Freelance Python Automation Engineer Jobs in Kentucky

Expedient is a provider of multi-cloud platforms, hosted infrastructure, and cybersecurity solutions. Our Information Systems team is the internal backbone of the organization. We build and operate the platforms that run the business, from client billing and CPQ to ITSM, the client support portal, and beyond. Automation Engineering is a new team within Information Systems, chartered to find the manual work happening across the company and make it go away.

We are looking for an Automation Engineer to identify, design, and implement automation solutions across the organization. You will partner directly with teams throughout the company to understand their workflows, evaluate opportunities for automation, and build reliable tooling that saves time and reduces manual effort. This is a highly collaborative position that blends hands-on engineering with stakeholder engagement, ideal for someone who enjoys both writing code and understanding the reason behind it.

The work is measured. We track hours saved, and the automations you build are expected to hold up in production without constant babysitting. That means this is not a role for someone who only wants to prompt AI tools and walk away. We need someone who genuinely understands the code they ship, can reason about failure modes in a system they did not build, and can turn a vague request from a stakeholder into something that actually works.

That said, we fully embrace AI-assisted development. We expect this person to be fluent with tools like Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, or similar, not as a crutch, but as a force multiplier. You should know how to use these tools effectively in a real production environment: reviewing what they produce, knowing when to trust them and when to push back, and integrating them into a disciplined engineering workflow.

WhatYou’llDo:

• Assess existing processes across the organization, evaluate their feasibility for automation, and determine the best way to leverage available resources and tooling to automate them

• Meet with stakeholders to understand their needs, document their existing workflows, and translate informal requests into well-defined, actionable automation requirements

• Design, build, and deploy automation solutions, primarily in Python

• Use AI coding tools (Claude Code, Codex, Copilot, or similar) as a core part of your development workflow, including prompting, reviewing, and refining AI-generated code

• Build and maintain internal applications and dashboards, using low-code and internal developer platforms where they are the right fit and writing real code where they are not

• Maintain, monitor, and improve existing automation infrastructure and scripts

• Deploy and operate what you build using CI/CD pipelines, containers, and Kubernetes

• Support internal builders and citizen developers, helping them work within patterns that keep their solutions secure, performant, and supportable

• Communicate clearly and proactively with team members and stakeholders on project status, tradeoffs, and outcomes

• Manage multiple concurrent projects and context-switch effectively between them

WhatWe’reLooking For:

Required

• Strong proficiency in Python

• Experience building, deploying, and maintaining automation scripts and infrastructure

• Demonstrated, real-world experience using AI coding tools (Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Codex, Cursor, or similar) to build and ship production software, not just experimentation

• Ability to analyze a business or technical process and identify practical opportunities for automation

• Experience writing scripts that collect and synthesize data from a variety of sources

• Experience building and consuming REST APIs

• Strong communication skills, including the ability to gather requirements from non-technical stakeholders and formalize them into technical specifications

• Curiosity and willingness to learn new systems, tools, and technologies

Preferred

• Experience with Go

• Experience with JavaScript/TypeScript

• Familiarity with Docker, Kubernetes, and CI/CD platforms such as GitHub Actions, Argo, or Jenkins

• Experience with low-code or internal developer platforms such as Retool, and sound judgment about when to use them and when not to

• Experience with relational databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL, or similar)

• Familiarity with ITSM, billing, or CPQ platforms and the business processes they support

• Comfortable presenting and discussing technical approaches with a mixed technical and non-technical audience

Our Stack & How We Work

Python is the primary language for automation work. Elsewhere in Information Systems we run Go for new APIs, PHP/Symfony for applications under modernization, React and JavaScript on the frontend, MySQL, and Kubernetes for orchestration. We run on GitHub with GitHub Actions for CI/CD, and we use Retool and internal developer platforms where a full application is more than the problem calls for. We work in small increments with Kanban-style agile practices, and we favor starting small over building a platform nobody asked for.

About Our Team

Automation Engineering is a small, new team with a broad mandate. We build the shared tools and standards that make other teams faster, we serve as the hub for internal builders and citizen developers across the company, and we build the automations and lightweight applications that take manual work off people’s plates. Because the team is new and small, you will have unusual range: direct access to stakeholders at every level, real ownership of what you ship, and a short path from an idea to something running in production.

This is a hybrid position requiring proximity to one of our eligible office locations which include Baltimore, MD or Pittsburgh, PA. Sponsorship is not provided for this role.

Salary for this position is directly related to your own experience, knowledge, and skills. Estimated range for this role is $90,000 to $130,000

WORKING FOR EXPEDIENT

We prioritize ongoing education and continuous innovation to remain at the forefront of the information technology landscape. Our commitment to learning is reflected in our comprehensive employee training and tuition reimbursement programs, which are driven by our employees and funded by Expedient 100%.

For our full-time employees we offer an exceptional benefits package including three weeks of paid time off annually that increases with tenure plus your birthday off and a health holiday to be used for preventive care. We offer parental leave, top-tier medical, dental, and vision, disability and life insurance, at an affordable rate, wellness engagement opportunities, and a 401(k) with a generous match.

We also recognize the importance of a comfortable and convenient work environment. We offer a hybrid work model for many roles, paid parking and other perks.

Expedient is an equal opportunity employer. Qualified applicants will receive fair and equitable consideration for employment without regard to their race, color, religion, national origin, gender, protected veteran status, disability, or any other characteristic protected by law.