An RPA developer designs, builds, tests, and maintains software that carries out repeatable business tasks, often through the same screens people use. Hire a contractor for one bounded process when you have an owner to accept and operate it. Consider an employee when you have a continuing pipeline of automations and need daily support.
TL;DR
- An RPA developer builds, tests, and maintains software that carries out repeatable tasks across business systems.
- For one well-defined process, start with a bounded engagement; consider an employee when there is a continuing portfolio of automation work.
- A hypothetical 60-hour build at $80 an hour costs $4,800; the price excludes licenses, support, and the business owner's time.
- Microsoft lists Power Automate Premium at $15 per user per month and Process at $150 per bot per month, paid yearly; they cover different operating modes.
- In the invoice example, the bot creates drafts, checks for duplicates, and sends exceptions to a person; it does not approve payments.
- The illustrative workflow releases 16 staff hours per month; its capacity value covers the build cost in about nine months under the stated assumptions.
Robotic process automation (RPA) is one way to automate work. If your existing software already offers the needed feature or a supported application programming interface (API), start there: a connection built for systems to exchange data can avoid a bot depending on a screen layout. Use the business process automation guide to decide which process and approach fit before choosing the role.
What does an RPA developer actually do?
The developer translates a documented process into an automation and leaves it operable after release. That includes mapping inputs and rules with staff, building the workflow, testing ordinary and exceptional cases, deploying it, recording results, and preparing support. A process owner still decides business policy and handles cases the automation cannot safely resolve.
RPA, a script, and AI are different tools. A script can automate work through files, APIs, or interfaces; an RPA platform can add visual workflow, scheduling, and operational tools. AI is optional. A bot can copy validated fields using fixed rules; extracting uncertain information from unstructured documents needs its own accuracy checks and human review.
What should you budget?
For a 60-hour illustrative build, an external developer at an assumed $80 an hour would cost $4,800. This is arithmetic for a defined example, not a quote or a published RPA rate. It assumes one workflow, test cases, a release, and a basic handoff. Licenses, support, and the business owner’s time are extra.
For context, Clutch’s September 2026 directory guide reports $50–$99 per hour for US software-development companies. Applying that broad band to 60 hours gives $3,000–$5,940 before other costs. The directory covers software development generally, not RPA specialists or every US supplier; a complex or regulated workflow can require a different price and more hours.
Software can add a recurring charge. As checked November 7, 2026, Microsoft lists Power Automate Premium at $15 per user per month, paid yearly, for cloud flows and attended desktop flows. Its Process plan is $150 per bot per month, paid yearly, and includes unattended desktop flows. The plans cover different operation modes; other services, environments, and support can add cost.
Contractor or employee?
For a short project, a contractor buys a limited amount of work. An employee buys ongoing availability and retains knowledge inside the business. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a $135,980 median annual wage for software developers in May 2025. That broad occupation is not an RPA-specific salary, and wages exclude the employer’s other costs.
Over the same three-week period, the hypothetical contractor above supplies 60 hours for $4,800. An employee at the BLS wage would receive about $7,845 in base wages for three weeks; adding an illustrative 30% for employment costs gives about $10,199. The employee would normally be available for more hours, and actual salary, benefits, recruiting, equipment, and utilization vary. This is a budget comparison, not a claim that the two arrangements deliver the same work.
Choose the bounded engagement if one workflow and its handoff are enough. Choose an employee when maintaining existing bots and improving more processes justify a continuing role. Either option needs a named business owner and an agreed support path.
What would an invoice automation include?
Consider a hypothetical finance team that receives approved supplier invoices. The automation prepares draft records for review. It cannot approve payments or change bank details.
- Intake: Create a queue item with a stable invoice identifier and retain the source record.
- Validate: Check required fields and match the invoice to an approved supplier and purchase order. Send missing or conflicting data to a person.
- Create and confirm: Create the draft using a limited-access service account, then record the new target identifier and result.
- Recover: If a write times out, check the target for that identifier before retrying. If the result is uncertain, pause the item for review so the retry does not create a duplicate.
- Operate: Give a named owner a queue, failure alerts, a runbook, and a way to reconcile completed work with source invoices.
A business exception, such as a missing purchase order, needs a person to resolve it. Retrying the same input will not supply an approval. Store credentials in the organization’s approved secret-management system, restrict access, and avoid putting sensitive invoice details in unnecessary logs.
When does the build pay for itself?
In a hypothetical month, staff process 180 invoices at eight minutes each, or 24 hours. After automation, they spend six hours reviewing exceptions and two hours checking the process. The team has 16 hours of capacity back each month. At an assumed $50 per staff hour, that capacity is valued at $800 per month.
Suppose the build cost is $4,800, the unattended license is $150 per month, and external support is another assumed $100 per month. The remaining capacity value is $550 per month, so $4,800 divided by $550 is about 8.7 months. The first-year cash budget for the build, license, and assumed support is $7,800, before internal review time or other infrastructure.
This is a planning calculation, not a Hapy client result. The annual license commitment is allocated across 12 months in the calculation. Released staff capacity is not automatically cash saved: spending falls only if the business actually reduces a cost. Higher exception rates, lower invoice volume, changes to the source system, or a different license can change the decision.
What should the work plan and hiring test include?
A small, stable workflow might be planned over three illustrative weeks: map the process and prepare test data in week one; build and test the normal path and failures in week two; then reconcile results, train the owner, and hand over in week three. This is an example schedule, not a standard delivery promise. Access delays, several systems, security review, or complex exceptions can extend it.
Ask candidates to explain how they would handle a duplicate invoice, an expired session, a target outage, and a timeout after a write. The useful deliverables are a process map, test evidence, controlled credentials, release notes, a queue and alert design, and a runbook another person can follow. A platform credential, such as Blue Prism’s Developer certification or UiPath’s Automation Developer Associate, can support the assessment, but it does not prove the candidate can safely operate your particular workflow.
Use the automation strategy guide to choose the first process. Hapy provides business systems automation; discuss the workflow, the owner, and the support needed before committing to a bot.
