What value a automation tester can bring in

[Ankur]

First - My apologies for being a 'bit' late . I didn't see that a question was directed specifically for me. Also, if this were an open question I'm sure other experienced members may have chipped-in by now.

Coming to the answer -

1. Check that you have a good automation team at place. It makes all the difference.
   
2. Check how much of the regression testing is actually required/done by the manual testing team in every release.
   
3. Have a POC on how much of that activity identified in step 2) can be automated.
   
4. Come up with a plan and weigh the ROI you may gain out of investing your time in automation, maintenance, execution vis-a-vis manual effort currently needed.
   
5. Check pt. 1 again
   
6. In all probability, you will have a successful (automation) project delivered.