Lead Software Test Engineer - Prime Online

Caterpillar Inc.•Peoria, IL

21h•$128,470 - $208,770

About The Position

We are seeking a highly motivated Lead Software Test Engineer to drive quality engineering practices across our Cat.com/Prime Online applications. This role is responsible for defining test strategy, leading automation initiatives, improving release quality, and ensuring reliable, scalable customer experiences across web, API, and integrated enterprise systems. The ideal candidate combines deep technical expertise in software testing with strong leadership skills, enabling them to influence quality practices across cross-functional teams while remaining hands-on in automation, performance testing, and release readiness activities. This role will serve as a champion for AI-first quality engineering practices, helping teams maximize productivity through responsible adoption of AI-assisted development and testing tools.

Requirements

Knowledge of the decision-making process and associated tools and techniques; ability to accurately analyze situations and reach productive decisions based on informed judgment.
Knowledge of software development tools and activities; ability to produce software products or systems in line with product requirements.
Knowledge of software development life cycle; ability to use a structured methodology for delivering and managing new or enhanced software products to the marketplace.
Knowledge of software product design; ability to convert market requirements into the software product design.
Knowledge of technical aspects of a software products; ability to design, configure and integrate technical aspects of software products.
Knowledge of software product testing; ability to design, plan, and execute testing strategies and tactics to ensure software product quality and adherence to stated requirements.
Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Engineering, Information Technology, or equivalent experience.
7+ years of experience in software testing, quality engineering, or test automation.
Demonstrated experience leading quality initiatives and mentoring software test engineers.
Extensive experience testing web applications, mobile applications, APIs, and integrated enterprise systems.
Proven experience designing and implementing automated testing frameworks and strategies.
Strong understanding of Agile software development and DevOps practices.
Experience working with CI/CD pipelines and continuous testing methodologies.
Strong analytical, troubleshooting, communication, and leadership skills.

Nice To Haves

Experience leading or mentoring QA teams in Agile environments.
Experience using Microsoft Copilot, GitHub Copilot, Azure AI services, or similar AI-assisted engineering tools.
Experience supporting enterprise digital platforms, commerce and other similar platforms.
Experience with test automation using JavaScript/TypeScript and modern testing frameworks.
Experience validating microservices and API-driven architectures.
Experience integrating automated testing into Azure DevOps pipelines and GitHub-based workflows.
Experience with performance testing, reliability testing, and release certification activities.
Experience with cloud-native applications and distributed systems.

Responsibilities

Lead and mentor software test engineers, fostering technical growth and continuous improvement within the quality engineering organization.
Establish testing standards, quality metrics, and governance practices across multiple product teams.
Drive defect prevention initiatives through root-cause analysis, quality reviews, and process improvements.
Provide quality status reporting, release readiness assessments, and risk evaluations to stakeholders.
Champion an AI-first approach to quality engineering, leveraging generative AI and intelligent automation tools to accelerate test design, test data creation, defect analysis, and test maintenance.
Define and execute comprehensive test strategies for web, mobile, API, and enterprise platform solutions.
Lead functional, integration, regression, system, user acceptance, and end-to-end testing efforts.
Utilize risk-based testing methodologies to prioritize testing efforts for business-critical functionality.
Ensure quality validation across multiple platforms, including Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android environments.
Design, develop, maintain, and scale automated testing frameworks for UI, API, and end-to-end validation.
Integrate automated quality gates into CI/CD pipelines to improve deployment confidence and reduce production defects.
Drive automation strategy using modern tools and frameworks such as Playwright, WebdriverIO, Selenium, Appium, and API automation tools.
Continuously improve regression coverage, execution efficiency, and testing reliability.
Partner closely with Product Managers, Software Engineers, Architects, and DevOps teams to refine requirements and establish acceptance criteria.
Participate in sprint planning, backlog refinement, and design discussions to promote shift-left quality practices.
Support production releases through validation, monitoring, defect analysis, and continuous feedback.