Automation Engineer
Book A Free Call

Packages, deliverables, and the lines we draw.

A ladder for every budget — from a single $650 automation up to a multi-system Stack. Below: what each one includes, how long it runs, what falls outside the scope, and what stays under your control. All prices in USD. Software subscriptions (n8n cloud, Zapier, LLM credits, Workato, etc.) are billed to your accounts, not mine.

Send a brief Compare the ladder
// start here

Two low-commitment ways in.

Not ready for a full build? Start by doing — one automation shipped in days — or by knowing — a costed roadmap before you spend. Either fee credits toward bigger work.

P-00 Spark 3–5 days

Automation Spark

$650

One workflow, one integration, or one broken thing made reliable. The smallest way in.

  • 1 production automation or fix — one workflow, one integration, or one broken thing made reliable
  • Built on your stack (n8n / Zapier / Zoho / Apps Script / API)
  • Error handling + a failure alert so it cannot break silently
  • Short Loom walkthrough + handoff notes
  • 7-day post-ship support for tweaks
  • Paid up front · Wise / AirTM / wire / PayPal
  • Fee credited toward a Sprint if you book within 30 days
Start a Spark
P-01 Audit 5 days

AI Automation Audit

$499

For teams who suspect 30–50% of their ops work is automatable but don't know where to start.

  • 2 × 30-min discovery calls with the ops / RevOps lead
  • Read-only access review of your existing stack
  • Time-leak ranking — which workflows cost the most hours/month
  • 30-day automation roadmap, ranked by ROI and risk
  • 1 quick-win blueprint, ready to hand to any engineer
  • 20-min Loom walkthrough on delivery
  • $499 credited toward a Sprint, Build, or Stack if booked within 30 days
Book audit
// the build ladder

Three builds, smallest to system-wide.

Sprint is the workhorse most teams start with. Build is one bigger thing — a custom app, an AI agent, an MCP integration, or a migration. Stack is the works: several builds wired into one operation.

most-shipped
P-02 Sprint 10–14 days

Workflow Sprint

$2,400

Build 2–3 production workflows on n8n or Zapier, with one AI-powered step.

  • 2–3 production-ready workflows (n8n self-hosted or Zapier)
  • 1 AI step — classification, summarization, routing, drafting, or extraction
  • Real integrations with 3–5 tools in your stack
  • Error handling, retries, and dead-letter pattern
  • Telemetry hooks (Slack / email / dashboard alert on failure)
  • Documentation + 20-min Loom walkthrough
  • 14-day post-ship support for fixes and tweaks
  • 50/50 billing — half on signing, half on ship · Wise / AirTM / wire / PayPal
Start sprint
P-03 Build 3–4 weeks

Custom Build

$4,800

A custom internal app, an AI agent / MCP integration, or a platform migration — shipped to production.

  • One bigger build — pick the shape:
  • – A custom internal app (dashboard, estimator, tracker — Zoho Creator / Apps Script / web)
  • – An AI agent or MCP integration (existing MCP servers, MCP-native platforms, or LLM tool-calling)
  • – A platform migration (e.g. Zapier → n8n) with parity and a clean cutover
  • Prompt design + tool definitions + evals wherever AI is involved
  • Error handling, retries, fallback paths, rate-limit guards
  • Observability — request logs, token costs, latency, success rate
  • Connect 2–3 tools from your stack
  • 30-day post-ship support · one iteration round after initial production usage
  • 50/50 billing — half on signing, half on ship · Wise / AirTM / wire / PayPal
  • Custom MCP server build · add-on from $2,000 (when an existing server doesn't exist)
Scope a build
P-04 Stack 5–8 weeks

The Stack

from$9,500

A multi-system build: apps, CRM, finance, and automation running together as one backbone.

  • The works — multiple builds wired into one operation, not a single workflow
  • e.g. a full ops backbone (apps + CRM + finance + automation), or a 3+ system pipeline with AI + a live dashboard
  • Discovery + architecture before any build
  • Shared error handling, retries, rate-limit guards, and observability across the whole system
  • AI steps where they earn their place — triage, drafting, extraction, routing
  • Documentation + Loom walkthroughs per subsystem
  • 30-day post-ship support · one iteration round
  • Milestone billing — staged to delivery · Wise / AirTM / wire / PayPal
  • Scoped from a paid audit; the final number is set after architecture
Plan a Stack
// optional retainer

Automation Care — three tiers.

An ongoing automation engineering channel for teams that want a senior pair of hands without the headcount math. Best after at least one build so the stack context is already loaded.

R-01 Care Lite ~4 hrs/mo

Care Lite

$750/mo

A light ongoing channel — keep what is shipped healthy without committing to the full retainer.

  • ~4 hours per month of automation + AI work
  • Monitoring on existing workflows and agents
  • Small tweaks and quick fixes
  • Email / Slack channel · response within 1 business day
  • Monthly written summary of work completed
Talk about Care Lite
most-picked
R-02 Care 6–8 hrs/mo

Care

$1,500/mo

The standard retainer — a senior pair of hands for maintenance and new builds, without the headcount math.

  • 6–8 hours per month of senior automation + AI work
  • Maintenance on existing workflows and agents
  • New builds within the monthly hour budget
  • Failure monitoring + first-response within 1 business day
  • Monthly written summary of work completed
  • Priority on incoming requests over non-retainer clients
Talk about Care
R-03 Care Embedded ~16 hrs/mo

Care Embedded

$3,200/mo

An embedded automation engineer for teams shipping continuously — capacity, roadmap input, and first claim on my week.

  • ~16 hours per month of senior automation + AI work
  • Everything in Care, plus roadmap input on what to automate next
  • Priority over all non-embedded work
  • Near-real-time channel during your working hours
  • Monthly written summary + a short planning call
Talk about Care Embedded
  • 3-month minimum to start
  • Monthly cancel after the minimum (30 days notice)
  • Pause up to 60 days without penalty
  • Hours don't bank — buys ongoing capacity, not credit
  • Hour overruns billed at $150/hr, pre-approved
  • Monthly invoice · Wise / AirTM / wire / PayPal
// boundaries

What's in scope, what isn't, what you provide.

Saving everyone the awkward mid-project conversation. If something here isn't workable, mention it before signing.

  • Discovery and scope confirmation before any build
  • All configuration, code, and prompts for in-scope workflows
  • Test runs with sample payloads before production deploy
  • Handoff documentation for everything shipped
  • Post-ship support per the package's support window
  • Source code transferred to your repo on completion
  • n8n cloud / self-host infrastructure costs
  • Zapier paid plan if needed for the workflow tier
  • Workato licenses (if using as MCP-native platform)
  • LLM API usage (OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini tokens)
  • HubSpot, Salesforce, Linear, Notion, Slack paid tiers
  • Third-party API credits (Stripe, Twilio, SendGrid, etc.)
  • Domain, hosting, observability tooling (Sentry, Posthog, etc.)
  • Access (or scoped credentials) to the tools we'll automate
  • A point-of-contact who can confirm requirements and sign off
  • Description of the workflows in plain language up front
  • Sample data — at least 5 representative inputs per workflow
  • Decision on any policy/compliance edges before build
  • Approval on production deploy
  • Full-stack SaaS product development
  • Mobile or desktop application builds
  • Marketing-site design (we have one, but it's not the service)
  • Paid-ad campaign management or social-media operation
  • 24/7 on-call rotation (SLAs discussed for retainer clients)
  • HR / sales / financial process consulting beyond the automation surface
  • You own all work product — code, prompts, recipes, docs
  • No proprietary lock-in; everything ships to your repo and tools
  • NDA on request — yours or a clean mutual NDA template
  • Aggregate, anonymized learnings inform future work (no client data)
  • Open-source dependencies keep their original licenses
  • Built on documented, supported features of each platform
  • No reliance on undocumented or private APIs
  • n8n: trigger nodes, action nodes, webhook, HTTP request, custom code
  • Zapier: triggers, actions, paths, filters, webhooks, code steps
  • MCP: official servers (Zoho, GitHub, etc.), MCP-native platforms (Workato), or custom builds via @modelcontextprotocol/sdk
  • LLM: function/tool calling, structured outputs, eval-driven prompts
// next step

Ready to brief a mission?

If you've made it this far, you've read more about my scope than 95% of inbound. The shortest path to a yes-or-no is a 5-minute brief.

Send a brief Back to homepage