N8N Lead/Architect

Job Title: N8N Lead/Architect
Location: San Diego, CA

Key Skills: Custom n8n nodes, JavaScript/TypeScript, API Integration

Responsibilities
Design, Solution & Build Workflows: Develop modular, reusable n8n workflows to automate business processes (event-driven and scheduled).
Lead 2-3 n8n developers including troubleshooting
Integration Engineering: Connect to REST/GraphQL APIs, webhooks, OAuth2/JWT auth, and common SaaS apps (e.g., Microsoft 365, Slack, Jira, ServiceNow, Salesforce, HubSpot).
Custom n8n Nodes: Design, Build and maintain custom nodes (TypeScript/JavaScript) when native nodes don’t meet requirements.
Data Handling: Transform, enrich, and validate data (JSON, XML, CSV); implement schema validation and error handling.
Deployment & CI/CD: Package and deploy n8n via Docker, configure environment variables/secrets, and integrate with CI/CD pipelines (e.g., GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, GitLab CI).
Security & Compliance: Enforce least privilege, secrets management (e.g., Vault, n8n credentials), input sanitization, PII handling, and audit logging.
Monitoring & Observability: Configure health checks, log aggregation (e.g., ELK, Datadog), and metrics (throughput, latency, failure rates).
Documentation & Enablement: Produce workflow diagrams, runbooks, and versioned documentation; conduct knowledge transfer to ops and business users.
Stakeholder Collaboration: Work with business owners to refine requirements; deliver PoCs and then productionize with SLAs.
Governance: Adhere to automation standards, naming conventions, version control, and change-management procedures.

Must-Have Skills
Core n8n Expertise 8–10 Years Experience with 3-4 years in n8n:
Design and Building complex, multi-branch workflows and sub-workflows
Webhooks, triggers, and event-driven automations
n8n credentials, variables, binary data, and data passing
Error handling, try/catch patterns, and workflow-level fallbacks
Programming: Strong JavaScript/TypeScript for functions, expressions, and custom nodes.
Enhance workflows with AI agents by leveraging LLMs for intelligent task automation.
Familiarity with SQL/NoSQL databases.
API Integration: REST/GraphQL, pagination, rate-limiting, authentication (OAuth2, API keys, JWT), and API contract testing.
DevOps: Docker-based deployments, environment promotion (dev/test/prod), CI/CD, version control (Git), and configuration-as-code.
Data & Messaging: JSON manipulation, queues/pub-sub (e.g., RabbitMQ, Kafka, SQS), and webhook architectures.
Security: Secrets management, token lifecycle, signature validation (HMAC), and secure-by-design patterns.
Testing & Quality: Unit tests for custom nodes, workflow test harnesses, and regression testing approach.