Building Automation Recruiters
Advastar has staffed controls and automation roles for integrators, contractors and facility owners
Building automation recruiting for controls integrators and facility owners
Advastar recruits building automation professionals for controls contractors and system integrators, mechanical contractors with a controls division and the hospitals, campuses, data centers and corporate portfolios that run large building management systems in-house. We place BAS and BMS technicians, controls engineers and programmers, commissioning specialists, energy managers and the project managers and service leads who run the work.
Building automation is a platform-defined labor market, which is the single most important thing to understand about hiring in it. A technician who has spent six years in Johnson Controls Metasys is genuinely productive on day one in a Metasys building and genuinely slow in a Siemens Desigo one. Tridium Niagara sits underneath a large share of the market and is the closest thing to a transferable skill, which is why Niagara-certified people command a premium and are approached constantly. We ask which platforms your buildings actually run before we go to market, because a search written platform-agnostically produces candidates you will reject.
The second thing is that this trade sits between disciplines and gets recruited badly as a result. It is not HVAC, though controls people need to understand mechanical systems well enough to know what a bad sequence is doing to a chiller. It is not low voltage installation, though it lives on the same cable. It is closest to a controls engineering role with a field component, and candidates who can both program a sequence of operations and troubleshoot it on site are the scarce and valuable ones.
Demand has been pushed hard by energy performance requirements, smart building retrofits and the analytics layer being added on top of existing BMS installations. Advastar has more than 60 years of combined staffing experience and recruits nationally on a direct-hire, contract, contract-to-hire and payrolling basis.
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Our building automation talent network
- 7,400 controls and automation professionals in network
- 2,050 with Tridium Niagara certification
- 36 states with active automation placements
- 22days median time from search kickoff to offer
Building automation talent categories commonly supported
Field technicians installing, commissioning, troubleshooting and servicing building management systems. Screened on the platforms they have actually worked in and on whether they can diagnose a sequence problem rather than only replace hardware.
Programmers building graphics, sequences and integrations across protocols and platforms. Tridium Niagara depth is the most requested capability on this desk by a wide margin.
Office-side leadership on controls projects: takeoff and bidding, submittals, subcontractor and vendor coordination and margin management on jobs where scope creep is constant.
Commissioning agents verifying that systems perform as designed, and retro-commissioning specialists recovering performance in existing buildings where sequences have drifted or been overridden.
Engineers designing control systems and writing sequences of operations, sizing and specifying devices and producing the submittals and points lists a project runs on.
Energy managers and analytics specialists working on top of the BMS: fault detection and diagnostics, measurement and verification, utility reporting and performance contracting.
Directors of facilities and building systems on the owner side, accountable for a portfolio’s controls strategy, service contracts and capital planning.
Technicians on recurring service agreements covering a portfolio of buildings, where customer relationship management matters as much as technical diagnosis.
Platforms, protocols and credentials we screen for
- Automated Logic WebCTRL
- BACnet
- Certified Energy Manager
- Chiller & Air Handling Systems
- Delta Controls
- Distech Controls
- Electrical & Low Voltage Fundamentals
- Fault Detection & Diagnostics
- Graphics Development
- Honeywell EBI
- Johnson Controls Metasys
- LEED Accreditation
- LonWorks
- Modbus
- MQTT & IoT Integration
- Retro-Commissioning
- Schneider EcoStruxure
- Sequence of Operations Development
- Siemens Desigo
- Tridium Niagara 4
Real-world outcomes: building automation searches we have delivered
- Read Case Study: Controls Integrator – Niagara Programming Capacity
Controls integrator – niagara programming capacity
- Niagara-certified programmers recruited from three competing integrators
- One senior programmer hired to mentor and standardize graphics conventions
- Contract-to-hire used for two roles while the backlog was confirmed as sustained
- Read Case Study: Hospital System – In-House BMS Team
Hospital system – in-house BMS team
- BAS supervisor and three technicians placed with Metasys and Niagara depth
- Retro-commissioning specialist added to recover sequences that had been overridden
- Candidates screened for occupied clinical environment experience
- Read Case Study: Corporate Portfolio – Energy and Analytics Function
Corporate portfolio – energy and analytics function
- Energy manager with measurement and verification experience recruited
- Fault detection and diagnostics analyst hired to work across the portfolio
- Controls engineer added to correct sequences the analytics kept flagging
What hiring managers say about Advastar
Why clients trust Advastar
Forbes 2026Best of Recruiting & Best of Staffing
Advastar was named to Forbes' 2026 Best of Recruiting and Best of Staffing lists, both compiled from independent surveys of the clients and candidates we work with.
Read the AnnouncementGE EnergyStaffing Partner of the Year
GE Energy named Advastar its Staffing Partner of the Year in 2025 through the GE Vernova supplier program.
60+ yearsof combined building automation expertise
Our building automation recruiters bring more than 60 years of combined recruiting experience to every search we run.
Tell us who you need to hire
- Tell us about the role you need to fill
- A recruiter calls you within one business day
- Together we agree on a plan to fill the role
Find your next role
- Tell us what kind of work you want
- A recruiter reviews your details and gets in touch
- We put you forward for jobs that fit
GE Energy Staffing Partner of the Year
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Our building automation recruiting team
David Case
President, Advastar Engineering Services
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Tim Shearer
VP & National Managing Director
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Robert Cornelio
Director of Business Development
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Jaime Summers
Senior Recruiter
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Amanda Martin
Recruiter
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Christen Trent
Recruiter
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Laura Carrillo Barrios
Recruiter
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Lisa Wombwell
Office Manager
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Frequently asked questions about building automation recruiting
BAS and BMS technicians, controls engineers, programmers and integrators, commissioning and retro-commissioning specialists, energy managers and analytics staff, service technicians and the project managers, estimators and facility systems leaders above them.
Because it is the main determinant of who is actually productive for you. A technician with six years in Metasys will be slower in a Desigo building, and vice versa. Writing the search platform-agnostically produces a slate you will reject on the first interview.
For a large share of the market, yes. Niagara sits underneath many multi-vendor installations and is the closest thing to a transferable skill in this trade, so Niagara-certified people are approached constantly and priced accordingly. If your systems run on it, expect a competitive search.
HVAC hiring is about mechanical equipment, installation and service. Building automation is controls engineering with a field component. Controls people need to understand mechanical systems well enough to know what a bad sequence is doing to a chiller, but the skill being hired is different.
Low voltage is installation trades – cable plant, life safety, security, AV. Building automation is programming and controls engineering. They share cable and sometimes share technicians, but the searches are run separately and the candidate pools barely overlap.
Both. Integrators are usually hiring against backlog and need throughput. Owners are usually bringing service in-house or building a portfolio strategy, and they need people comfortable being the only controls expert in the building.
Yes. Recovering performance in existing buildings where sequences have drifted or been overridden is a distinct skill from new construction commissioning, and we screen for candidates who have done the diagnostic work rather than only the documentation.
Yes. Measurement and verification, fault detection and diagnostics, utility reporting and performance contracting are all within scope. We often recommend pairing an analytics hire with a controls engineer, since flagged faults need someone able to fix the underlying sequence.
Yes. Contract-to-hire is common where an integrator is confirming that backlog is sustained rather than a spike. Payrolling is available where you have already identified the person.
Tridium Niagara certification, manufacturer certifications on Metasys, Desigo, WebCTRL, Distech and EcoStruxure, plus LEED accreditation and Certified Energy Manager where a role calls for them. All verified before submittal.
First submittals are usually within a week to ten days. Median time from kickoff to accepted offer is about 22 days, longer where a specific platform certification is mandatory.
We recruit nationally across the United States, with active building automation placements in 36 states, including traveling commissioning assignments on large programs.