Automation Engineer (DevOps/Cloud)

Automation Engineer (DevOps/Cloud)Automation Engineer for a hybrid position (3 days per week onsite) located in Charlotte, NC. This is a 12+ month contract opportunity.This role is focused on designing, building, and optimizing automation solutions to accelerate vendor product certification for technologies like Kafka, MQ, and Tibco. The engineer will extensively leverage AI-assisted development tools such as Microsoft Copilot and Claude to enhance productivity. The ideal candidate will develop and maintain end-to-end automated certification workflows, integrating them into CI/CD pipelines to ensure consistent, traceable validation with minimal manual effort.Responsibilities:Design and implement automated certification pipelines for vendor products (Kafka, MQ, Tibco) aligned with internal standardsLeverage AI tools (Copilot, Claude) to accelerate development, generate automation code, and reduce time-to-deliveryBuild and maintain reusable automation frameworks and modules to support scalable certification and validation workflowsAutomate CVE validation, patch verification, and security remediation, minimizing manual effort and improving response timeUse AI-assisted approaches to analyze vulnerabilities, generate validation scripts, and improve test coverageIntegrate automation solutions into CI/CD pipelines (e.g., Jenkins) to enable continuous, auditable validationPartner with Security and Platform Engineering to define certification criteria, compliance standards, and validation policiesCollaborate with vendor partners to ensure consistent certification practices and accelerate onboarding of new releasesGenerate compliance artifacts, reports, and audit evidence, leveraging AI tools where appropriate for documentation and summarizationContinuously improve automation efficiency, reliability, and observability using both engineering and AI-driven insightsRequirements:Strong experience in automation engineering, building scalable workflows and reusable frameworksHands-on expertise with Python, Ansible, or Java (development, integration, troubleshooting)Proven experience in security automation, including CVE validation, patching, and compliance evidence generationPractical experience using AI coding assistants (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Claude, or similar) to accelerate development and debuggingExperience with CI/CD tools (e.g.