Manufacturing

Hire technical talent for what they can do, not what their last title said.

Pickr matches machinists, technicians and engineers on the skills and certificates a role needs, runs structured technical interviews, and keeps the pipeline moving while your hiring managers are on the floor.

The challenge

Hiring in manufacturing & engineering is hard for specific reasons

The same job has five different titles

A maintenance technician at one plant is an industrial mechanic at the next and a Mechatroniker at the third. Automation engineer, controls engineer, PLC programmer: often the same person. Search by title and you miss most of the people who could do the job.

Qualifications decide, and they hide in the CV

Welding certificates, PLC platforms, CNC controls, high-voltage authorizations, a Meister title. These decide whether a candidate can start on Monday, and they sit in one line halfway down page two. Reading every CV for them does not scale past a handful of roles.

Hiring managers are on the floor, not at a desk

Plant managers and shift leads interview between production runs. Feedback arrives days later, by phone or not at all, and the scorecard stays empty. By the time the panel agrees, the candidate has signed with the supplier down the road.

The best candidates are not looking

Skilled trades and experienced engineers are in short supply across the DACH region and beyond. Most of them are employed, rarely on LinkedIn, and answer a WhatsApp message faster than an email. A slow process loses them before the first interview.

How Pickr helps

What you get

Matching on skills and qualifications, not titles

Pickr scores every candidate against what the role requires: the control platform, the machining process, the certificates. Related skills count, so a technician who has kept robot cells running is not filtered out of an automation role. Every match comes with reasoning you can explain to the plant manager.

AI Matching

Structured interviews a shift lead can actually run

Tailored technical questions for each role, a scorecard that fills itself in from the conversation, and feedback captured the same day instead of a week later. Plant managers and shift leads get free seats, so the people who know the work take part without a license discussion.

Interview Intelligence

Reach candidates where they answer

Email, WhatsApp and LinkedIn in one inbox, tied to the right candidate automatically. Outreach sequences for passive candidates, replies drafted for you, and self-scheduling so a welder on late shift books the interview slot that suits them. Nobody waits three days for a reply.

Communication

A pipeline that keeps moving between production runs

One pipeline per site or per client mandate. Pickr suggests the next step for every candidate, drafts the follow-up, and flags anyone who has stalled. Agencies show the client a shortlist in a portal instead of a chain of CV attachments. And every completed hire makes the next match for that role sharper.

Pipeline

Roles

Roles teams hire for with Pickr

  • CNC Machinist / CNC Programmer
  • PLC / Automation Engineer
  • Maintenance Technician (Mechatronics)
  • Industrial Electrician
  • Certified Welder
  • Production Supervisor / Shift Lead
  • Manufacturing / Process Engineer
  • Quality Engineer (ISO 9001, IATF 16949)
  • Mechanical Design Engineer (CAD)
  • Plant Manager

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Is Pickr suitable for manufacturing and engineering recruiting?

Yes. Pickr is built for roles where the title on the CV says little about what the person can do: skilled trades, maintenance, automation, production and engineering. Candidates are matched on skills and qualifications, interviews are structured around the role, and plant managers take part with free seats. It works for in-house teams hiring for their own sites and for agencies placing technical staff with industrial clients.

Can Pickr match candidates when job titles do not line up?

Yes. Pickr matches on what the job requires and what the candidate has actually done, not on the title. Related skills count toward the match, so a controls engineer is found for a PLC programmer role and an industrial mechanic for a maintenance technician role. Each match comes with plain-language reasoning, so a recruiter can see why someone ranked where they did and explain it to the hiring manager.

Does Pickr check certifications and qualifications like welding or PLC?

Pickr captures the qualifications a role needs, such as welding certificates, PLC platforms, CNC controls or high-voltage authorizations, and shows which candidates have them and where that shows up in their background. The recruiter still verifies the certificate itself; what goes away is reading every CV to find out whether it is worth asking.

Do plant managers and shift leads need a paid seat?

No. Interviewer and hiring-manager seats are free in Pickr. A plant manager, shift lead or engineering lead can review a shortlist, run a structured interview, fill in a scorecard and give feedback without a license. Recruiter seats are the only paid seats, and pricing is available on request.

Where is candidate data stored, and is Pickr GDPR compliant?

Candidate data and the application are hosted in Frankfurt, Germany. Pickr is GDPR / DSGVO compliant, a data processing agreement (AVV) is included, and names and contact details are redacted from AI prompts by default. Candidates are informed before AI matching is used, and no hiring decision is fully automated.

Can we import our existing candidates from another ATS?

Yes. Pickr has one-click importers for Ashby, Greenhouse, Lever and Bullhorn that bring across jobs, candidates, applications and stage history, plus automatic recognition of Teamtailor exports. Anything else comes in via CSV. Your existing pool of technicians and engineers is searchable and scored on day one.

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Written by Andreas Amann

Founder of Pickr. Former operator at startups in Berlin and Silicon Valley, where he helped scale companies from 40 to 200+ people. Built Pickr after years of using every major ATS as a recruitment agency owner at ScalingPPL.

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