AI & Automations Lead

Who We Are

Our IT & Information Security team is at the forefront of HopSkipDrives transition to an AI-first organization. We are not a traditional IT department. We are an enterprise enablement team closely partnered with the business sitting at the intersection of childrens safety, regulated education data, and real-time mobility. We are leveraging the latest technologies and tools to build a world-class AI-enabled company, and doing it at a pace that matches the ambition. We operate secure-by-default, and we look for people who take the responsibilities of security, reliability, and scalability seriously while moving fast to create real change. We do, and you will, advance the organization through the following:

• Shared Infrastructure & Guardrails: Build and maintain shared infrastructure: secure web app hosting infrastructure, MCP/API standards, secret/key management, model selection, guardrails, and a centralized pattern library that all builders across the organization can pull from.
• AI & Automation Enablement and Advisory: Own the review, tracking, and advisory process for all corporate AI and automation builds MCP servers and tool configurations, Claude Skills, API integrations, and agentic workflows before deployment.
• Forward-Deployed Building: Partner directly with AI specialists across departments to identify, scope, and build AI and automation solutions that meet high standards for cost, security, and scalability security before they ship.
• Governance & Intake: Define and maintain the secure intake path for AI and automation requests across the organization, replacing ad-hoc builds and shadow IT with a governed, cost effective, and scalable process.
• Tooling Cost Management: Contribute to the organizations AI cost efficiency by monitoring, alerting, and setting thresholds on AI spend across usage-based tools and platforms.

Who You Are

You are, first and foremost, a builder. You have spent your career shipping solutions that work in production, and you take real satisfaction in getting something from idea to deployed and running. You also understand that in an organization handling childrens data and real-time mobility, how you build matters as much as what you build. Security awareness is baked into how you think.

You are energized by working across teams and functions. You do not need formal authority to move things forward. You build trust by showing up with good ideas, clear reasoning, and the ability to translate between technical and business partners. When a department leader wants to ship an AI workflow that is not ready, you can say so in a way that keeps the relationship intact and still gets the work done right.

Skills and Experience:

• Experience: Candidates must possess a minimum of five years in technical operations, IT, or support roles, emphasizing systems integration, automation, and workflow optimization. Crucially, applicants must have practical expertise in constructing or managing automation pipelines. Within the past year, this experience should include the deployment of LLM integrations or advanced AI tools into existing workflows.
• AI & Automation Building: Proven track record building and shipping AI integrations and automation workflows using tools such as n8n, Workato, Zapier, or comparable platforms, with comfort in Python, Google Apps Script, or similar scripting languages.
• LLM & Agentic Systems: Hands-on experience with large language model tools in a business context prompt engineering, agent design, Claude Skills, MCP servers, or API integrations and a practical understanding of where these systems can go wrong, including prompt injection, data exposure, and over-scoped access.
• Cloud & Infrastructure: Familiarity with cloud infrastructure, particularly GCP, including secrets management, IAM fundamentals, and secure-by-default hosting patterns. You do not need to be a cloud architect, but you need to know enough to build responsibly.
• Cross-Functional Influence: The ability to influence without authority across all levels of the organization. You can advise a senior leader, coach a non-technical employee, and earn trust with skeptical peers without a reporting line to any of them.
• Risk Communication: Clear, structured communication when it comes to risk. You can write a concise review, explain a guardrail in plain language, and escalate a finding to the right person without over-engineering the message.

Our Investment In You

We want you to be an owner in our company and share in executing our vision, so every full-time employee has equity. In addition, we offer flexible vacation, medical, dental, vision and life insurance, 401(k), FSA, and an opportunity to work for a uniquely positioned, VC-backed company in a hugely attractive space with significant upside potential. HopSkipDrive is proud to operate as a drug-free workplace. HopSkipDrive is also committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. The salary range for this role is $120,000 - $145,000. This position is remote and, as such, compensation will ultimately be in line with the location in which the position is filled. Final compensation for this role will be determined by several factors such as a candidates relevant work experience, skill set, certifications, and specific work location. The total compensation package for this role also includes equity stock options.

HopSkipDrive is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, veteran status, or any other protected class.

* This role will be fully remote in one of the following states AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, IL, IN, KS, MA, MD, MI, MN, MO, NC, NJ, NM, NV, NY, OK, OR, SC, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WI, PA**