Lead Automation Engineer

Function

The Lead Automation Engineer will lead automation initiatives for a financial institution, focusing on Microsoft Power Automate, Power BI, and complementary technologies to optimize back-office operations, core banking processes, and improve efficiency. This role ensures compliance and audit adherence, manages business continuity when automation fails, and leverages human-at-the-helm AI technologies to maintain oversight and control.

Duties And Responsibilities

• Lead, design, develop, and deploy end-to-end automation solutions using Microsoft Power Automate, Power BI, and other tools to streamline back-office and core banking processes.
• Evaluate and integrate additional automation tools and AI-driven solutions to complement existing frameworks.
• Collaborate with business and technology stakeholders to identify, prioritize, and deliver automation opportunities and translate requirements into technical solutions.

Compliance & Audit Adherence

• Ensure all automation solutions comply with regulatory standards, internal audit requirements, and security policies.
• Maintain comprehensive documentation for all automation processes to support audits and governance.

Human-at-the-Helm AI Integration

• Implement AI-driven automation with human oversight to ensure accuracy, ethical compliance, and risk mitigation.
• Develop protocols for human intervention in critical workflows to maintain operational integrity.

Team Leadership & Training

• Manage and mentor a team of 2–3 automation engineers, fostering technical growth, collaboration, and high-quality delivery.
• Define and track KPIs for automation (e.g. hours saved, error reduction, turnaround time, incident reduction) and provide regular reporting and dashboard via Power BI.
• Conduct training for staff on automation tools, governance, and resiliency strategies.
• Act as the central point of contact for automation practices across the bank, sharing best practices and influencing the broader automation roadmap.

Business Continuity & Resiliency

• Create contingency plans and failover strategies to ensure uninterrupted operations during automation outages.
• Monitor automation performance and proactively address potential failures.

Innovation & Continuous Improvement

• Stay current with emerging automation technologies, AI advancements, and financial industry trends.
• Recommend and implement improvements to automation frameworks for scalability and efficiency.

Education

• Requires a four-year degree or equivalent.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, Finance, or related field.
• Five plus years of experience in technology and operations role, with three plus years in automation (workflow, RPA, low-code, or process automation).
• Hands-on experience designing and implementing solutions with Microsoft Power Automate, Power BI (or similar low-code, RPA, reporting tools), and related Microsoft ecosystem tools.
• Familiarity with core banking processes and financial institution operations preferred.
• Experience leading small technical teams and delivering cross-functional initiatives from discovery through production.
• Strong understanding of process mapping and redesign, the ability to translate manual workflow to automation.

Experience

• Five to ten years general business experience, five to ten years of specialized experience.
• PREFERRED: familiar with APIs, data integration concepts, and working with vendor systems where core code cannot be modified.
• Understand security, IAM concepts, and controls in a regulated environment (e.g. role-based access, approvals, and audit).
• Experience in a bank or other regulated financial institution, working with risk, compliance, and audit functions.

Physical Demands

• This work can be performed at multiple locations.
• Operates a keypad device 90-100% of the day.
• Operates electronic equipment 20-30%.
• Traveling 0-10%, overnight stays 0-10%.
• Primary parts of the body involved include fingers, thumb, hand, wrist(s), elbows, legs/feet, lower torso, and upper torso.
• Routinely lifts 10-20 lbs 0-10%, maximum lift 10-20 lbs 0-10%.

Salary Range

$55,000.00 - $156,450.00