Pierre Poisson is a 35-year-old automation engineer at SPIE Industrie & Tertiaire. He discusses his career path, which started with an internship at SPIE in 2007 after graduating with an engineering degree. He was later hired as a project leader assistant but lost his job in 2009 during the financial crisis. When economic activity returned in 2011, he was rehired by SPIE as a project leader in automation. His responsibilities include managing automation projects from start to finish, including engineering, testing, and overseeing technicians and subcontractors. His field of automation engineering within SPIE is specialized and allows them to offer technical machinery solutions quickly to customers.

1. Pierre Poisson, aged 35, is an automation engineer at SPIE Industrie & Tertiaire, division Industrie.
He talks about his career, and explains why his profession is particular within the Group
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INTERVIEWS
WITHOURSO SPIEPEOPLE
“I like being
in charge of a project
from A to Z”
Tell us about your career path at SPIE.
Pierre Poisson: After graduating in Electrical Engineering and Industrial Computing followed
by a Master’s degree in Mechatronics, I completed my studies with an internship at SPIE in
2007, near Clermont-Ferrand in central France. After six months, I was offered a job as a project
leader assistant in automation. Unfortunately, I arrived on the labour market as the financial
crisis hit, and it strongly impacted the industrial sector in the area of Clermont-Ferrand. In
2009, due to the crisis, I had to leave SPIE and work in another automation company. When the
economic activity came back to normal in 2011, I was re-hired by SPIE as a project leader in
automation. Today I work for SPIE Industrie & Tertiaire, division Industrie.
What are your responsibilities?
P.P.:Myjobisverytechnicalandrequiresrealexpertiseinautomation,electricityandpneumatics.
I’minvolvedineverystepofaprojectfromcostingtoputtingintoservicemycustomer’sproduction
machinery, including engineering studies and testing. I’m also responsible for managing the
techniciansandsubcontractors.Myjobrequiresarealstrengthofcharacterbutalsoananalytical
mind, a good stress management, flexibility and autonomy.
Your field is quite particular within the SPIE Group.
P.P.: As a small unit within a big Group, you could say we’re kind of free spirits. It’s one of our
strengths! We are specialists in our field and are capable of offering our customers technical
machines and restarting them quickly so that our customers don’t lag behind on production.
Competition is tough, but we manage to generate good margins.