Freelance Python Automation Engineer Jobs in New York, NY

Serval is an AI-native automation platform transforming how enterprises operate. We build intelligent agents that understand real-world workflows and execute them end-to-end — replacing manual processes and rigid legacy systems with adaptive, learning software. Founded in early 2024, Serval is already trusted by companies like Fox, Notion, Perplexity, Vercel, and Brex to automate high-volume, high-friction operational work across their organizations.

At the core of Serval is an agentic AI platform that turns natural language into production-grade workflows. Our agents don’t just respond to requests — they reason, take action across systems, and continuously improve with usage. What began with operational use cases has quickly evolved into a horizontal AI automation layer used across IT, HR, Finance, Security, Legal, and Engineering.

Our mission is to eliminate repetitive, manual work across the enterprise and give teams leverage through intelligent automation. Long term, we’re building the universal AI operations layer — a system of agents that sits across business functions and runs the workflows that keep modern companies moving.

We’re backed by leading investors including Sequoia Capital, Redpoint Ventures, Meritech, First Round, General Catalyst, Elad Gil, and others.

Every internal ops team has the same problem. The work grows faster than the headcount. New hires need laptops, access, and answers. Employees lose passwords, request software, and file the same ticket a hundred different ways. For decades the only answer was more people and longer queues.

AI changed the math. Agents can now resolve requests, provision access, and run workflows end to end. But agents don’t deploy themselves. Someone has to look at a messy, manual process and see a system. Someone has to build it, measure it, and make it better every week.

That’s the Automation Engineer.

You’ll sit inside our IT and internal ops team, but you’ll operate like an internal product team of one. You find the highest-volume, highest-friction service work in the company, and you build automations and AI agents that handle it. You keep humans in the loop where judgment matters and remove them everywhere else. Serval is the platform you’ll build on—the same product our customers use—so you’ll be running our own automation stack on ourselves before anyone else does.

The job has two halves.

First: automate the existing playbook. Shadow the help desk. Watch how onboarding actually happens. Find the requests that repeat, the approvals that follow rules, the handoffs that stall. Then build systems that handle them:

• Deploy and tune AI agents that resolve common employee requests without human intervention
• Build workflows for onboarding, offboarding, and access/software provisioning
• Automate ticket triage, routing, and escalation
• Maintain an accurate, agent-ready knowledge base
• Track impact: deflection rate, resolution time, hours saved, satisfaction

Second: invent what doesn’t exist. Once the recurring work runs itself, you go hunting. Security needs faster access reviews? Build the workflow. Finance is chasing procurement approvals through email? Systematize it. The best Automation Engineers become the person every team wants time with, because they turn complaints into shipped systems.

• Lead identity and access infrastructure: SSO consolidation, RBAC, and SAML/SCIM provisioning for zero-touch onboarding/offboarding
• Drive SaaS and device governance: rationalize the app stack, enforce SSO coverage, eliminate shadow IT, and standardize device/offboarding policies
• Own day-to-day automation operations, building and maintaining Serval workflows for access, provisioning, and recurring tasks
• Support security and compliance execution: access reviews, device controls, audit evidence gathering.

• Motivated and self-directed. 2+ years in automation engineering, IT operations, or a related role, with a Computer Science or related technical degree (or equivalent practical experience). You’ve contributed to infrastructure projects and have working knowledge of identity management (Okta, SAML, SCIM), endpoint management (macOS, Kandji), and SaaS administration.
• A systems thinker. You understand how SSO consolidation, RBAC, and provisioning automation connect, and you’re eager to build the skills to sequence them. You’ve contributed to access policies or automation workflows in a prior role.
• Comfortable with ambiguity. You can make sound judgment calls with some guidance, balance competing priorities, and communicate clearly across the company.
• Motivated by ownership, not maintenance. You want a seat where you help build and define systems, not just a queue where you keep existing ones running.

• Experience scripting routine automation tasks (Python, Bash, or low-code tools)
• Familiarity with zero-trust security models or just-in-time access tooling
• Startup or high-growth experience where you\'ve built automation processes from scratch
• Exposure to compliance frameworks (SOC 2, Vanta, access reviews)

• Impact: Be a key player in shaping the success of our product and company.
• Growth: Build a fundamentally new AI product offering with the support of our experienced team and investors. Grow rapidly with the company.
• Culture: Join a culture that values innovation, ownership, accountability, and fun.