Automation Engineer

Automation Engineer

HYBRID in Atlanta or Cincinnati or REMOTE

6+ Months Contract - Potential to extend

ABOUT THE ROLE

We are seeking an Automation Engineer to design, build, and operate automation that accelerates delivery, reduces operational toil, and improves reliability across our environments. You will use Python, Terraform, and Ansible to implement infrastructure as code, configuration management, and workflow automation. Your work will integrate with GitHub-based CI/CD practices and ServiceNow change processes, ensuring changes are safe, auditable, and repeatable. You will collaborate with security, platform, network, and application teams to embed guardrails, create runbooks, and continuously improve the developer and operator experience.

WHAT YOU WILL BE DOING

• Design and develop Python-based tooling, scripts, and services to automate operational tasks, integrate with third-party APIs, and orchestrate change workflows.

• Build and maintain reusable Terraform modules and environments, enabling predictable, idempotent provisioning and lifecycle management across targets.

• Create and operate Ansible roles and playbooks for configuration, patching, compliance baselines, application deployment, and drift remediation.

• Integrate automation into CI/CD using GitHub (branching, pull requests, reviews, checks), adding validation, linting, and plan/apply gates.

• Implement observability for automation (structured logs, metrics, alerts) and maintain SOPs/runbooks, including rollback and recovery steps.

• Embed security-by-default: secrets management, least-privilege identities for automation, and audit trails aligned to PCI requirements.

• Partner with cross-functional teams to translate requirements into safe, versioned, and tested automation; contribute to internal documentation and knowledge bases.

WHAT YOU NEED (REQUIRED)

• 3-5 years of experience in an enterprise environment.

• Minimum 2 years of hands-on automation experience delivering production outcomes.

• Strong proficiency with Python, Terraform, and Ansible.

• Practical GitHub experience (branching strategies, pull requests, code reviews, reusable workflows).

• Experience integrating automation with change/ITSM processes using ServiceNow.

• Comfortable working with Linux fundamentals, YAML/JSON, templating, APIs (REST/JSON), and idempotent design patterns.

• Clear written and verbal communication skills and a systematic, documented troubleshooting approach.

NICE TO HAVE (PREFERRED)

•Experience with transition or transformation to Infrastructure as Code (IaC).

• AWS Lambda for event-driven automation; familiarity with serverless patterns and orchestration.

• Container and image automation fundamentals (Docker, Kubernetes, Packer).

• Secrets management (e.g., HashiCorp, Vault, KMS, Secrets Manager).

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

• Percentage of infrastructure and configuration managed via Terraform and Ansible.

• Change success rate for automated changes and rollback frequency.

• Lead time from request to automated delivery and deployment frequency.

• MTTR for automation incidents and scope of auto-remediation coverage.

• Reduction in manual steps and operator toil hours per workflow.

WORK PRACTICES AND GOVERNANCE

• Follow standard change control with peer review, test/stage validation, approvals, and defined rollback plans.

• Maintain high-quality documentation for modules, roles, pipelines, and runbooks.

• Enforce least-privilege access and auditable evidence to support PCI compliance.