Power Platform & AI Automation Specialist

Job Description

Position Summary

The Power Platform & AI Automation Engineer role lives inside AI & Automation Engineering, Safeguards and Security Solutions Enablement's build engine, translating the team's discovery work into delivered application and automation products.

This is not a heads-down coding role, nor is it a throw-it-over-the-fence one. You observe teams closely to discover how work actually happens. The nuanced details of work often remain unknown or misunderstood, yet these details can be what matters most. You'll document customer needs via wireframes, diagrams, or user stories, whatever facilitates rapid understanding. From there, you iterate through tangible drafts and honest feedback, with an eye on minimum viable product, to work agilely rather than waterfall and beholden to a completely nailed down requirements set. The same requirement elicitor remains present through delivery, checking in throughout the short cycles instead of disappearing and reappearing at the end. Skip these methods, and we risk automating a bad process, which is the same bad process, just faster.

Here's your mission: you're not a one-trick automation pony. You understand the business well enough to know that not every need is an automation. Sometimes the right fix is a workflow. Sometimes it's recognizing that a new system is the real answer, and when that's the case, you're all over it: vetting the options, meeting with internal teams to gather requirements, working directly with vendors, and staying engaged through implementation, so the actual underlying problem gets solved.

This role owns full-stack solution delivery, with the Microsoft Power Platform as the default toolset: PowerApps, Power Automate, and Power BI. But the platform serves the solution, not the other way around. When the problem calls for a Python web app in Django or Flask, a .NET service, or even the discovery of an appropriate 3rd party solution, you'll help there too. Layered on top is real AI engineering: Python, generative AI, prompt engineering, and agentic automation through tools like Microsoft Copilot Studio, Claude, and other custom platforms as the work demands.

We're hiring a person into this role because demand for continual optimization is real and only growing. And none of this is order-taking: success means the people you serve end up more efficient, produce higher-quality work, and genuinely enjoy their jobs more, not just that a ticket got closed.

Essential Job Functions and Responsibilities: (Knowledge, skills, and behaviors required for this position.)

Discovery & Business Analysis

• Meet face-to-face and observe how work actually happens, not just how it gets described. What people say they do and what they actually do are often different, and the nitty-gritty details left out are often the insights that matters most.
• Elicit and document requirements through interviews and working sessions, translating what a team asks for into what they actually need. "Documented" might mean a wireframe, a diagram, or a user story, whatever is clear enough to execute on without having to rely on tribal knowledge.
• Wireframe and prototype early and throughout using tools like Lucid, MS Visio or Figma for process maps, wireframes, and data modeling when it helps, so stakeholders are reacting to something tangible within days, not approving a written spec weeks before anything visible exists.
• Catch a bad process before automating it as automating a bad process doesn't solve anything.
• Stay with the customer through delivery, checking in on working builds at short, regular intervals, refining requirements as understanding deepens rather than locking them in at kickoff and signing off.
• Understand full workstreams, not just isolated requests, and proactively surface opportunities to streamline them, increasing efficiency, quality, and job satisfaction for the people doing the work every day.
• Vet whether automation or a new system is the right fix, and when it's the latter, meet with internal teams to gather requirements, work directly with vendors, and stay engaged through implementation so the actual underlying problem gets solved.
• Work with process owners across the organization to plan and sequence solutions against real backlogs, not hypothetical requests.
• Collaborate closely with Safeguards and Security Solutions Enablement's other disciplines: Systems Strategy, UX Research & Design, and Data Analytics so nothing you build recreates the silos Safeguards and Security Solutions Enablement exists to remove.

Build & Engineering

• Design and build PowerApps, including apps embedded in SharePoint sites that give teams and employees intuitive products rather than inefficient processes.
• Develop automated workflows and RPA solutions in Power Automate that remove manual, repetitive, and low-resiliency-to-error steps from operations.
• Build Power BI dashboards and reports that surface the metrics that matter to a given audience, from a specialist to Senior Leadership and the Lab Director.
• Apply AI and agentic automation, combining Python, generative AI, and prompt engineering with tools like Microsoft Copilot Studio, custom GPTs, Claude, and Power Automate to design intelligent, self-serve solutions, not just static workflows.
• Reach beyond the Power Platform when the problem calls for it, building custom solutions in Python frameworks (Django, Flask), .NET, or other languages and platforms when a low-code approach isn't the right tool for the job.
• Partner with the team's UX designer to ensure what you build isn't just functional, but the entire experience is modern, consistent, polished, and genuinely pleasant to use.
• Maintain critical documentation for what you build, so solutions remain supportable and owned by Safeguards and Security Solutions Enablement rather than any one person.
• Others duties as assigned

Education, Credentials, and Work Experience:

Required

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, Information Technology, engineering, or a related field. Equivalent related experience may be considered in lieu of degree requirement.
• Level 3: Bachelor of Science degree in technical field including Computer Science, Information Technology, Cybersecurity or related field and 5 years of relevant experience; or a Master's in a technical field and 2 years of relevant experience.
• Level 4: Bachelor's Degree in computer science, software engineering, information technology or related field and at least 9 years of direct professional experience, or a Master's and 6 years. PhD and 4 years.
• Relevant experience commensurate with level.
• Genuinely personable, one-on-one with a customer, not just capable behind a screen: comfortable being the face of a solution from first conversation through delivery and support.
• 5+ years building production solutions on the Microsoft Power Platform (PowerApps, Power Automate, Power BI), or equivalent low-code/full-stack development experience.
• Demonstrated experience leading stakeholder discovery and requirements elicitation independently, from first conversation through delivered solution.
• Experience building integrations across other enterprise apps using REST API and SOAP API
• Experience building database queries using MS SQL
• Proficiency in DAX for building measures, calculated columns, and data models within Power BI.
• Experience with observational research methods (job shadowing, contextual inquiry, or similar) to validate what people say they do against what they actually do.
• Skilled in documenting requirements, process flows, and user stories in a way both stakeholders and future team members can follow.
• Experience delivering work in short, iterative cycles with frequent stakeholder check-ins (agile, Scrum, Kanban, or similar), adjusting scope as understanding deepens rather than locking requirements at the start.
• Hands-on experience applying generative AI, prompt engineering, or agentic automation (e.g., Microsoft Copilot Studio, custom GPTs, Claude, or similar platforms) to real business workflows.
• Proficiency in Python for automation, data manipulation, and extending low-code platforms beyond their native capabilities.
• Strong working knowledge of SQL and experience integrating Power Platform solutions with relational databases (MS SQL) (Dataverse) and APIs.
• Track record of owning a solution end to end: scoping, building, testing, deploying, and supporting it.
• Comfort mentoring less experienced team members and reviewing their build work.
• Comfort operating as a full business analyst when the situation calls for it, including vendor evaluation and system implementation support, not just automation-focused requirements gathering.
• Obtain and maintain a Department of Energy "Q" clearance, which requires US Citizenship.

Preferred

• Certification in one of the leading RPA platforms: Power Automate, Blue Prism, Automation Anywhere, UiPath.
• Experience with GenAI and Agentic AI applied to process automation solutions.
• RESTful APIs.
• SQL Databases.

Physical Requirements:

While performing the duties of this classification, the employee may be required to stand, walk, sit, stoop, kneel, bend, use hands to handle materials, manipulate tools, keyboard, and type, reach with hands and arms, and operate job-related equipment. The employee may occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds with assistance. Sufficient visual acuity and hearing capacity to perform the essential functions and interact with the public is required. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Work Information

Our team works a 9x80 schedule out of Idaho Falls facility.

• The pay range for this position is: Level 3 ($95,256 - $195,288) / Level 4 ($114,360 - $234,336). At Idaho National Laboratory compensation decisions are determined using factors such as education, relevant experience, and other credentials.
• Multi-Level: These are multi-level positions and you will be placed at the appropriate level dependent on depth and breadth of proven experience, skill, and education.

Working Conditions:

The work environment is an office environment. The noise level is generally low; however, may be exposed to loud noises on occasion. Position requires working more than 8 hours/day and working alone. Position may be required to work irregular hours.

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and levels of work being performed by people assigned to this classification. They are not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties and skills required of personnel so classified.

Level Definers

EX3 - Career:

• Knowledge: Complete understanding and wide application of principles, theories, and concepts in field of specialization. General knowledge of other related disciplines. Resolves a wide range of issues in creative ways. This level is fully qualified, career oriented.
• Problem Solving: Works on problems of diverse scope. Demonstrates good judgment in selecting methods and techniques for obtaining solutions. Solutions are imaginative, thorough, practical, and consistent with organizational objectives.
• Discretion and Latitude: Works under only general direction. Normally receives little instruction day-to-day. Independently determines and develops approach to solutions. Work is reviewed upon completion for adequacy in meeting objectives.
• Impacts: Contributes to completion of specific programs and projects. Failure to obtain results or erroneous decisions or recommendations would typically result in program delays.
• Liaison: Frequent internal organizational customer contacts. May have some outside contact or represent organization in providing solutions to difficult issues associated with specific projects or work.
• Education/Experience: Bachelor's and 5 years. Master's and 2 years. PhD and 2 years.

EX4 - Senior:

• Knowledge: Technical leader with a high degree of knowledge in the overall field and recognized expertise in specific areas. Has wide-ranging experience. Uses professional concepts and company objectives to solve complex issues in creative and effective ways. Interfaces with and mentors junior staff.
• Problem Solving: Works on complex issues where analysis of situations or data requires an in-depth evaluation of variable factors. Exercises judgment in selecting methods, techniques, and evaluation criteria for obtaining results.
• Discretion and Latitude: Work is performed without appreciable direction. Determines methods and procedures on new assignments and may coordinate activities of other personnel (Lead). Exercises considerable latitude in determining objectives of assignment.
• Impacts: