Lead Engineer – Test Data Management and Quality Engineering

Lead Engineer – Test Data Management and Quality Engineering

Location: Buffalo,NY – 100% onsite

Duration: Long term

Overview

Responsible for defining, architecting, advancing, and evangelizing enterprise Test Data Management (TDM) and Quality Engineering capabilities, including strategy, standards, governance, tooling, implementation frameworks, automation enablement, and engineering best practices.

Serves as the enterprise technical authority for testing platforms, frameworks, automation standards, and test data services. Establishes reusable patterns, engineering standards, reference architectures, implementation methodologies, and adoption roadmaps utilizing technologies such as Delphix, SmartBear Zephyr, Playwright, Selenium, Cucumber, Postman, GitLab, and GitLab CI/CD.

Partners closely with Application Development, Architecture, DevOps, Infrastructure, Information Security, Risk, Compliance, Product, and Delivery teams to improve software quality, accelerate delivery, reduce testing costs, and ensure scalable, secure, compliant, and automated testing capabilities across the enterprise.

Acts as a trusted advisor and technical leader, influencing engineering strategy, platform adoption, architectural decisions, and quality engineering transformation initiatives across multiple technology domains. Completes work in accordance with enterprise technology, risk, security, and regulatory standards while fostering a culture of innovation, engineering excellence, operational maturity, continuous improvement, and quality ownership.

This role combines enterprise architecture, technical strategy, engineering leadership, governance, and hands-on expertise to advance enterprise Test Data Management and Quality Engineering capabilities without direct people management responsibilities.

Primary Responsibilities

Develop and drive the enterprise strategy and technical roadmap for Test Data Management, testing automation, and Quality Engineering capabilities.

Serve as the enterprise subject matter expert and technical authority for:

• Test Data Management
• Test Automation
• Quality Engineering
• Testing Platforms
• Testing Frameworks
• Continuous Testing
• Quality Governance

Define, maintain, and govern enterprise standards, implementation patterns, reusable frameworks, methodologies, and engineering best practices.

Provide technical leadership and strategic direction for Test Data Management capabilities including:

• Delphix virtualization
• Data masking
• Self-service provisioning
• Synthetic data generation
• Test data lifecycle management
• Test environment optimization

Define and maintain enterprise testing frameworks supporting:

• Functional Testing
• API Testing
• Integration Testing
• End-to-End Testing
• Regression Testing
• User Acceptance Testing Support
• Performance Testing
• Continuous Testing

Establish and evolve standardized automation approaches utilizing technologies such as:

• SmartBear Zephyr
• Selenium
• Playwright
• Cucumber
• Postman
• REST Assured
• GitLab
• GitLab CI/CD
• Jira
• Delphix
• Enterprise observability and reporting platforms

Create enterprise standards and reference architectures for:

• Test Automation
• Test Data Management
• Test Case Management
• API Testing
• CI/CD Testing Integration
• Quality Gates
• Environment Management
• Test Data Masking
• Test Execution Reporting

Drive enterprise adoption of:

• Shift-Left Testing
• Continuous Testing
• Behavior-Driven Development (BDD)
• Automated Quality Gates
• Test Automation
• Self-Service Test Data Provisioning

Partner with Architecture and Engineering leaders to define long-term quality engineering strategies, platform roadmaps, and transformation initiatives.

Lead complex enterprise onboarding initiatives for teams adopting testing platforms, frameworks, and TDM capabilities.

Design and implement automated workflows integrating:

• Testing tools
• Delphix services
• GitLab CI/CD pipelines
• Application environments
• Enterprise monitoring solutions

Develop reusable accelerators, automation libraries, templates, integration patterns, and implementation frameworks that improve consistency and reduce delivery effort.

Collaborate with application teams to understand testing and data requirements and translate business needs into scalable enterprise solutions.

Review solution designs, technical architectures, framework implementations, and onboarding approaches to ensure alignment with:

• Enterprise Architecture
• Security Standards
• Compliance Requirements
• Engineering Standards

Establish governance processes and technical standards for testing tools, automation frameworks, test data management, and quality reporting capabilities.

Partner with Engineering, Security, Risk, and Compliance teams to ensure testing and TDM capabilities meet regulatory and information protection requirements.

Drive implementation of:

• Data masking
• Sensitive data protection controls
• Compliant test data provisioning strategies

Define and monitor key performance indicators including:

• Automation Coverage
• Test Execution Efficiency
• Defect Leakage
• Defect Escape Rate
• Test Data Provisioning Speed
• Environment Utilization
• Platform Availability
• Quality Trends
• Adoption Metrics
• Testing Cycle Times

Conduct maturity assessments and develop enterprise improvement recommendations for testing and quality engineering practices.

Lead technology evaluations, proof-of-concepts, and recommendations for testing, automation, and Test Data Management platforms.

Evaluate emerging technologies including:

• AI-assisted testing
• Intelligent test generation
• Predictive quality analytics
• Agentic testing solutions
• Modern automation frameworks

Provide technical oversight and architectural guidance for vendor-delivered solutions supporting Quality Engineering and TDM functions.

Establish operational standards, resiliency patterns, reference runbooks, and service objectives for enterprise platforms.

Present architecture, strategic recommendations, roadmaps, maturity assessments, and platform metrics to senior technology leadership and governance forums.

Lead communities of practice, engineering forums, and knowledge-sharing initiatives focused on testing excellence and quality engineering maturity.

Develop and maintain enterprise documentation, reference architectures, implementation guides, standards, governance materials, and technical procedures.

Understand and adhere to the Company''s risk and regulatory standards, policies, and controls in accordance with the Company''s Risk Appetite.

Maintain internal control standards, including timely implementation of audit recommendations and regulatory requirements.

Complete other related duties as assigned.

Scope of Responsibilities

Supervisory / Managerial Responsibilities

None.

May provide technical leadership, mentoring, coaching, and work direction to Lead Engineers, Senior Engineers, Engineers, contractors, vendors, and project teams.

Acts as an enterprise-wide technical authority and trusted advisor across technology organizations.

Leads large-scale cross-functional initiatives through influence, technical expertise, architecture leadership, and strategic partnership rather than direct authority.

Provides leadership and influence across:

• Architecture
• Engineering
• Development
• DevOps
• Infrastructure
• Security
• Risk
• Compliance
• Product Delivery

Serves as a key contributor to enterprise technology strategy and quality engineering transformation efforts.

Education and Experience Required

Bachelor''s degree and a minimum of 8 years of technology experience;

OR

Associate''s degree and a minimum of 10 years of technology experience;

OR

In lieu of a degree, a combined minimum of 12 years of education and/or relevant experience.

Minimum 8 years of experience in software testing, quality engineering, test automation, Test Data Management, software engineering, or related disciplines.

Minimum 5 years of experience leading enterprise-scale technical initiatives, architecture programs, or engineering transformation efforts.

Experience implementing enterprise testing, automation, quality engineering, or Test Data Management solutions.

Experience developing enterprise standards, frameworks, governance processes, and implementation patterns.

Experience integrating testing capabilities into DevOps and CI/CD delivery pipelines.

Strong understanding of Agile delivery methodologies, SDLC practices, DevOps principles, and software quality engineering concepts.

Strong understanding of risk management, information security, compliance, and data privacy requirements.

Education and Experience Preferred

Hands-on experience with:

• Delphix
• SmartBear Zephyr
• Selenium
• Playwright
• Cucumber
• Postman
• GitLab
• GitLab CI/CD
• Jira
• REST Assured

Experience defining enterprise testing standards, governance models, and automation strategies.

Experience leading quality engineering transformation initiatives.

Experience with cloud-native testing in Azure, AWS, or hybrid cloud environments.

Experience implementing enterprise Test Data Management programs.

Experience implementing AI-enabled testing and intelligent automation capabilities.

Experience serving as an architecture lead, principal engineer, or technical authority.

Strong influencing, consulting, mentoring, stakeholder management, and executive communication skills.

Financial services or other highly regulated industry experience preferred.

Success Measures

• Increased adoption of enterprise testing and quality engineering standards.
• Increased Test Data Management platform utilization.
• Increased automation coverage across strategic applications.
• Reduced manual testing effort through reusable frameworks and automation.
• Reduced testing cycle times and improved release velocity.
• Improved software quality and reduced defect leakage.
• Improved compliance through standardized data masking and governance controls.
• Successful onboarding of application teams to enterprise testing and TDM capabilities.
• Increased integration of automated testing into GitLab CI/CD pipelines.
• Improved engineering productivity through reusable accelerators and standards.
• High platform reliability, scalability, and operational excellence.
• Successful adoption of enterprise architecture patterns and implementation standards.
• Demonstrated business value through automation, standardization, and platform optimization.