💡 Why it matters: Many offices still spend hours copying data between systems, checking forms and sending routine messages. Automation engineers build tools that take over that repeat work so people can focus on harder tasks.
🌍 Around the world
- United States: Jobs for software developers are projected to grow 10% from 2025 to 2035, much faster than average (US Bureau of Labor Statistics).
💰 What it can pay
🇳🇬 Nigeria
- Starting out
- ₦2M – ₦5M
- Mid-career
- ₦6M – ₦14M
- Senior
- ₦14M – ₦30M
≈ ₦500k – ₦1.2M a month mid-career. Indicative estimate by Incusim.
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
Closest National Careers Service profile: Software developer. Typical starter to experienced salary. National Careers Service, 2026
🇺🇸 United States
Closest US category: Software developers. Median pay; low and high are the 10th and 90th percentiles.. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025
🇨🇦 Canada
Closest Job Bank occupation: Software developer. Hourly wage low median and high x 2,080 hours. Job Bank (Government of Canada), 2023-2024
Yearly pay before tax. UK, US and Canada figures come from the official sources named on each card. Nigeria has no official salary survey, so those are our indicative estimates. Real pay depends on the employer, the place, your skills and experience.
🛠️ What you actually do
- Map out an office task step by step to see what can be automated
- Build software robots (also called bots) that click, copy and fill in forms
- Add AI so bots can read documents, emails and invoices
- Test bots and fix them when a website or form changes
- Monitor automations and show staff how to use them
⚡ Skills you'll need
- Problem solving
- Programming
- Process thinking
- Communication
- Testing and patience
Get ready at school
🇳🇬 Nigeria
- Entry roles in IT support, business analysis or junior development
- Online automation courses and small projects for a portfolio
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- Software developer or digital apprenticeship
- Starting in IT support or business analysis
🇺🇸 United States
- Starting in IT help desk, business analysis or junior development
- Vendor certificates and online courses
🇨🇦 Canada
- College programs with co-op placements
- Starting in IT support or business analysis
🗺️ Your path to this career
- 1Get good at logic, maths and clear step-by-step thinking
- 2Learn a programming language such as Python
- 3Study computer science, IT or software engineering, or train through a college course
- 4Build small automations that save time, such as sorting files or filling forms
- 5Join an IT or operations team and grow into larger automation projects
⏰ A day in the life
A finance team spends every Friday typing invoice details into another system. You build a bot that reads each invoice, checks the numbers and enters the data, and you add a rule that sends odd ones to a person to check. After testing it with last month's invoices, you teach the team how to read the bot's log.