Sr. automation engineer

Sr. Automation Engineer

Location: Laurel, MD

Contract: 6 month contract to hire, days on site: 3 days onsite mandatory

Interview process: 1 hour video interview then MANDATORY face to face interview

Must haves:

• Bachelors Degree
• Strong development background (critical — cannot be purely functional or managerial)
• Deep, hands-on experience building automations using:
• UiPath (strongly preferred)
• Experience across:
• Attended bots AND unattended bots
• Document Understanding (DU) within UiPath
• Leadership experience - this person will be a leader to the growing automation team:
• As of right now there is no one on the team so they would be the first hire.

The Senior Automation Engineer is responsible for solutioning, implementing, and maintaining automated solutions that improve process and system efficiency, reliability, and scalability across the credit union. This role provides technical leadership in automation frameworks, tools, and processes, collaborating closely with cross-functional teams to streamline and optimize workflows, enhance automation quality, and support business objectives. The Senior Automation Engineer not only architects automation solutions but also builds them when needed, ensuring alignment with organizational standards and security requirements. This position provides mentorship to junior engineers, promotes best practices across projects, and delivers timely technical guidance to support ongoing initiatives. Working in conjunction with the AVP, Automation Services, the Senior Automation Engineer also helps assign, coordinate, and oversee daily activities within the Automation Services department, ensuring effective execution of priorities and continuous improvement of automation capabilities throughout the credit union.

Principal Accountabilities and Functions:

• Leads the design and implementation of robust, scalable automation frameworks and solutions including AI capabilities where applicable.
• Serve as a subject matter expert in automation methodologies, patterns, and tools.
• Owns the automation platform and responsible for monitoring, troubleshooting, and resolving automation-related issues to maintain high availability and help business continuity.
• Mentor and coach junior engineers on automation best practices, coding standards, and problem-solving approaches.
• Ensures cross-training and support coverage for Tower's automation infrastructure.
• Collaborate with the AVP, Automation Services to assign, coordinate, and oversee daily work activities within the Automation Services team.
• Serves as a subject matter expert (SME) in automation technologies and methodologies by researching and recommending emerging automation tools and practices.
• Review PDDs and create PDDD as needed.
• Create the SDD and DSD as a solution architect.
• Provide guidance on coding standards, tooling, architecture, and strategic automation direction.
• Support planning, prioritization, and execution of automation initiatives.
• Performs related duties when delegated.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• Five to eight years of relevant and successful experience in automation engineering, test automation, DevOps, or related areas.
• Proven track record of designing and implementing complex automation solutions at scale.
• Strong programming skills (e.g., Python, Java, C#, JavaScript).
• Experience with automation frameworks such RE Framework and DU Framework.
• Expertise with Automation technologies (e.g., UiPath, BluePrism, Automation Anywhere). Preferably UiPath.
• Proficiency with CI/CD tools (e.g., Azure DevOps, Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions).
• Familiarity with containerization and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Knowledge of cloud platforms (Azure) and infrastructure automation.
• Experience with performance testing tools (JMeter, LoadRunner, Selenium) and monitoring solutions.
• Preferably experience with Test Automation and Test Manager in UiPath Or equivalent combination of education and experience.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Deep knowledge of automation frameworks, programming languages, CI/CD pipelines, and system integrations.
• Awareness of all available capabilities in UiPath.
• Understanding of infrastructure, automation platform, test automation, testing methodologies, operational workflows, and line-of-business processes relevant to automation opportunities.
• Strong familiarity with monitoring, logging, performance testing, and reporting automation.
• Expertise in automation technologies, preferably UiPath and methodologies, serving as a subject matter expert (SME).
• Knowledge of Document Understanding, error handling, dependency management, safe rollback practices, and integration patterns (aligned with other Tower engineering competencies).
• Ability to develop, maintain, and optimize automation scripts, pipelines, and integrations with high levels of maintainability and stability.
• Strong problem-solving and troubleshooting skills, including diagnosing automation failures and implementing durable fixes.
• Skill in system performance monitoring, tuning, and reliability engineering for automated workloads.
• Proficiency in technical communication, including clear design notes, architecture documentation, and status reporting (consistent with broader engineering expectations).
• Effective collaboration skills, working with VP/AVP leadership, business systems teams, and cross-functional stakeholders to align automation strategy.
• Strong mentorship skills, coaching junior engineers on best practices, coding standards, and engineering discipline.
• Ability to design and implement scalable, resilient automation solutions that meet enterprise-level reliability and performance requirements.
• Ability to identify and evaluate automation opportunities across multiple domains including infrastructure, testing, business processes, and operational workflows.
• Capacity to lead and oversee daily work activities within the Automation Services department together with the AVP, ensuring effective execution of priorities.
• Ability to troubleshoot complex automation issues, use structured analysis, and derive long-term solutions.
• Ability to serve as a strategic technical resource, influencing automation strategy and advocating for best practices across the engineering organization.
• Ability to design for operability, including monitoring, alerting, logging, dependency management, and rollback strategies (reinforced by patterns across Tower engineering roles).