How to hire a senior automation engineer

How to hire a senior automation engineer, step by step

Here's a step-by-step senior automation engineer hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a senior automation engineer job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new senior automation engineer
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a senior automation engineer do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   First, determine the employments status of the senior automation engineer you need to hire. Certain senior automation engineer roles might require a full-time employee, whereas others can be done by part-time workers or contractors.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   You should also consider the ideal background you'd like them a senior automation engineer to have before you start to hire. For example, what industry or field would you like them to have experience in, what level of seniority or education does the job require, and how much it'll cost to hire a senior automation engineer that fits the bill.

   This list presents senior automation engineer salaries for various positions.

   Type of Senior Automation Engineer	Description	Hourly rate
   Senior Automation Engineer		$39-66
   Lead Test Technician	Lead test technicians are professionals who are responsible for leading a group of test professionals to test products and report their findings to engineers or product developers. These technicians are required to design and develop test plans and procedures so that they can validate the requirements of products... Show more	$31-48
   Engineer Lead Quality Assurance Lead	Engineer Lead Quality Assurance Leads are responsible for managing the designing and operations of hardware or software testing. Their duties include developing testing plans, implement risk mitigation strategies, communicate process improvements to cross-teams such as marketing and engineering, resolve the conflict between teams, and ensures product or software adheres to the organization and industry standards... Show more	$40-68

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Python
   • Java
   • PLC
   • HMI
   • Jenkins
   • SCADA
   • GIT
   • Scrum
   • C #
   • Windows
   • Jira
   • Linux
   • QA
   • Azure

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Manage automate projects for daily regression run, data validation and project report analysis.
   • Perform feasibility analysis of applications to automate and feasibility analysis of smoke, regression and business scenario test suites.
   • Perform functional, UI, UAT, smoke, regression testing and record issues along with product enhancements.
   • Write new Perl modules or modify existing modules in the automation framework as per the new feature/functionality in Linux environment.
   • Debug Java and JavaScript code to fix functionality and usability issues discover during testing.
   • Work on Linux shell scripting, FTP.

   More senior automation engineer duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your senior automation engineer job description is one of the best ways to attract top talent. A senior automation engineer can vary based on:

   • Location. For example, senior automation engineers' average salary in oklahoma is 37% less than in california.
   • Seniority. Entry-level senior automation engineers 40% less than senior-level senior automation engineers.
   • Certifications. A senior automation engineer with certifications usually earns a higher salary.
   • Company. Working for an established firm or a new start-up company can make a big difference in a senior automation engineer's salary.

   Average senior automation engineer salary

   $107,866yearly

   $51.86 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level senior automation engineer salary

   $83,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 18, 2025

   Average senior automation engineer salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$143,279	$69
   2	Oregon	$118,284	$57
   3	Utah	$111,694	$54
   4	Washington	$108,023	$52
   5	Massachusetts	$107,947	$52
   6	Arizona	$106,575	$51
   7	Connecticut	$104,916	$50
   8	Pennsylvania	$103,382	$50
   9	New York	$102,949	$49
   10	Texas	$101,948	$49
   11	Florida	$97,488	$47
   12	Minnesota	$97,417	$47
   13	Virginia	$96,289	$46
   14	Colorado	$95,803	$46
   15	District of Columbia	$95,159	$46
   16	Illinois	$93,630	$45
   17	North Carolina	$93,439	$45
   18	Ohio	$91,988	$44
   19	Georgia	$90,385	$43
   20	Maine	$87,755	$42

   Average senior automation engineer salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Google	$156,354	$75.17	696
   2	Roku	$152,318	$73.23	14
   3	Apple	$150,756	$72.48	451
   4	Anaplan	$145,335	$69.87	6
   5	Rubrik	$144,521	$69.48	31
   6	Amazon	$142,120	$68.33	857
   7	Rivian	$138,913	$66.79	21
   8	Classy	$138,885	$66.77
   9	Walmart	$137,906	$66.30	395
   10	Castlight Health	$137,376	$66.05
   11	Bloomberg	$135,805	$65.29	180
   12	Intuitive Surgical	$135,127	$64.96	17
   13	OpenTable	$134,472	$64.65
   14	Avid	$132,709	$63.80	20
   15	DocuSign	$131,119	$63.04	8
   16	Citi	$131,073	$63.02	4
   17	SpiderCloud Wireless	$130,725	$62.85
   18	LendingClub	$130,675	$62.82	4
   19	Bungie	$130,284	$62.64
   20	Emergent BioSolutions	$130,142	$62.57

4. Writing a senior automation engineer job description

   A good senior automation engineer job description should include a few things:

   • Summary of the role
   • List of responsibilities
   • Required skills and experience

   Including a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager is also appreciated by candidates. Here's an example of a senior automation engineer job description:

   Senior automation engineer job description example

   Developing effective information technology solutions by creating new and modifying existing software applications. As directed, analyzes system requirements and existing business processes and information systems. Codes, tests, debugs, documents, and implements simple to moderate software applications.
   Daily tasks: Participate in stand-up meetings On-call rotation Implementation on homegrown applications Support additional platforms System integration design and review Root cause analysis with bug log
   Interaction level with team: Heads down work
   
   Degree or certifications required: Bachelor's in related field
   
   Years experience: 5+
   Preferred background & Skills: Strong knowledge of Azure or AWS and Cloud Computing concepts Strong hands-on coding and code review Strong knowledge in best practices for: System Architecture and design. RDBMS and NoSQL Platform and infrastructure Application. PaaS services Monitoring, auditing, and operations In-depth working experience in a DevOps culture; one or more DevOps, Orchestration/Configuration Management and Continuous Integration technology (e.g. Docker/Kubernetes, Jenkins, Ansible, Terraform, ELK stack, Splunk etc.) Linux (Ubuntu, CoreOS, RedHat) and/or Microsoft Windows Server and associated technologies (Active Directory, Exchange etc.) One or more Web and Application Server technologies (e.g. Apache HTTP, Apache Tomcat, Nginx) Networking protocols such as HTTP, DNS and TCP/IP One or more version control platform (e.g. Git) Experience managing full application stacks from the OS up through custom applications Expert in analyzing and troubleshooting applications.
   
   Top Candidate Skills/Years of Experience
   1 Strong knowledge of Azure or AWS and Cloud Computing concepts 5+
   2 Strong hands-on coding and code review 5+
   3 In-depth working experience in a DevOps culture; one or more DevOps, Orchestration/Configuration Management and Continuous Integration technology (e.g. Docker/Kubernetes, Jenkins, Ansible, Terraform, ELK stack, Splunk etc.) 5+

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find senior automation engineers for your business, try out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important talent pools for any company is its current employees.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and your current work to ask if they know any senior automation engineers they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit entry-level senior automation engineers with the right educational background.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter have more than 3.5 billion users, and they're a great place for company branding and reaching potential job candidates.

   To find senior automation engineer candidates, you can consider the following options:

   • Post your job opening on Zippia or other job search websites.
   • Use niche websites that focus on engineering and technology jobs, such as dice, engineering.com, stack overflow, it job pro.
   • Post your job on free job posting websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Recruiting senior automation engineers requires you to bring your A-game to the interview process. The first interview should introduce the company and the role to the candidate as much as they present their background experience and reasons for applying for the job. During later interviews, you can go into more detail about the technical details of the job and ask behavioral questions to gauge how they'd fit into your current company culture.

   Remember to include a few questions that allow candidates to expand on their strengths in their own words. Asking about their unique skills might reveal things you'd miss otherwise. At this point, good candidates can move on to the technical interview.

   While interviews are great, you will only sometimes learn enough from a conversation with a senior automation engineer applicant. In those cases, having candidates complete a test project can go a long way in figuring out who's the most likely to succeed in the role. If you aren't a technical person and don't know how to design an appropriate test, you can ask someone else on the team to create it or take a look at these websites to get a few ideas:

   • TestDome
   • CodeSignal
   • Testlify
   • BarRaiser
   • Coderbyte

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new senior automation engineer

   Once you have selected a candidate for the senior automation engineer position, it is time to create an offer letter. In addition to salary, the offer letter should include details about benefits and perks that are available to the employee. Ensuring your offer is competitive is vital, as qualified candidates may be considering other job opportunities. The candidate may wish to negotiate the terms of the offer, and it is important to be open to discussion and reach a mutually beneficial agreement. After the offer has been accepted, it is a good idea to formalize the agreement with a contract.

   It's also good etiquette to follow up with applicants who don't get the job by sending them an email letting them know that the position has been filled.

   To prepare for the new senior automation engineer first day, you should share an onboarding schedule with them that covers their first period on the job. You should also quickly complete any necessary paperwork, such as employee action forms and onboarding documents like I-9, benefits enrollment, and federal and state tax forms. Finally, Human Resources must ensure a new employee file is created for internal record keeping.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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How much does it cost to hire a senior automation engineer?