AI Consultant at Reed, Hertfordshire, £600 per day,

Automation Engineer

• Salary: £600 per day (outside IR35)
• Location: Hertfordshire, 1 day per week on site
• Job Type: 12-month contract
• Overview: We are looking for an Automation Engineer to build practical AI-powered tools that improve workflows, automate repetitive tasks and support better business decision-making. This Automation Engineer opportunity is ideal for someone who enjoys turning user needs into working applications quickly, then scaling them into reliable, reusable products within a regulated environment.

This is a strong opportunity for an Automation Engineer with experience across Python, Shiny, SQL and AI tooling to deliver hands-on solutions that bring immediate value to business teams.

Day-to-day of the role

• Build and maintain AI skills, assistants and agents that reduce manual work across reporting, documentation and operational processes.
• Develop Shiny applications, including AI-enabled dashboards that explain trends, highlight issues and answer user questions.
• Automate repetitive steps across spreadsheets, documents and business systems to improve efficiency and accuracy.
• Create supervised automations where outputs are reviewed and approved by users before being actioned.
• Build scheduled data pipelines that pull, clean, reconcile and combine data from multiple business sources.
• Write tested, version-controlled code and maintain clear technical documentation for live tools and processes.
• Support user testing, gather feedback, train end users and iterate solutions based on business needs.
• Monitor, maintain and improve deployed tools as workflows and source systems evolve.

Required Skills & Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, Information Systems or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• At least 3 years' experience building data applications, automations or internal tools used by business teams.
• Strong Python skills for scripting, automation and data processing, including tools such as pandas, requests and testing frameworks.
• Solid R knowledge with experience building and deploying Shiny applications.
• Good SQL skills and experience integrating systems through REST APIs.
• Practical experience using LLM APIs or AI coding tools, including prompt design and structured outputs.
• Comfortable using Git and version control, and working iteratively with non-technical stakeholders.
• Experience with cloud data platforms, containers or regulated environments would be advantageous.

How to apply

To apply for this Automation Engineer position, please submit your CV