Business Unit Director – Industrial Automation & Machine Vision

Travel: Frequent travel to manufacturing plants in Mexico and the United States

Languages: Professional Spanish and English The opportunity

Labor Mexicana is building a new business unit focused on industrial automation, machine vision, real-time quality data and intelligent manufacturing solutions.

This is not a purely engineering or R&D; position. We are looking for a business-minded technical leader who can turn industrial vision and automation capabilities into profitable customer solutions.

Approximately 50% of the role is commercial. The selected person will be expected to:

- Meet directly with manufacturing customers and identify problems worth solving.
- Translate quality and production needs into technically feasible proposals.
- Define scope, architecture, pricing, implementation time and expected business value.
- Prepare and present technical-commercial proposals.
- Lead demonstrations, pilots and proof-of-concept projects.
- Defend the solution with Quality, Operations, Engineering, Purchasing and Plant Management.
- Build the business case and actively participate in negotiation and closing.
- Maintain healthy project margins and identify opportunities to expand successful applications to additional lines or plants.
- Develop relationships with OEMs, Tier 1/Tier 2 suppliers, technology partners and industrial associations.
- Help build a repeatable portfolio of vision and automation solutions—not only execute one-off projects.

The other 50% is technical leadership: designing the solution, selecting the appropriate hardware and algorithms, supervising development, validating performance in real production conditions and ensuring successful commissioning.

Success in this position will be measured equally by:

1. Revenue, qualified pipeline, pilots converted into paid projects and project margin.
2. Technical performance, successful plant implementation, customer acceptance and reliability in production.

- A strong candidate must be comfortable moving between the production floor, a technical design review and a commercial negotiation. We are not looking for someone who only installs cameras, writes algorithms or manages salespeople. We need someone capable of creating the solution and helping the customer decide to buy it.

Labor provides an established industrial customer base, operational infrastructure, recruiting capabilities and software development resources. The Business Unit Director will bring market knowledge, technical credibility, commercial discipline and execution leadership.

Core responsibilities

Commercial leadership

- Build and execute the business unit’s go-to-market strategy.
- Personally develop new opportunities with OEMs, Tier 1 and Tier 2 manufacturers.
- Create relationships with Plant, Quality, Engineering,



Operations and Purchasing leaders.
- Diagnose customer problems and translate them into technically and financially viable proposals.
- Prepare scopes, quotations, ROI cases, project schedules and commercial agreements.
- Lead technical presentations, demonstrations, negotiations and project closing.
- Build a qualified pipeline and convert it into profitable, collectible revenue.
- Develop partnerships with camera, sensor, robotics, controls and automation technology providers.
- Expand initial projects into multi-line, multi-plant or long-term customer relationships.

Business and operational management

- Own the business unit’s revenue, gross margin, cash collection and operating results.
- Establish pricing, costing, margin and project-risk controls.
- Lead projects from opportunity identification through design, installation, commissioning and customer acceptance.
- Ensure that projects meet scope, timing, performance, safety and profitability commitments.
- Build and manage the engineering, integration, commissioning and technical-support team.
- Develop a reliable network of specialized partners and suppliers.
- Create service, warranty, maintenance and customer-support processes.
- Define operational and commercial KPIs and report results directly to executive leadership.

Solution and product development

- Convert repeated customer needs into standardized, reusable and scalable solutions.
- Lead the integration of machine vision, industrial cameras, optics, lighting, PLCs, sensors, robotics, edge computing and manufacturing data.
- Combine existing technologies with proprietary software and industrial workflows.
- Ensure solutions can operate reliably in real production environments.
- Promote traceability, evidence-based quality decisions and integration with existing plant systems.
- Build a practical roadmap that balances innovation, customer value, implementation time and profitability.

Required experience

- 10+ years in industrial automation, machine vision, controls, systems integration or advanced manufacturing technology.
- Demonstrated experience selling complex industrial solutions—not only supporting technical sales.
- Evidence of personally opening new manufacturing accounts and closing projects.
- Experience managing proposals, pricing, project costs, gross margin and commercial risk.
- Track record leading multidisciplinary engineering and commissioning teams.




- Experience delivering projects inside automotive or advanced manufacturing plants.
- Working knowledge of industrial cameras, optics, lighting, PLCs, sensors and plant connectivity.
- Ability to communicate credibly with both plant engineers and executive decision-makers.
- Professional English and Spanish.
- Availability to travel regularly throughout Mexico and the United States.

Strongly preferred

- Experience managing a business unit, regional operation or P&L.;
- Relationships within the automotive manufacturing ecosystem.
- Experience with different machine-vision and automation platforms rather than only one proprietary brand.
- Knowledge of edge AI, computer vision, industrial software, traceability, OEE or real-time quality data.
- Experience building standardized solutions from custom engineering projects.
- Participation in organizations such as A3, AIAG or other manufacturing and automation associations.
- Experience establishing technical partnerships and service networks.

This position is not

- A camera installation role.
- A purely academic AI or computer-vision position.
- A sales role dependent on an existing inherited account portfolio.
- A project-management position without commercial responsibility.
- A role limited to representing one hardware brand.

What success looks like

During the first 12 months, this leader will be expected to:

- Establish a qualified commercial pipeline.
- Win the first profitable customer projects.
- Build a disciplined quotation, costing and project-delivery process.
- Recruit and coordinate the initial technical team.
- Deliver projects that meet customer acceptance criteria.
- Convert successful applications into repeatable commercial offerings.
- Create a credible growth plan for Mexico and the United States.

What we offer

- The opportunity to build and lead a new business unit with executive-level visibility.
- Access to Labor Mexicana’s industrial customer relationships and operational capabilities.
- Support from recruiting, operations and software-development teams.
- Decision-making authority to build the unit, its team and its partner ecosystem.
- Competitive base compensation plus variable compensation tied to profitable growth, project margin and cash collection.
- The opportunity to develop industrial technology in Mexico with potential for international expansion.

Our purpose

At Labor Mexicana, our purpose is to dignify work and strengthen families. We believe technology should improve manufacturing while keeping people, accountability and customer value at the center.

Candidates should apply with a résumé and a short description of two industrial solutions they personally helped sell and deliver, specifying their commercial responsibility, technical participation, project result and measurable business impact.

send it to [email protected]

📌 Founding Director – Industrial Vision & Automation | Commercial and Technical Leadership (Saltillo)
🏢 Labor Mexicana
📍 Saltillo