Lead QE / SDET :: Chicago, IL – Hybrid (2–3 days/week)

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Position: Lead QE / SDET

Location: Chicago, IL – Hybrid (2–3 days/week) Illinois Local Candidates Only

Contract: 12+ Months Contract

Job Description:

Responsibilities: 
Lead the Quality Engineering strategy cross-team and end to end, Test Management for all test engineering approaches (Functional, Regression, SIT, E2E, UAT,Perfornance/Load, Test Data, Test Environment), test automation architecture, Exploratory and continuous testing practices across agile product teams, ensuring quality is built into every stage of the SDLC. 
Architect, Design, develop, and maintain scalable Test plans and automated test frameworks and reusable quality engineering solutions supporting functional, API, integration, end-to-end, performance, and non-functional testing. 
Define and implement quality engineering strategies and best practices across agile teams, including system architecture review, test pyramid alignment, risk-based automation, test data strategy, environment readiness, traceability, and release quality criteria. 
Partner with Product, Engineering, Architecture, Security, Infrastructure, and Operations teams to drive shared ownership of quality, defect prevention, testability, non-functional requirements and production readiness. 
Build, Integrate and maintain automated tests using strong coding practices, quality gates, reusable libraries, page/object models, service-level test patterns, test data utilities, and CI/CD-ready execution models to enable rapid, reliable, and secure software delivery. Support DevSecOps transformation by embedding security and quality controls into the SDLC. 
Collaborate with developers, architects, product owners, business analysts, security, infrastructure, operations, and risk/compliance stakeholders to validate requirements, acceptance criteria, design quality, and production readiness 
Review user stories, acceptance criteria, architecture designs, API contracts, data flows, and technical specifications to identify test scenarios. risks, improve testability, and prevent defects earlier in the lifecycle. 
Establish, Measure/Monitor and communicate quality metrics such as automation coverage, escaped defects, defect trends, test effectiveness, pipeline quality gate results, deployment readiness, and DORA-aligned delivery outcomes. 
Review user stories, acceptance criteria, architecture designs, API contracts, data flows, and technical specifications to identify risks, improve testability, and prevent defects earlier in the lifecycle. Lead root-cause analysis and continuous improvement initiatives, driving systemic solutions that reduce risk, improve reliability, and strengthen engineering outcomes. 
Support audit readiness and regulatory expectations by ensuring quality processes produce traceable evidence, controlled approvals, policy-aligned gates, and measurable risk reduction. 
Mentor, coach, provide supervisory support and technical leadership to Quality Engineers, SDETs, and other engineering team members while supporting talent development, performance, prioritization, and delivery execution. 
Champion & Promote modern engineering capabilities including AI-assisted testing, GitHub Copilot adoption, reusable automation assets, human-in-the-loop quality controls and enterprise quality engineering transformation initiatives. 

Education & Experience: 
Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline; equivalent experience may be considered. 
10+ years of experience in Quality Engineering, Test planning, Software Development Engineering in Test (SDET), Test Automation, Software Engineering, Test Management end to end or related technology disciplines. 
5+ years of experience mentoring, coaching, or supervisory oversight to Quality Engineers, SDETs, or software delivery teams. 
Experience designing, implementing, and maintaining enterprise-scale automated test frameworks and quality engineering solutions for API/Web/ERP/Mobile/CRM/Salesforce/SaaS/Summit/Data/EDW/Batch processes/Financial systems or Similar. 
Strong hands-on programming experience using object-oriented languages such as C#, JavaScript/TypeScript, Python, or equivalent. 
Experience with modern test automation frameworks including Playwright, Selenium, Appium, SpecFlow/Cucumber, API automation frameworks, BDD and service virtualization tools. 
Experience integrating automated testing and quality controls into CI/CD pipelines using platforms such as GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, Jenkins, or similar technologies. 
Strong experience testing APIs, web applications, cloud-native solutions, databases, and integrated enterprise platforms. 
Experience with performance/load test, test environment/data TDEM management, security, and non-functional testing practices. 
Experience with source control, code review, branching strategies, and modern engineering workflows using GitHub and/or Azure DevOps. 
Working knowledge of relational databases including PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server, or similar technologies. 
Experience with cloud platforms such as AWS or comparable environments, microservices and Event based architectures, domain model understanding. 
Familiarity with DevSecOps tooling and practices, including code quality, security scanning, software supply chain controls, and automated quality gates. 
Professional certifications such as ISTQB, CSTE, CSQA, Certified Agile Tester, AWS, Azure, or equivalent certifications are a plus. 
Experience within a banking, financial services, or other regulated industry is preferred. 

Required Technical Experience 

• C#, TypeScript, Python (optional – Java Script/Python) 
• Playwright, Selenium, Specflow 
• API Automation & Testing -Postman, Swagger/OpenAPI 
• GitHub, Azure DevOps, CI/CD Pipelines, GitHub Actions 
• PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server 
  AWS and/or comparable cloud solutions & architectures. 
• Performance Testing - Artillery, Gatling, JMeter 
• Test Environment/Data Management -Tonic.ai or equivalent 
• Security Testing and DevSecOps Tooling 
• GitHub Copilot and AI-assisted engineering tools 

Knowledge & Abilities: 
Deep understanding of modern Quality Engineering, automation-first testing, continuous testing, shift-left practices, and defect prevention. Strategic Thinking beyond day to day test delivery. 
Ability to do hands-on coding, scripting, and automation framework design capabilities. 
Requires working knowledge of SDLC, Agile or Hybrid, DevOps, TDD, BDD, DevSecOps, CI/CD, and modern engineering delivery practices. 
Ability to embed automated quality checks, test coverage, release readiness controls, and quality gates into delivery pipelines. 
Strong analytical, troubleshooting, SQL/data validation, and root-cause analysis skills. 
Ability to communicate quality risks, technical issues, and delivery impacts clearly to both technical and business stakeholders. 
Strong collaboration skills across Product, Engineering, Architecture, Security, Operations, Risk, and Compliance teams. 
Ability to plan, prioritize, estimate, and execute work effectively in a fast-paced delivery environment. 
Knowledge of banking, financial services, audit, regulatory, and risk-control expectations is preferred. 
Demonstrated leadership, project management, mentoring, coaching, problem-solving and team enablement capabilities. 

Skills: 
Software Monitoring / Event Management / Operational Validation 
Incident / Problem Management / RCA 
Defect Management, Defect Prevention & Detection 
Shift-Left / Shift-Right Testing 
Agile / Secure SDLC Practices 
DevOps / DevSecOps Practices, TDD / BDD 
Architecture & Technical Specifications Review 
Testability Analysis, Work Planning / Estimation / Prioritization 
Stakeholder Communication / Cross-Functional Collaboration 
Mentoring / Technical Guidance, Technical Leadership / Coaching 
Intermediate Competencies- 
Software Development / Unit Testing Awareness 
Project Management / Requirements Management 
Security Testing and Analysis 
AI-Assisted Engineering and Testing