Ai Engineer

We're a Lubbock-based marketing agency hiring our first dedicated AI Automation Engineer - and this is not a typical entry-level job. You'll start at $75,000 with a written, milestone-based path to roughly double that ($150K total comp) within 12-18 months, growing into a Head of AI & Automation leadership seat.

If you're a sharp builder who's tired of long corporate ladders and wants to own real systems from day one, read on.

What you'll do

You'll own the AI tooling, automation, and agent orchestration across the agency so our founder and senior team can stop touching API keys, config files, and repetitive workflows. You'll turn vague requests ("can we stop pulling these reports by hand?") into reliable, monitored production systems.

This is part engineer, part operator. You'll write code when you need to, but most of the value is in choosing the right tools, wiring them together securely, and shipping automations that save the business real time and money.

Core responsibilities:

• AI stack & tooling - Evaluate, select, and maintain our AI tools (Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, open-source models); own API integrations and vendor credentials; track and optimize spend.

• Security & access - Manage API keys and secrets (1Password, Doppler, AWS Secrets Manager); set role-based access; audit data flows so client data goes only where it should.

• Automation development - Build and maintain agent workflows (n8n, Make, Zapier, Pipedream, or code); write Python/TypeScript when no-code can't do the job; set up monitoring and alerting; document everything.

• Agent orchestration - Design the "org chart" of agents: who does what, how they hand off, where humans review; manage prompt versioning, model swaps, and rollbacks.

• Founder & team interface - Run a weekly automation roadmap review; translate operator requests into shipped systems; train the team on tools they can safely use.

Your first 90 days

• Days 1-30: Audit recurring tasks across the business and deliver a documented automation roadmap. Set up secrets management and access controls.

• Days 31-60: Ship your first two automations to production (reporting plus onboarding or lead qualification). Build the internal playbook for how the team requests automations.

• Days 61-90: Stand up monitoring and the agent org chart, and demonstrate measurable impact.

The path from $75K to ~$150K

The promotion path is written down, milestone-based, and reviewed quarterly - real, not a verbal promise. Hit the milestones faster and the title and pay move faster.

• Months 0-3: AI Automation Engineer - $75K base + bonus

• Months 4-9: Senior AI Automation Engineer - higher base + bonus

• Months 10-18: Head of AI & Automation / Director of AI Operations - ~$150K total comp + profit-share consideration

By month 12-18 you're running a function end-to-end: managing a budget, owning a documented business outcome, sitting in on leadership strategy, and hiring your own first direct report.

Do you have experience in Software coding?, You've built something - a side project, a tool, a freelance automation, a startup. Proof you ship without being told to.

• Comfortable in a terminal; you can read code without panicking (Git, basic Linux, Python or Node).

• You've used LLM APIs (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google) for something real - not just a browser chatbot.

• You learn fast and can translate a vague business problem into a clear technical spec.

• Solid security hygiene - you know what a secrets manager is and you don't paste API keys into Slack.

• You want the executive seat, not just the paycheck.

Nice to have: CS, MIS, or Computer Engineering background; experience with n8n/Make/Zapier/Pipedream; agency or marketing-tech exposure (GHL, HubSpot, Meta Ads API, GA4); familiarity with Claude Code or Cursor.

Pulled from the full job description

• Paid time off, Base salary: $75,000/year

• Performance bonus: tied to documented savings, paid quarterly

• Year-two target: ~$150K total comp on hitting milestones

• Benefits: health plan, paid time off, and a $3-5K/year hardware and tooling budget