Automation Engineer

CBTS; Grand Rapids (MI); On-site; USD 125,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

CBTS is seeking an Automation Analyst for a hands-on, 6-month contract-to-hire in Grand Rapids, MI. The role involves analyzing business processes, running discovery sessions, and shipping automations using workflow orchestration, RPA, scripts, and AI-assisted coding tools.

You will own and grow the existing RPA portfolio, improve brittle automations, and build new automations from the ground up. Strong analytical skills and stakeholder collaboration are essential.

Qualifications

• Demonstrated builder with automations, tools, scripts, or workflows in active use.
• Hands-on experience with AI coding tools (Claude, Claude Code, Cursor, Codex) to write and debug real code.
• Strong analyst fundamentals: run discovery sessions, elicit requirements from non-technical stakeholders, turn vague complaints into defined problems.

Responsibilities

• Interview users to surface exceptions, workarounds, and edge cases.
• Build automations with workflow orchestration, RPA, scripts, and integrations.
• Prioritize backlog with quantified cost and return estimates.
• Own and improve existing RPA portfolio; fix brittle automations and retire outdated ones.

Skills

RPA

AI coding tools

Workflow automation

BPMN

Education

Lean Six Sigma

Tools

n8n

LLM APIs

iPaaS

Job description

Automation Analyst - 6-Month Contract-to-Hire - $75/hr W-2 - $95/hr W-2 / Conversion Salary $125,000-$150,000 - Location: Grand Rapids, MI

CBTS is searching for an Automation Analyst that both analyzes and builds. This is a hands-on position for someone who can sit with users, dig past the first answer to find the exceptions and workarounds that matter, and then personally ship the automation - using workflow orchestration, RPA, scripts, integrations, and AI-assisted coding tools.

CBTS has already invested in automated process discovery tooling and has a substantial existing portfolio of RPA automations in production; some are excellent, some are brittle, and some may need to be retired. This role helps inherit and improve that portfolio while also building new automations from the ground up.

Responsibilities

• Interview and observe the people doing the work - run discovery sessions, workshops, and side-by-side walkthroughs to surface exceptions, workarounds, and edge cases that discovery tooling alone won't reveal
• Build the automations personally: workflow orchestration, RPA, scripts, integrations, and AI-assisted steps; elevate only the genuinely hard problems to engineering
• Turn process discovery output into a prioritized, quantified backlog - current cost, cost to fix, and expected return
• Help own the existing RPA portfolio: understand what each automation does and for whom, fix what's brittle, document what's undocumented, and retire what no longer earns its keep
• Write clear requirements: user stories, acceptance criteria, exception paths, and failure modes
• Own reliability for everything shipped, including monitoring, error handling, and runbooks
• Manage the change: bring affected teams along, train them, and ensure new processes stick
• Measure results against what was promised and report outcomes honestly

Requirements

• Demonstrated builder, not just documenter - can point to automations, tools, scripts, or workflows that exist and are actively used
• Serious hands-on experience with AI coding tools (e.g., Claude, Claude Code, Cursor, Codex) to write and debug real, working code - not just draft communications
• Strong analyst fundamentals: able to run a discovery session, elicit requirements from non-technical stakeholders, and turn a vague complaint into a defined, quantified problem
• Track record of automating personal or team workflows - scripts, macros, or automations that saved meaningful time, repeatedly
• Genuine curiosity about how work actually gets done, beyond what's documented in a process doc
• Willingness to maintain and improve existing automations, not only build new ones
• Strong interpersonal and change-management skills - able to build trust with business stakeholders and gain buy-in before changing how their work is done
• Sound judgment on whether a process should be automated, eliminated, or renegotiated before any automation work begins

Qualifications

• Business process modeling experience (BPMN or equivalent) at a level of detail people actually use
• Hands-on experience with workflow automation or iPaaS platforms
• RPA experience, especially inheriting or auditing an existing bot portfolio; n8n experience a plus
• Experience building with LLM APIs - structured extraction, document processing, tool-using agents, or evaluation harnesses
• Familiarity with task or process mining tools and translating their output into action
• Formal continuous improvement background (Lean, Six Sigma, value stream mapping)
• Data experience beyond SQL, such as dbt, data warehouse modeling, or BI tooling

CBTS provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, amnesty, or status as a protected veteran in accordance with applicable federal, state and local laws.