Lead Automation Engineer
WaystoneLeeds, England, United Kingdom
Added 5 Aug · still live
Not disclosed
Salary
Not disclosed by employer
£41,700
Going rate
Skilled Worker going rate
This role may qualify for a Skilled Worker visa
SOC 5223 is an eligible occupation, but we classified this role with low confidence (58% match). If the code is right — and Waystone is a licensed sponsor — it should qualify, but double-check the occupation eligibility rules against the actual role.
About the role
About Waystone
Waystone is a leading asset-servicing solutions provider of institutional governance, administration, risk and compliance services to financial institutions. With over 25 years’ experience and a comprehensive range of specialist services to its name, Waystone helps our clients structure, operate and grow through our expertise, innovation and digitisation, backed by the operational scale to support global expansion
Summary
Reporting to the AI and Automation Manager, the Lead Automation Engineer will be vital to the success of Waystone’s engineering, integration, automation and assurance capabilities. The role leads the design, delivery, governance and continuous improvement of automation across Waystone, where the process and the integration are the product: driving efficiency by removing manual and repetitive work, orchestrating workflows, and connecting systems through APIs, webhooks and event-driven integration. Acting as the technical authority for workflow automation platforms — with n8n and Microsoft Power Automate as key strategic technologies — the role sets the standards, reusable patterns and guardrails for building reliable, secure and supportable automations.
The role increasingly draws AI into workflows as a step, such as LLM calls to classify, extract or summarise, working in close partnership with the AI Engineering team, which owns agents, LLM-powered applications, prompt engineering, evaluations and AI safety.
Essential Duties And Responsibilities
Waystone is a leading asset-servicing solutions provider of institutional governance, administration, risk and compliance services to financial institutions. With over 25 years’ experience and a comprehensive range of specialist services to its name, Waystone helps our clients structure, operate and grow through our expertise, innovation and digitisation, backed by the operational scale to support global expansion
Summary
Reporting to the AI and Automation Manager, the Lead Automation Engineer will be vital to the success of Waystone’s engineering, integration, automation and assurance capabilities. The role leads the design, delivery, governance and continuous improvement of automation across Waystone, where the process and the integration are the product: driving efficiency by removing manual and repetitive work, orchestrating workflows, and connecting systems through APIs, webhooks and event-driven integration. Acting as the technical authority for workflow automation platforms — with n8n and Microsoft Power Automate as key strategic technologies — the role sets the standards, reusable patterns and guardrails for building reliable, secure and supportable automations.
The role increasingly draws AI into workflows as a step, such as LLM calls to classify, extract or summarise, working in close partnership with the AI Engineering team, which owns agents, LLM-powered applications, prompt engineering, evaluations and AI safety.
Essential Duties And Responsibilities
- Act as Waystone’s technical lead and subject matter expert for workflow automation and orchestration — with n8n and Microsoft Power Automate as the key strategic platforms — driving efficiency across the organisation by removing manual and repetitive work.
- Define and maintain the automation Centre of Excellence (CoE), including automation standards, reusable patterns, templates, documentation expectations and operational guardrails.
Requirements
- Deep understanding of low-code automation, workflow orchestration and intelligent process automation, with strong hands-on experience of n8n and Microsoft Power Automate.
- Good understanding of the wider Microsoft Power Platform, and awareness of complementary workflow platforms such as Workato, Xceptor and Appian, with no immediate expectation to use or own them.
- Strong understanding of how to consume AI within workflows, including LLM calls for classification, extraction and summarisation, intelligent document processing and human-in-the-loop design.
- Practical judgement on when to use AI in automation, and when deterministic, rules-based automation is safer, simpler or more cost effective.
- Experience integrating AI services as steps within automation platforms, with sufficient awareness of agents, prompts, guardrails and frameworks such as Microsoft Agent Framework and LangChain to collaborate effectively with AI Engineers.
- Strong understanding of APIs, webhooks, event-driven integration, authentication patterns, data mapping and system-to-system communication.
- Fluency in modern engineering practice, including source control, code review, automated testing, CI/CD and environment management.
- Good understanding of governance, security, privacy, auditability and data handling in a regulated enterprise environment.
- Clear communication across technical and non-technical audiences, with the ability to influence stakeholders and promote best practice without over-engineering.
- The ability to mentor engineers, analysts, Operations Champions, Power Users and business users, uplifting automation capability across the wider organisation.
- 5+ years’ experience in automation, integration, software engineering, workflow orchestration or a related technical discipline.
- Proven experience designing, leading and delivering enterprise automation using low-code platforms such as n8n or Microsoft Power Automate.
- Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, IT, Engineering, or a related discipline (or equivalent practical experience).
- Relevant certifications in automation, Microsoft Power Platform, software engineering, integration, process improvement, or AI are desirable.
This description is the source posting as it read when we added it. We are not affiliated with Waystone, so check their own site for the current details.
Where this offer sits in the market
SOC 5223 · UK · ONS ASHE 2025 · ~209k in sampleP25 £31kP75 £52k
£25kmedian £41kgoing rate £42k£64k
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Does this job guarantee visa sponsorship?
Not necessarily. Waystone holds a sponsor licence, but sponsorship for a specific hire is always the employer's decision. Be upfront in your application that you'll require it.
What salary is needed for this role to be eligible?
The offer must clear both the general threshold and the SOC 5223 going rate of £41,700. New-entrant and shortage discounts can lower it.