Company Overview
[$COMPANY_OVERVIEW]
Role Overview
[$COMPANY_NAME] is hiring a Senior Automation Specialist to lead the design, implementation, and operationalization of enterprise-grade automation solutions across software delivery, infrastructure, and QA pipelines. You will architect end-to-end automation frameworks that increase release velocity, reduce mean time to recovery (MTTR), and enforce regulatory and security controls. This senior role requires technical leadership, hands-on implementation, and cross-functional influence with engineering, SRE, security, and product teams.
Responsibilities
- Own automation strategy and roadmap for CI/CD, infrastructure-as-code (IaC), test automation, and operational runbooks across multiple product lines.
- Architect and implement scalable pipelines using tools such as Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, ArgoCD, or Tekton; integrate with artifact registries and container registries.
- Design, build, and maintain IaC and configuration management using Terraform, Pulumi, CloudFormation, Ansible, or SaltStack; enforce immutable infrastructure patterns.
- Develop robust test automation frameworks for unit, integration, contract, end-to-end, and performance testing using Selenium, Cypress, Playwright, JUnit, pytest, or Gatling.
- Implement quality gates, build-time security checks (SAST/DAST), dependency scanning, and policy-as-code (OPA/Gatekeeper) in CI/CD pipelines.
- Lead migration of legacy pipelines and monolith deployments to containerized, orchestrated platforms (Docker, Kubernetes) and GitOps practices.
- Produce and maintain automation runbooks, playbooks, and Architecture Decision Records (ADRs); present outcomes to engineering leadership.
- Mentor engineers on testability, observability, and automation best practices; conduct architecture and code reviews focused on automation extensibility and reliability.
- Measure and report automation KPIs: deployment frequency, lead time for changes, change failure rate, MTTR, test coverage, and pipeline flakiness.
Required and Preferred Qualifications
Required:
- 8+ years of hands-on experience implementing automation solutions in enterprise software environments.
- Proven track record architecting CI/CD pipelines, IaC, and test automation at scale.
- Advanced scripting and programming skills in Python, Go, or Ruby; strong use of APIs for automation.
- Deep working knowledge of containerization (Docker), orchestration (Kubernetes), and GitOps principles.
- Experience with observability and debugging tools (Prometheus, Grafana, Loki, DataDog, Jaeger) for pipeline and production troubleshooting.
- Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure) and production-grade security/compliance automation.
- Excellent written and verbal communication; ability to produce clear documentation and influence stakeholders.
Preferred:
- Certifications such as AWS Certified DevOps Engineer, Google Professional DevOps, HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate, or Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA).
- Experience with policy-as-code (OPA), infrastructure testing (Terratest), and chaos engineering (Gremlin, Chaos Mesh).
- Prior experience in regulated industries (finance, healthcare, telecom) with audit-ready automation processes.
- Background in SRE, platform engineering, or test engineering leadership.
Technical Skills and Relevant Technologies
- CI/CD: Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, ArgoCD, Tekton
- IaC & Config: Terraform, Pulumi, CloudFormation, Ansible
- Containers & Orchestration: Docker, Kubernetes, Helm, Kustomize
- Testing: pytest, JUnit, Selenium, Cypress, Playwright, Gatling
- Cloud: AWS, GCP, Azure (compute, networking, IAM, deployment services)
- Security & Compliance: SAST/DAST tools, dependency scanning, OPA/Gatekeeper, Vault
- Observability: Prometheus, Grafana, DataDog, Loki, Jaeger, ELK
- Scripting & Languages: Python, Go, Bash, Ruby
Soft Skills and Cultural Fit
- Strategic technical leadership: track record of setting automation vision and driving measurable outcomes.
- Mentorship: experience coaching engineers, running brown-bags, and improving team engineering maturity.
- Cross-functional collaboration: effective at negotiating trade-offs with product, security, and support teams.
- Data-driven: uses metrics and experiments to prioritize automation investments and reduce risk.
- Bias for quality: advocates for testability, reproducibility, and maintainability across the stack.
- Inclusive communicator: builds psychological safety, hires diverse perspectives, and writes clear documentation.
Benefits and Perks
Salary: [$SALARY_RANGE]
- Comprehensive health, dental, and vision coverage
- 401(k) with company match or regional equivalent
- Generous paid parental leave and flexible PTO
- Professional development stipend, certification reimbursement, and conference budget
- Equipment allowance (laptop, monitors) and home office stipend
- Equity or long-term incentive plan participation
- Wellness programs, mental health support, and employee resource groups
Equal Opportunity Statement
[$COMPANY_NAME] is an equal opportunity employer. We value diverse backgrounds and perspectives and do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic. Reasonable accommodations are available on request for applicants with disabilities.
Location
This is a remote position within [$COMPANY_LOCATION]; successful candidates must be based in [$COMPANY_LOCATION] and able to overlap core working hours with distributed teams. Occasional travel to regional offices or customer sites may be required.
Application Instructions
We encourage applicants who may not meet every qualification to apply. Please submit your resume and a brief cover letter highlighting a recent automation project you led, the technologies used, and measurable business outcomes. Candidates may include links to architecture docs, pipeline examples, or automation repositories (private links are acceptable).