Lead QA Engineer

Cubic Corporation•Ashburn, VA

5d•$130,000 - $153,000•Onsite

About The Position

Cubic Digital Intelligence is seeking a Lead QA Engineer to own end-to-end software testing across our applications. This engineer will combine hands-on manual testing with Python and Playwright automation to validate complex user workflows, identify regressions, and help engineering teams deliver reliable, high-quality software. The role includes establishing QA priorities, standards, and practices while remaining actively involved in testing, automation development, and troubleshooting. This is a full-time position based in Ashburn, VA, requiring candidates to be local to the Ashburn/Northern Virginia area.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field.
Must be eligible for a DOD Security Clearence.
Minimum of 5 years of professional software quality assurance, test engineering, or related software engineering experience.
Minimum of 2 years of demonstrated QA technical leadership experience, including ownership of testing strategies, automation initiatives, testing standards, or QA activities across engineering teams.
Strong proficiency in Python and hands-on experience developing and maintaining automated tests using Playwright.
Experience performing manual, functional, integration, regression, and exploratory testing of complex software applications.
Experience testing REST APIs, validating application data, and troubleshooting software defects using browser developer tools, application logs, and network requests.
Experience with Git, CI/CD pipelines, SQL, and modern software development practices.
Strong analytical, investigative, and troubleshooting skills, with the ability to independently diagnose issues across application components.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to document defects, communicate technical findings, and articulate software quality risks.
Experience working collaboratively within Agile software development teams.

Nice To Haves

Experience with pytest and other Python-based testing frameworks and automation tools.
Experience developing or maintaining automated testing within GitLab CI/CD pipelines.
Familiarity with Docker, Kubernetes, Helm, and containerized or distributed application architectures.
Experience testing applications with complex authentication, authorization, role-based access controls, or data processing workflows.
Familiarity with PostgreSQL, REST APIs, Linux administration, and cloud-native technologies.
Experience testing microservices, asynchronous processing, message-driven architectures, or data-intensive enterprise applications.
Experience working with automated test reporting, coverage analysis, and quality metrics.
Experience with performance, load, accessibility, or security testing tools and practices.
Experience supporting Department of War, intelligence community, or other government software environments.
Demonstrated ability to independently troubleshoot issues across application, database, and infrastructure components.

Responsibilities

Own the end-to-end testing strategy, including functional, integration, regression, exploratory, and release testing.
Perform hands-on manual testing of new features and complex workflows, including edge cases, error handling, and failure scenarios.
Develop, maintain, and enhance automated tests using Python and Playwright within existing testing frameworks.
Evaluate test coverage and determine where automated and manual testing provide the greatest value.
Collaborate with software engineers, product owners, and technical leads to clarify requirements, define acceptance criteria, and improve testability.
Identify, document, and reproduce software defects; investigate failures, perform root cause analysis, and verify corrective actions.
Integrate automated tests into CI/CD pipelines and maintain reliable, repeatable test execution.
Manage test data and environment requirements to support testing across multiple application components.
Communicate testing results, quality metrics, and release risks to engineering and product stakeholders.
Establish and continuously improve QA standards, testing practices, and processes across development teams.
Provide technical guidance and mentorship to QA engineers and developers on testing approaches, automation, and software quality practices.