Tips to start an "automated" rental real estate business

[John Frankly]

I'm a young professional on wall street and expect to work significant hours (i.e., will have limited free time) for the next decade or so. In the time I do have, I'm interested in supplementing my primary job income by creating a rental real estate company (becoming a landlord for a few properties). I want to create this rental real estate business so that the day-to-day operations can run on it's own soon. Given this premise, I have a few questions:

1) Is it possible to create such an "automated" rental business? That is, are there RE rental business structures that would enable this automation by outsourcing work (it's a stupid question, I know, but I just want to be sure)?

2) If (1) is possible, how time consuming are the set-up procedures for such an automated rental business? Would I need to spend 40 hours a week or more, or could it be accomplished with less?

3) Any book recs people have for such "automated" rental business structures?

4) Any tips or other resources you would have for the above endeavor?

Thank you!

If it helps, my job pays $300K-$1M+ in a given year, so this is the amount of money I will have to buy rental properties.