Lead Software Quality Engineering, Backend

Prolaio•Chicago, IL

7h•$150,000

About The Position

The Backend Software Quality Engineering Lead will oversee and actively contribute to the validation and verification of our cloud-based data platform. In this role, you will act as a true player-coach—balancing technical leadership, team mentorship, and direct individual contribution. You will be responsible for the integrity of our high-volume data pipelines and backend services, leading a small team of automation test engineers while also contributing to test case automation and executing test strategies. This role is ideal for a technical leader who wants to guide a team and handle management responsibilities, but prefers to remain an active contributor rather than stepping into a pure management role. You must be ready to quickly adopt existing automation frameworks, identify opportunities for optimization, and drive the requirements-gathering process to ensure clinical safety in a Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) environment.

Requirements

8+ years in backend testing or software development, with a proven track record of blending hands-on technical contribution with team mentorship or formal lead experience.
Demonstrated ability to write clean code and improve existing automation frameworks (e.g., Python, Kotlin, or Java) while knowing when to build new components from scratch.
Deep, practical experience testing cloud-native services and API architectures.
Expert-level SQL skills and extensive practical experience validating high-scale data environments, including analytical warehouses and NoSQL databases.
Proven ability to validate time-series data and complex data streams, ensuring consistency and integrity over time.
Strong background in requirements engineering, with the ability to analyze a feature at the design stage and ensure it is architected for testability and safety.

Nice To Haves

Previous experience in a regulated industry (Healthcare, MedTech, or BioTech).
Familiarity with Risk Management (ISO 14971) as it informs test case prioritization.
Experience with CI/CD integration and cloud monitoring/observability tools.

Responsibilities

Lead, coach, and mentor a team of backend automation engineers by example.
Handle light management responsibilities (defining roadmaps, professional development) but will split your time between leadership and active technical contribution (writing test code, reviewing PRs, and executing tests).
Quickly master and directly contribute code to our existing backend test frameworks.
Be hands-on in maintaining, scaling, and optimizing these tools, ensuring they remain performant as our cloud infrastructure evolves.
Act as a collaborative bridge between Product, Engineering, and Regulatory teams.
Use your experience to translate complex clinical needs into actionable, testable verification plans, actively writing test cases that ensure full feature coverage.
Design and execute strategies to validate large-scale analytical data warehouses and NoSQL storage layers (e.g., BigQuery, Cassandra).
Be personally responsible for verifying the accuracy of complex datasets, specifically focusing on the precision of time-series data.
Oversee and participate in the verification (V&V) process to ensure our cloud services meet SaMD standards (e.g., ISO 13485, IEC 62304), ensuring automated testing provides the necessary evidence for regulatory compliance.

Benefits

Competitive salary
performance bonus
equity
Medical, dental, and vision plans with multiple options and strong company contributions.
HSA, FSA, commuter benefits, and a $1,200 annual Lifestyle Spending Account to support wellness, commuting, family needs, and more.
Generous paid time off, sick leave, and company holidays.
Paid parental leave, caregiver leave, and support for growing families.
Company-paid life insurance and short- and long-term disability coverage.
401(k) plan
Easy access to telehealth and optional supplemental coverage for life’s unexpected moments.