For international employers · Manufacturing & Industrial
Falisha Manpower recruits CNC operators, machinists and production machine operators from Pakistan for precision-engineering workshops, valve, pump and oil-field equipment manufacturers and repair shops, metal-products and plastics factories, and the in-house machine shops of refineries and process plants. We are a BEOE-licensed Overseas Employment Promoter (OEP Licence No. 4035), so recruitment runs through Pakistan’s regulated overseas employment system — sourcing, practical machine testing, Saudi skill verification where the occupation is notified, medicals, visa documentation and Protector of Emigrants clearance.
The titles in this trade hide three different levels of skill. An operator loads parts, runs a proven program and checks dimensions; a setter installs tools and fixtures, sets work offsets and proves out a new job; a programmer writes or edits the G-code, often from CAM, and decides how the part will be cut. Hiring an operator for a setter’s job — or paying a programmer to load parts — is a costly mistake, so we start by agreeing which level each position really needs, on which machines and controls, and to what tolerances.
Shortlisted candidates are then tested on machines rather than CVs: reading your drawing, setting up or running a job, and measuring the finished part with the instruments your inspectors use. Tests are arranged at an approved trade-test centre or machine shop in Pakistan, and your production engineer can witness them. You interview and select; we coordinate documents and mobilisation to your production schedule.
Roles & specialisations
Matched to your specification and the work itself, not just a job title.
Run CNC lathes and turning centres producing shafts, bushes, flanges, threaded connections and fittings: loading bar or blanks, changing inserts, adjusting tool-wear offsets and checking diameters, threads and finishes at the frequency the control plan sets.
Run vertical and horizontal machining centres, clamping parts in vices and fixtures, watching tool life and coolant, and measuring bores, pockets, hole positions and flatness as parts come off the machine. Four- and five-axis work is a separate specialism worth stating explicitly.
Install tooling and workholding, touch off tools, set work offsets, then load and prove out programs with single-block and dry runs before handing a stable job to operators. They fine-tune offsets, speeds and feeds on the shop floor but usually do not write complete programs.
Write and edit G-code at the control or post it from CAD/CAM, select tools, cutting data and strategy, and plan the sequence of set-ups. Commonly requested controls include Fanuc, Siemens and Haas, with conversational programming on some machines; familiarity with a named CAM package is a frequent request.
Skilled hands on manual lathes, milling machines and surface or cylindrical grinders. Valuable in maintenance and repair shops for one-off parts, refurbishing worn components, cutting keyways and threads, and jobs that do not justify programming time.
Operators of less common machines — wire and sinker EDM for dies and hardened parts, horizontal borers for large housings, and gear hobbing or shaping. The pool is smaller, so specify these explicitly and expect experience to be checked closely.
Run automated and semi-automated lines in metal-products, packaging, building-materials and other factories: start-up and shutdown, monitoring settings and output, clearing jams, first-line quality checks and recording production data across rotating shifts.
Operate mechanical and hydraulic presses, press brakes, shears and turret punches — changing dies or tools within their authority, following guarding and two-hand control procedures, and checking blanks and bends against the drawing.
Run plastic injection-moulding machines and extrusion lines: loading material, monitoring temperatures, pressures and cycle times, inspecting parts for short shots, flash and sink marks, and supporting mould changes alongside the setter.
Senior machinists who allocate jobs across machines, approve first-off parts, keep inspection records and liaise with quality control. Some have worked alongside a CMM programmer or quality engineer on measurement plans.
Before you hire
The distinctions that decide whether a hire works on your project.
Define each role by what the person will be trusted to change. Operators run proven programs and adjust tool-wear offsets within limits; setters prove out new jobs and change tooling, fixtures and work offsets; programmers create or edit the program itself. Each level is assessed differently, and pay expectations differ with it.
Skills transfer between controls, but someone who has only run one control family needs time on another — especially for set-up and programming, where offset pages, canned cycles and alarm handling differ. List the machine types, number of axes, and control make and model, and say whether conversational programming is used.
A part held to a tenth of a millimetre and a part held to a few microns call for different machinists. Tell us the tightest tolerances and surface finishes, the materials you cut — carbon and stainless steel, duplex, aluminium, engineering plastics — and whether operators measure with hand instruments only or feed results to a CMM room. We design the test part around that.
European and ISO-based drawings typically use first-angle projection, American drawings third-angle, and geometric tolerances may follow ISO 1101 or ASME Y14.5. Misreading a view or a position tolerance scraps parts quickly, so drawing reading is tested on your own drawing or one in the same convention.
A production-line operator runs a process engineers have already set up and is judged on output, consistency and procedure; a machinist is judged on producing a correct part, often from a drawing. If you need line, press or moulding operators, say so — they are a different pool from jobbing machinists, and we recruit and test them separately.
Your requirement
The more precise the brief, the more precise the shortlist. Anything you are unsure of, we work out with you.
Standards & qualifications
Qualifications, codes and licences candidates may hold or be assessed against — you decide which apply.
NAVTTC’s qualifications framework includes National Vocational Certificates in Mechanical Technology that progress from Machinist-Turner at Level 2 and Machinist-Milling at Level 3 to Machinist-CNC at Level 4. Candidates may also hold one- or two-year Machinist certificates, or a three-year DAE in Mechanical Technology or a related specialisation such as dies and moulds. We treat these as evidence of training, then verify on a machine.
CNC Machine Operator, CNC Machinist, Machinist, Machine Operator and Machine Tool Setting Technician are among the trades listed for the Skill Verification Program that NAVTTC runs in Pakistan with Saudi Takamol. It is mandatory only for occupations Takamol has notified, so check the occupation on your visa; the assessment is conducted by an approved test centre.
ISO 6983-1 defines the program format and address words for numerically controlled machines — the basis of what shop floors call G-code. Control makers add their own cycles and extensions on top, which is why experience on your control family matters for setters and programmers.
ISO 1101 covers geometrical tolerancing of form, orientation, location and run-out; ASME Y14.5 is the American dimensioning and tolerancing standard. The symbols look largely alike, but some default rules differ — ASME applies an envelope rule to features of size by default, while ISO applies the independency principle — so the convention named on the drawing matters.
Plants certified to ISO 9001 must keep measuring equipment fit for purpose and, where traceability is required, calibrated or verified against traceable standards. Candidates from certified plants usually know calibration labels, gauge control and inspection records; we ask about it directly rather than assume it.
Assessment
Arranged to your criteria before you interview, so you evaluate ability rather than a CV.
We compare experience letters with your machines, controls, materials and tolerances, and ask each candidate to describe a recent job end to end — the set-up, the offsets they changed, how they measured. Operators who have only loaded parts answer very differently from those who have set jobs.
Candidates interpret a drawing in your convention — projection, tolerances, GD&T callouts, surface finish — then measure a sample part with micrometers, verniers, bore and height gauges, recording results against the drawing. For inspection-heavy roles this carries significant weight.
At an approved trade-test centre or machine shop, operators run a program and hold dimensions, setters set tools and work offsets and prove out a job, and conventional machinists turn or mill a test piece from a drawing. Every finished part is measured against its tolerances.
Programmers write or edit a program for a test part — manually in G-code and, where you use it, in CAM — and explain their tool selection, cutting data and operation sequence. Your engineer can supply the part drawing.
Questions on guarding and interlocks, chip and coolant handling, safe tool changes and lock-out during set-up. Your production engineer, a nominated third party or a live video session can observe any part of the test; Saudi skill verification, where the occupation is notified, is conducted separately by an approved centre.
How it works
From your requirement to workers on site.
We agree the level of each position, the machines and controls, materials, tolerances, shift pattern, visa occupation and joining date — and what the test part must prove.
We search our candidate database and sourcing network for operators, setters and programmers with verified experience on comparable machines and parts, from auto-parts and light-engineering plants to maintenance machine shops.
Experience letters and qualifications are checked, and candidates whose machine background or role level does not fit are removed before any test is booked.
Shortlisted candidates complete the drawing, measurement, machining and, where relevant, programming tasks, with your engineer present or following remotely.
Your production or workshop manager interviews those who passed — online, or in Pakistan if your team travels — covering your parts, controls and shift system, and confirms the final selection.
Candidates bound for Saudi Arabia in a notified occupation sit the skill verification test at an approved centre, scheduled around your start date. Medical fitness is confirmed at a GCC-approved centre wherever the destination calls for it, and attestation and the work-visa submission are prepared in parallel.
Each candidate is registered with BEOE and cleared by the Protector of Emigrants, which Pakistani law requires before anyone leaves the country for work abroad.
Arrivals are timed to your production ramp-up or shift plan — for example setters and a shift leader first to prove out jobs, then operators to staff each shift.
Sourcing
Pakistan’s auto-parts vendor industry, light-engineering clusters in cities such as Gujranwala and Sialkot, and heavy-engineering works all run machine shops, so candidates come from both production and jobbing environments. We establish which one each candidate knows.
NAVTTC’s framework moves machinists from turning and milling up to CNC at higher levels, and DAE Mechanical Technology programmes add engineering drawing and machine-shop practice — a structure that helps us place candidates at the right level.
Because candidates machine and measure a test part before interview, your engineers see accuracy and working method first-hand rather than inferring them from a job title.
Pay & terms
Pay for machine operators is set by the employer and written into the employment contract. It typically rises with responsibility at the machine — programmers above setters, setters above operators — and with five-axis, tight-tolerance or specialist-machine experience, alongside shift premiums, overtime and whether accommodation, transport and food are provided or paid as allowances.
Production often runs around the clock, so be clear about shift rotation, night-shift arrangements and rest days from the outset. During requirement planning we can discuss how your package compares with candidates’ expectations; experienced setters and programmers tend to turn down offers pitched at operator level.
Candidates must not pay unlawful recruitment fees. Agreed pay, shift terms and allowances are set down in the employment contract that accompanies each worker’s emigration file.
Compliance & trust
Falisha Manpower recruits under Overseas Employment Promoter Licence No. 4035, issued by the Bureau of Emigration & Overseas Employment (BEOE), Government of Pakistan.
Every selected worker is processed through BEOE and Protector of Emigrants formalities before departure — the legal route for Pakistani workers taking overseas employment.
Workers are not charged unlawful fees and their passports are not retained. Terms are documented in the employment contract before travel.
You set the specification and the acceptance criteria, and you make every final hiring decision — we source, coordinate, document and mobilise.
Read our quality policy, anti-trafficking statement, or report recruitment fraud. Licence status can be checked with the BEOE.
Sectors
FAQ
References: Bureau of Emigration & Overseas Employment (BEOE) · NAVTTC — Pakistan–Saudi Arabia Skill Verification Program (trade list) · Pakistan NVQF — National Vocational Certificate Level 4 in Mechanical Technology (Machinist-CNC) · Punjab Skills Development Authority — list of DAE (3-year) programmes · Punjab Skills Development Authority — 1-year vocational trade certificate programmes · International Organization for Standardization (ISO) — ISO 6983-1, ISO 1101, ISO 9001 · ASME — Y14.5 Dimensioning and Tolerancing
Last updated 10 November 2026. General guidance for employers; destination rules change, so requirements are confirmed for each recruitment.
Send us the role, numbers, specification, destination and joining date. We will review it, confirm what the assessment must prove, and give you a realistic plan.
