Description
Summary **This is not a typical web scraping project.** Over the past several weeks, I've completed extensive research into acquiring structured grocery retail data and have designed the architecture for what I'm calling the **Retail Acquisition Platform (RAP)**. Rather than hiring someone to "figure out scraping," I'm looking for an experienced engineer to implement a well-defined architecture into a production-quality browser automation platform. The first implementation will support the **Albertsons family of grocery retailers** (including Safeway), but the architecture is intentionally designed to support additional retailer adapters in the future. What Already Exists This project is significantly beyond the idea stage. I've already completed: * Comprehensive Research & Discovery Report * Technical Architecture Specification * Engineering Implementation Specification * Interface Contract * Data Dictionary * Architecture Decision Records (ADR) * Operational Failure Playbook * Platform Vision & Roadmap * Existing Playwright prototypes * HAR captures and network analysis * Browser behavior research * Validation of structured product endpoints This engagement is about **engineering implementation**, not exploratory research. The Problem We're Solving The platform must reliably acquire structured grocery product information while operating within a modern browser environment. The engineering challenge is **not** endpoint discovery—we've already completed that work. The challenge is designing a robust, maintainable acquisition platform that can consistently retrieve structured retail product data while handling browser sessions, diagnostics, retries, validation, and long-term maintainability. What You'll Build The first version of the Retail Acquisition Platform should include: * Albertsons Retail Adapter * Browser Session Manager * Acquisition Engine * Response Validation * Response Normalization * Structured Diagnostics * Retry & Recovery Logic * Stable Interface for downstream systems This is intended to be production-quality infrastructure—not a one-off script. What Success Looks Like At the end of this engagement, I expect: * A reliable browser automation platform * Clean, maintainable architecture * Well-documented code * Clear diagnostics for failures * Stable interfaces * Configuration documentation * Testing instructions * A walkthrough of the implementation The goal is to build something that can be extended with future retailer adapters rather than rewritten. Preferred Experience I'm looking for someone with experience in areas such as: * Playwright * Browser Automation * Node.js / TypeScript * Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP) * Browser session management * Reverse engineering browser behavior * Production automation systems * Designing maintainable software architecture Experience with grocery retailers is **not** required. Experience solving difficult browser automation problems is. How We Will Work Together This will be a **fixed-price project** with milestone-based delivery. The expected milestones are: **Milestone 1 – Architecture Review & Implementation Plan** * Review documentation * Review existing prototypes * Confirm implementation approach **Milestone 2 – Browser Session & Trust Layer** * Browser lifecycle management * Session persistence * Diagnostics foundation **Milestone 3 – Albertsons Adapter** * Reliable acquisition * Structured responses * Validation and normalization **Milestone 4 – Hardening & Documentation** * Testing * Documentation * Knowledge transfer * Final walkthrough Communication I value thoughtful engineering and clear communication. I don't expect perfection on day one, but I do expect proactive discussion of tradeoffs, risks, and implementation decisions. I'd rather solve problems together than discover surprises at the end of the project. To Apply Please include: 1. A brief description of a similar browser automation or Playwright project you've built. 2. Your experience with long-running browser automation systems. 3. How you approach maintainability and diagnostics in production automation. 4. Any questions you have after reading this description. Bonus If you've worked with: * Imperva * Cloudflare * Browser fingerprinting * Anti-bot systems * Session management at scale please mention that in your proposal. Lastly, please do not submit a generic proposal. I've invested significant time defining the architecture before implementation. If you read this description carefully, tell me in two or three paragraphs how you would approach building a maintainable browser automation platform—not how you would scrape a website. Generic AI-generated proposals will be ignored. Thoughtful proposals that discuss architecture, diagnostics, session management, or long-term maintainability will receive priority.