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instrumentation and control engineer with programming skill and knowledge can call automation engineer.
An Automation Engineer is responsible for the full manufacturing process to be operated automatically.
The Instrumentation and Control Engineer specifically looks after the equipment that does the control (Controllers, PLC, Control Valves,...) and the instruments that provide the necessary feedback to to the control.
The two roles may mean the same thing or lead to the same working environment; however, it actually depends on several factors whether to determine they are exactly the same or not. First of all, it depends on the organization’s culture, naming philosophy and the job description itself. Sometimes, for instance, the terms Instrument Engineer, Control Systems Engineer, Process Automation Engineer and Process Control Engineer may all mean the same thing or differ slightly depending upon the type, background and the industry of the organization, i.e. Vendor, EPC, End-user, consultancy, continuous process, batch, discrete manufacturing etc. For example, in some companies, an instrument engineer is the one who looks after field instruments only while in some other organizations the same position name is meant to cover control and safety systems as well. So, it is a matter of naming at the first place.
However, as per my experience, I have noticed that the term Control and Instrumentation Engineer is more likely to be used in EPC companies where the main function is engineering, construction, designing and document preparation of different kinds of control and instruments systems in several sites/projects rather than the system engineering, programming, and the implementation of the control hardware/software itself of a specific vendor, product, or brand. Also, I noticed that the term Automation Engineer is used in batch/discrete manufacturing industries more frequently, where PLC is the main controlling device, than being adopted in continuous process industry where DCS is the master system.
In my opinion, I think the term Automation is more generic which does not necessarily infer industrial automation. In north America, for example, in addition to Industrial plant control applications, Automation is used in Software or middleware development/testing engineering as well as business automation. On the other hand, Control and Instrumentation is more precise and specific to the application of control systems and its measurement/actuation implementation (instrumentation).
