols, training apprentices, or sign-off on safety functions. If you hold a vocational trainer licence, be sure to mention it, since many industrial companies train apprentices.
Your electrical licensing status is central to your employability: an installation permit under Art. 13 NIV, authorisation to work on live electrical installations, or the role of an instructed or qualified person. Also list industry-relevant credentials, such as Suva courses on machine safety, ATEX training for the chemical industry, GMP/GAMP 5 fundamentals for the pharmaceutical industry, or manufacturer certificates from Siemens, Beckhoff, Rockwell or B&R with the year obtained.
How do I structure work experience as an Automation Technician using figures?
For each position, first describe the plant and industry context, then back up your impact with production metrics.
Start each position with two to three lines of context: industry, type of systems (filling, packaging, process technology, special-purpose machinery), control platform, number of lines and your role within the team. An automation technician in 3-shift maintenance works in a completely different way from a commissioning engineer who travels 120 days a year - the reader needs to grasp this within five seconds. Also state project sizes in CHF, for example control system conversions ranging from CHF 250'000 to CHF 1'200'000.
Then formulate three to four achievement statements with figures that are common in automation: number of commissionings, MTTR and MTBF, OEE improvement, reduction in unplanned downtime, output in units per hour, scrap rate, on-time delivery at acceptance, or engineering hours saved. Instead of 'fault resolution on production systems', write 'reduced MTTR for control system faults from 95 to 58 minutes'. Figures like these are easy to explain in an interview and are your strongest arguments in salary negotiations.
Finish with a compact technology overview: PLC systems, bus systems, HMI/SCADA, drive technology, safety controllers, robotics and CAE tools such as EPLAN. Distinguish between 'programmed independently', 'commissioned' and 'basic knowledge', so no expectation gap arises during the technical interview. For applications in plant engineering, a short project list stating customer industry, system type, control platform and your contribution is also worthwhile.
How long should the CV be, and is a photo needed?
Two pages, a professional photo, and the typical Swiss details on work permit, mobility and availability are the standard.
Keep the CV to a maximum of two pages. Summarise positions that go back more than 15 years in a single line; the last two positions should receive the most space. A professional portrait photo remains standard in Switzerland and is expected by industrial employers - business casual attire is sufficient; photos in work clothes or from leisure activities do not belong in an application.
Add the details that influence interview invitations in the Swiss labour market: place of residence and canton, citizenship or permit (B, C, G), category B driving licence, availability or notice period, and your willingness to work shifts, standby duty and travel assignments. For commissioning roles, willingness to travel (as a percentage) and valid travel documents are a genuine selection criterion. Date of birth and marital status are optional, but are still commonly included.
Attach your EFZ certificate, further education diplomas, the Art. 13 NIV permit and all employment references as a neatly organised PDF to your application. Name the file following the pattern 'CV_Brunner_AutomationTechnician.pdf' and tailor the profile lines to the job advertisement: recruiters looking for process automation in pharma want to read about GMP and S7-1500, while those in special-purpose machinery building focus on TwinCAT, servo technology and safety functions. List references as 'available on request' until you have obtained consent from the people named.
Where Automation Technician EFZ are hired in Switzerland
How the 57 open positions are spread across the cantons.
Figures as a table
| Canton | postings |
|---|---|
| St. Gallen | 4 |
| Aargau | 2 |
| Bern | 2 |
| Basel-Stadt | 1 |
| Freiburg | 1 |
| Graubünden | 1 |
| Uri | 1 |
Which languages the postings require
Of 50 postings that state a language — in brackets, those requiring professional level.
Figures as a table
| Language | postings |
|---|---|
| German | 50 (50) |
| English | 6 (2) |
Who hires Automation Technician EFZ in Switzerland
Employers with the most open positions. Staffing agencies are excluded.
Figures as a table
| Employer | postings |
|---|---|
| SBB CFF FFS | 4 |
| Axpo Group | 3 |
| Endress+Hauser Group | 2 |
| Stadler | 2 |
| SFS Group | 2 |
| Leister | 1 |
Full-time or part-time?
How the positions are advertised.
Figures as a table
| Workload | postings |
|---|---|
| Vollzeit / plein temps | 52 |
| Temporär | 1 |
The CV in full
To read through and reuse.
Lukas Brunner
Automation Technician EFZ (Automation and Control Technology), Certified Automation Specialist with Federal Professional Certificate
Automation Technician EFZ with 11 years of experience in PLC programming, control cabinet construction and commissioning of process and packaging systems. I program to IEC 61131-3 on SIMATIC S7-1500 (TIA Portal), TwinCAT 3 and Studio 5000, and validate safety functions up to Performance Level d in accordance with SN EN ISO 13849-1. Over the past four years, I have commissioned 14 systems in Switzerland and abroad and reduced unplanned downtime in a food production plant by 31 percent.
What sets me apart
Three PLC platforms in productive use: I program and maintain applications on SIMATIC S7-1500/TIA Portal V18, Beckhoff TwinCAT 3 and Rockwell Studio 5000 - this means I can also take on projects where the customer specifies the control platform.
Machine safety with documented compliance to standards: Risk assessments to EN ISO 12100, safety functions to SN EN ISO 13849-1 (PL c/d) and electrical equipment to EN 60204-1 - including validation protocols for acceptance testing.
Retrofitting of legacy systems: Migrations from SIMATIC S5 and S7-300 to S7-1500 as well as from Profibus DP to Profinet, each with minimised production interruption during plant shutdown or weekend windows.
GMP experience in pharmaceutical production: Supported IQ/OQ qualifications to GAMP 5, implemented audit trail and recipe management to 21 CFR Part 11, and prepared test documentation for two customer audits.
Key achievements
Filling line retrofit (project volume CHF 1'200'000). Control system conversion from S7-300/Profibus to S7-1500/Profinet including 42 drives; reduced downtime from a planned 10 to 6 days and increased output from 9'000 to 10'600 bottles per hour.
Standard library for control blocks. Built reusable function blocks for valves, drives and safety acknowledgement to IEC 61131-3; reduced engineering effort per new project by around 120 hours.
OPC UA integration with the MES. Connected 26 machines to the MES via OPC UA; switched OEE recording from manual shift reports to automatic data acquisition, reducing weekly analysis effort by 9 hours.
Experience
Automation Technician / Commissioning Engineer, Process Systems — Nordwerk Prozesstechnik AG, Aarau, 03/2020 - present
Plant construction company for the pharmaceutical and food industries, 180 employees, project volumes of CHF 0.5 to 4 million.
- Commissioned 14 process systems with SIMATIC S7-1500 and WinCC Unified, 6 of them abroad; achieved 92 percent on-time delivery for final acceptance
- Led the retrofit of a filling line: reduced downtime from 10 to 6 days and increased output by 18 percent
- Validated safety functions on 9 machines up to PL d in accordance with SN EN ISO 13849-1 using Pilz PNOZmulti and Sick light curtains, passing all acceptance tests without rework
- Provided technical mentoring to 3 Automation Technician EFZ apprentices in their 3rd and 4th year of training, with a 0 percent failure rate
Automation Technician, Maintenance (3-shift with standby duty) — Rhystal Foods AG, Zofingen, 08/2016 - 02/2020
Food production facility with 42 production lines, operating around the clock, 6 days a week.
- Reduced mean time to repair (MTTR) for control system faults from 95 to 58 minutes
- Introduced condition monitoring on 26 frequency converters and 14 servo axes, reducing unplanned downtime by 31 percent
- Structured the spare parts master data for PLCs, drives and sensors in SAP PM, reducing inventory value by CHF 120'000 while maintaining availability
- Handled over 200 standby call-outs, meeting the 30-minute response target in 98 percent of cases
Automation Technician, Control Cabinet Construction and Assembly — Seetal Steuerungsbau AG, Hochdorf, 08/2013 - 07/2016
Supplier of control and switchgear systems for the machinery industry, 45 employees.
- Wired, tested and documented around 65 control cabinets per year according to EPLAN Electric P8 schematics and EN 60204-1
- Reduced the final inspection error rate from 7 to 2 percent by introducing a testing checklist
- Carried out on-site installations at 12 customer locations, including insulation and protective earth conductor testing in accordance with NIN
Education
Federal VET Diploma (EFZ), Automation Technician, specialising in Automation and Control Technology — Vocational School Baden / Training company Seetal Steuerungsbau AG · 2013
Federal Professional Certificate (Professional Examination), Automation Specialist — Swissmem Academy, Winterthur · 2019
Part-time continuing education, Process Control and Drive Technology — ABB Technical College, Baden · 2021
Installation permit under Art. 13 NIV (limited installation licence) · Suva course on machine safety: risk assessment and safety functions to SN EN ISO 13849-1 · Siemens SITRAIN TIA Portal Service 2 (S7-1500 diagnostics and maintenance) · GAMP 5 foundational training in computer system validation for plant qualification
Common questions
- What language should I write my CV in as a Automation Technician EFZ?
- 100% of the adverts are in German — write the CV in German unless the advert itself is in English.
- Where in Switzerland are Automation Technician EFZ most in demand?
- Spread out, St. Gallen first at 7%, then Aargau and Bern. Across a language border, apply with the matching version.
- What language level do Automation Technician EFZ adverts ask for?
- German in 100% of adverts that state a requirement, 100% of them at professional level. "Good knowledge" will not do — give A2 to C2.
- Are Automation Technician EFZ roles offered full or part time?
- 100% full time, only 0% part time. If you need part time, say so early rather than leaving it open.
- Who hires Automation Technician EFZ in Switzerland?
- Currently SBB CFF FFS, Axpo Group, Endress+Hauser Group, among others. Their adverts are the best word list for your own CV.