Automation Engineer — n8n + AI Agents

Anyone can build it. Keeping it alive is the job.

Production automation that runs on its own, with the engineer who keeps it that way as you grow. Built for agencies whose operations can't afford to skip a beat.

Most automation is built to demo. Yours is built to run.

The gap between a workflow that works in a screen-share and one that runs untouched for a year is the entire job. That gap is where I work. Automation you can trust, versus automation you have to babysit.

01

How I build

Skip the logo wall. This is how the systems are built so they don't quietly fail. Judge the engineering, not the testimonials.

i.

A second agent checks the first.

Most AI automation is a single agent that generates and ships. When the model drifts or hallucinates, nothing catches it. The system fails silently, doing the wrong thing for weeks until someone notices. I build a second, independent agent whose only job is to audit the first one's output against spec before anything leaves the system. The difference is whether the system catches its own mistake, or your client does.

ii.

Built for day ninety, not day one.

Anyone can wire up a workflow that works in the demo. Production is everything the demo skips: error handling, retries, idempotency, monitoring, the failure modes that only show up under load and at 3am. I build for the drift: the system that's still running, untouched, long after the screen-share ended. That's not a feature. It's the whole point.

iii.

Clean data, by construction.

The most common reason automation fails isn't the automation. It's the data underneath it. Garbage in, silent garbage out. Most builders bolt validation on at the end, or skip it. I come from data and finance, so it goes in first: validation, deduplication, and sanity checks built into the pipeline, not patched on after it breaks. The boring layer nobody markets is the one that decides whether the rest holds.

02

I build it. Then I keep it alive.

The build

You own it outright.

I design and build the system fast, then hand it over running on your infrastructure: your workspace, your keys, your data, your control. No black box, no hostage situation: if we ever part ways, you keep everything and the lights stay on. Infrastructure costs pass through at cost, in your name. I never mark them up.

The continuity

It grows with the company.

These systems don't fail on launch day. They drift on day ninety. An API changes, volume grows, a new edge case appears. Continuity is the engineer on retainer who keeps it running and builds the next piece as you grow, so the automation keeps compounding instead of decaying. Most shops treat this as an afterthought. Not here.

03

How it works

Fixed scope, fixed price, milestones instead of a leap of faith. Deployment isn't the end of the engagement. It's the start of the relationship.

01 — Scope

A call and a map.

I look at how your operation actually runs, find the process bleeding the most time, and scope the highest-leverage build. No vague "we'll look into it."

02 — Build

Built against spec.

I build on my own environment for speed, against the spec we agreed. You see progress at milestones. Tested, documented, with the verifier baked in.

03 — Hand off & keep alive

Yours, and kept running.

Production cuts over to your infrastructure: clean credential handoff, verified running on your side. Then continuity keeps it alive and growing.

04

Pricing

Priced for the value of the system, not the hours behind it. Start small, see how I build, then grow what works.

Start here

The Pilot

One contained automation, fixed scope, built in days: a working system in your stack, plus a map of the larger system it belongs to. The fastest, lowest-risk way to see how I build before committing to more.

$1,500fixed · ships in days
Single build $2.5k–4k One production workflow, end to end.
System build $5k–9k Two to three connected workflows.
Full-stack pipeline $10k–18k End-to-end automation across your operation.
Continuity — Maintain
$1,200–1,500 / mo

Monitoring, break-fix, and minor changes. The system stays running.

Recommended Continuity — Partner
$2,500–3,500 / mo

Monitoring and fixes, plus a monthly build block to evolve the system as you grow. The automation keeps compounding.

Out-of-scope work billed at $175/hr, only for changes beyond the agreed scope. API, enrichment, and hosting costs pass through at cost, in your name, never marked up.

The system runs your operation. Someone should be keeping it alive.

If your agency runs on automation, or should, start with one system, built to run and kept alive. The first build is a pilot: low risk, fast, and yours to keep.