Principal Automation Engineer

Role Summary

Avalar continues to scale its AI-first enterprise systems, workflows, and automation footprint. This role defines and drives enterprise architecture for AI automation and business transformation, reduces fragmentation across workflow, agent, and integration solutions, and enables faster, more reliable delivery of automation initiatives.

What You'll Do

• Improve operational efficiency, resilience, and process quality by establishing scalable AI automation architecture standards and governance guardrails
• Accelerate transformation delivery and reduce rework through clear design frameworks, decision models, and reusable automation patterns
• Enhance employee and customer experience by reducing manual work, process fragmentation, and automation risk
• Embed AI-first architectural practices that improve automation scale, decision quality, and measurable business outcomes

Bar Raiser Expectations

• Hold high standards for architectural clarity, quality, and accountability
• Use data and measurable impact to guide enterprise technical decisions
• Simplify complex, cross-system and cross-workflow challenges into scalable and sustainable designs
• Guide AI Automation Engineers, BSAs, and solution designers to raise automation maturity and talent density
• Challenge assumptions respectfully and improve execution rigor across teams
• Leave every system, process, and architectural framework stronger than it was before

Responsibilities

• Integration Strategy & Platform Governance
• Lead evaluation of AI automation, agentic workflow, and transformation initiatives across the organization
• Define architectural decision frameworks and long-term platform strategy for n8n, Boomi, APIs, event-driven orchestration, and AI services to reduce duplication and increase reuse
• Establish governance guardrails for AI-enabled workflows, agents, prompts, models, data flows, and human-in-the-loop controls to ensure scalability, reliability, auditability, and responsible use
• Anticipate growth, compliance, security, and operational risks across automation platforms and transformation programs before they materialize
• Influence cross-functional roadmaps with AI Automation Engineers, BSAs, and business leaders based on architectural trade-offs, platform fit, and measurable outcomes
• Enterprise Solution Architecture
• Create architectural blueprints for intelligent workflows, agentic process patterns, and cross-system orchestration that reduce ambiguity and minimize rework
• Design secure, scalable, and resilient automation patterns across SaaS systems, internal platforms, APIs, data ecosystems, and AI/ML services
• Drive API-first, event-driven, and human-in-the-loop architecture standards that improve interoperability, control, and long-term maintainability
• Lead architecture reviews and represent AI automation and transformation strategy in executive and cross-functional forums
• Cross-Functional Technical Collaboration
• Partner across business, platform, data, security, and engineering functions to create shared clarity from concept through execution for transformation initiatives
• Work closely with AI Automation Engineers and BSAs to turn business process opportunities into governed, implementation-ready automation architectures
• Communicate trade-offs, sequencing, and architectural decisions using data, business impact, risk, and cost considerations
• Solve ambiguous, high-complexity challenges spanning workflows, systems, AI agents, process controls, and enterprise change
• Standards, Scalability & Operational Excellence
• Define enterprise standards, reference architectures, documentation templates, and best practices for AI automation and transformation initiatives
• Establish performance, reliability, observability, and cost-management benchmarks for deterministic and AI-enabled workflows
• Reduce automation and architectural debt through proactive platform direction, reusable patterns, and rationalization of fragmented solutions
• Improve resilience, scalability, governance, and long-term maintainability across automation platforms and cross-functional process architectures
• Mentorship & Organizational Impact
• Provide architectural oversight on high-impact AI automation and business transformation initiatives
• Mentor AI Automation Engineers, BSAs, and solution designers, raising overall automation architecture maturity and cross-functional execution quality
• Guide contractor and vendor alignment to enterprise standards for automation, agentic workflows, governance, and platform use
• Elevate organizational AI automation capability through durable architectural principles, reusable patterns, and clear decision frameworks

What You'll Need to be Successful

• Strong hands-on experience with modern automation and integration platforms (iPaaS and workflow orchestration tools)
• Experience architecting for platforms such as n8n, Boomi or similar platforms like mulesoft/workato, or comparable automation ecosystems
• Deep understanding of automation patterns, middleware, data transformation, agent orchestration, and human-in-the-loop workflow design
• Proven ability to influence enterprise-wide technical direction and partner effectively with AI Automation Engineers, BSAs, and cross-functional leaders

Pay Range Details

The base pay range(s) below are provided in compliance with state specific laws. Pay ranges may be different in other locations.

• Colorado: $153,300-$203,100 (annually)
• Washington: $153,300-$279,600 (annually)
• California: $153,300-$306,300 (annually)
• NYC: $185,500-$306,300 (annually)