Senior Automation Engineer [AQ-21016]

Aquent; Worthing; On-site; GBP 75,000 - 95,000; Full time

Job summary

Aquent in the United Kingdom is seeking a Senior Automation Engineer to lead the design, build and productionisation of complex automation and agentic solutions across Power Platform, APIs and Azure services. You will coach engineers, perform reviews, ensure security and governance, and deliver scalable, observable solutions through the full delivery lifecycle, from Sprint 0 to live operation.

The role emphasizes MVP discipline, risk management and measurable business outcomes, with a focus on

Qualifications

• Experience designing, building, testing and deploying enterprise automation in a governed production environment.
• Strong hands-on capability with Power Platform tools (Power Apps, Dataverse) and associated automation tooling.
• Experience with APIs, integrations, and secure, scalable delivery pipelines.
• Knowledge of ALM, source control, CI/CD, and environment configuration.
• Ability to coach engineers, review designs and ensure quality across delivery squads.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end technical delivery of complex automations, agents, workflows and reusable services.
• Turn process designs and requirements into maintainable solution designs and delivery plans.
• Own build activities for high-complexity solutions involving multiple systems and data.
• Apply MVP discipline and expose risks and trade-offs early.
• Lead peer reviews of code, configuration and deployment artefacts.
• Embed security, governance and observability into solutions.

Skills

Automation design

Power Platform

APIs & integrations

Code reviews

Security & governance

CI/CD

Education

Degree in Software Engineering or Computer Science

Tools

Power Automate Desktop

Copilot Studio

Dataverse

Azure AI Foundry

Azure integration services

Job description

The Senior Automation Engineer leads the engineering design, build, assurance and productionisation of complex automation, digital worker and agentic solutions.

• The role provides hands-on technical leadership across the delivery lifecycle, ensuring solutions are secure, reusable, testable, supportable and aligned to approved architecture, engineering standards and measurable business outcomes.
• The Senior Automation Engineer acts as the technical lead within delivery squads, translating process and business equirements into robust solutions across Microsoft Power Platform, Power Automate Desktop, Copilot Studio, APIs and related Azure services. The role coaches Automation Engineers, performs code and design reviews, resolves difficult technical issues and strengthens the reusable engineering capability needed to scale delivery.

Accountabilities Estimated

Solution engineering and delivery – 35%

• Lead the end-to-end technical delivery of complex automations, agents, workflows and reusable services from candidate assessment and Sprint 0 through build, test, transition, early life support and continuous improvement.
• Turn approved process designs, user stories, non-functional requirements and benefit assumptions into maintainable solution designs and delivery plans.
• Own or lead build activities for high-complexity solutions involving multiple systems, sensitive data, custom connectors, APIs, unattended desktop automation or agentic orchestration.
• Apply MVP discipline, manage technical scope and expose delivery risks, dependencies and trade-offs early.

Engineering quality and assurance – 25%

• Lead peer reviews of code, configuration, prompts, solution architecture, test evidence and deployment artefacts
• Ensure Definition of Ready and Definition of Done criteria are met, including documentation, testing, exception handling, security controls, release notes and operational handover.
• Define and apply engineering standards for naming, source control, branching, ALM, CI/CD, environment variables, connection references, error handling, logging and observability.
• Identify, record and help prioritise technical debt, including supportability, security, deprecated patterns, legacy dependencies and lifecycle risks.

Platform, security and governance – 20%

• Design solutions within approved environment, DLP, security group, role-based access and service-account patterns.
• Work with Platform Engineering and Architecture to confirm environment readiness, connectivity, credentials, capacity, licensing and production monitoring.
• Prepare designs and evidence for Design Authority, change governance and production approval; address actions and exceptions promptly.
• Embed Responsible AI controls in agentic solutions, including grounding, permissions, guardrails, human escalation, content safety, auditability and monitoring.

Service transition and live operations 15%

• Design for supportability from initiation, not at go-live, including runbooks, operational handbooks, support models, SLAs, monitoring, alerting and business/technical exception handling.
• Lead deployment, smoke testing, production verification and early life support fixes for assigned solutions.
• Resolve escalated production defects and contribute to root-caust analysis, emergency changes, resilience improvements and service reviews.
• Refactor live solutions to improve reliability, performance, maintainability, security and run cost.

Scaling, reuse and technical leadership – 5%

• Create and maintain reusable components, patterns, templates, APIs, starter kits and engineering guidance; promote their adoption across central, partner and federated teams.
• Provide technical coaching, pairing and constructive review for Automation Engineers, citizen developers and delivery partners.
• Contribute to communities of practice, technical training and knowledge transfer, helping raise engineering consistency across the automation ecosystem.
• Act as a trusted technical adviser to process analysts, product owners, business SMEs, architects, support teams and suppliers.

Skills & Competencies

• Demonstrable experience designing, building, testing and deploying enterprise automation solutions in a governed production environment.
• Strong hands-on capability in Microsoft Power Platform, including Power
• Apps and Dataverse, plus experience with Power Automate Desktop or equivalent RPA tooling.
• Experience with Copilot Studio, agentic automation, Azure AI Foundry, Azure integration services or AI- enabled workflows.
• Experience leading technical delivery for solutions with integrations, APIs, custom connectors, security roles, service accounts and multiple environments.
• Strong understanding of ALM, source control, deployment pipelines, CI/CD, solution packaging and environment configuration.
• Ability to design robust error handling, retry, logging, monitoring, alerting and business/technical exception patterns.
• Experience producing and assuring solution designs, operational handbooks, runbooks, release notes, test evidence and support handovers.
• Ability to lead code reviews, diagnose complex defects, make proportionate engineering decisions and coach other engineers.
• Clear written and verbal communication with technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Knowledge Qualifications

Technical

• Advanced engineering knowledge across Power Automate Desktop, cloud flows, Power Apps, Copilot Studio, Dataverse, APIs and custom

Essential

• Degree, higher-education qualification or equivalent professional experience in software engineering, computer science, information connectors.
• Strong knowledge of solution design, coding standards, peer review, source control, deployment pipelines and managed-solution practices.
• Experience designing technical and business exception handling, retries, recovery paths, logging and monitoring.
• Knowledge of functional, integration, regression, performance and non-functional testing.
• Strong awareness of security, DLP, access control, and data governance within cloud platforms.
• Awareness of Responsible AI controls, including groundedness, hallucination management, content safety, bias, human oversight, data leakage and prompt-injection risk
• Understanding of GDPR, ISO27001 and regulated environments (Ofwat, DWI, EA) systems, automation engineering or a related discipline.
• Relevant practical training or demonstrable professional experience in enterprise automation or low-code solution engineering.
• Agile delivery training or equivalent experience working within Scrum-based engineering teams.
• Demonstrable learning or certification in at least one relevant automation, cloud, software- development or service-management discipline

Desirable

• Microsoft certifications (PL-100, PL-200, PL- 400).Azure certifications (AZ-900, AI-900, AZ-204).
• Knowledge of creating APIs
• Familiarity with enterprise systems such as ServiceNow, SAP, or GIS platforms.