Manager Test Engineering

Abbott•Los Angeles, CA

11d•$112,000 - $224,000

About The Position

Abbott is a global healthcare leader that helps people live more fully at all stages of life. Our portfolio of life-changing technologies spans the spectrum of healthcare, with leading businesses and products in diagnostics, medical devices, nutritionals and branded generic medicines. Our 114,000 colleagues serve people in more than 160 countries. JOB DESCRIPTION: Job Title Manager, Test Engineering (QA Engineering Manager) Overview We are seeking a Manager of Test Engineering to lead and mature our Quality Engineering function across multiple agile delivery teams supporting regulated clinical and operational systems. This role is responsible for transforming QA from a validation- and documentation-heavy function into a modern, risk-focused test engineering practice with strong automation, observability, and CI/CD integration while maintaining compliance with regulated SDLC expectations. This manager will lead a team of test engineers, partner closely with engineering, product, platform, and validation teams, and play a critical role in improving overall software quality, release confidence, and delivery predictability.

Requirements

Bachelors Degree (± 16 years)
At least 8 years of relevant experience in software engineering.
Able to translate theoretical methodologies into practical applied practices with the ability to explain these practices to technical and non-technical personnel.
Good communication, team skills and basic problem-solving skills to interface with internal customers at all levels.
Strong interpersonal, teaching, leadership, and negotiation skills.
Good understanding of customer usage of the product.
System engineering architecture principles and concepts.
Experience integrating technologies.
Knowledge of Product Risk Management Best Practices and Tools.

Nice To Haves

7+ years of experience in QA/Test Engineering, with at least 2+ years in a people management or technical leadership role.
Hands-on experience with automated testing for web applications, APIs, and backend services.
Strong understanding of modern Agile/Scrum development practices.
Experience operating in a regulated or highly controlled environment (medical devices, clinical systems, pharma, finance, etc.).
Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and test integration (Azure DevOps preferred).
Ability to balance regulatory rigor with pragmatic engineering practices.
Experience modernizing or transforming QA organizations.
Background in .NET, microservices, or distributed systems.
Experience with test data management, environment management, and observability tools.
Comfort working in hybrid cloud / on-prem environments.
Prior experience mentoring career-transitioning team members (e.g., BAs → Test Engineers).
Experience working in a regulated industry.
QA is seen as a partner, not a gatekeeper.
Automated testing coverage increases measurably and sustainably.
Fewer production issues and hotfixes driven by test gaps.
Teams have higher confidence in releases.
Validation and audit activities are smoother, faster, and less reactive.
The test engineering team is growing in technical skill and influence.

Responsibilities

Lead, coach, and develop a growing team of Test Engineers and QA professionals.
Support the transition of team members from business analysis / manual testing backgrounds into strong test engineers.
Establish clear role expectations, growth paths, and skill development plans.
Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
Define and own the overall test strategy across web applications, backend services, APIs, and data integrations.
Shift the organization toward risk-based testing and shift-left quality practices.
Ensure test coverage aligns with business risk and regulatory expectations, not just documentation compliance.
Partner with Product Owners to influence acceptance criteria, negative scenario testing, edge-case coverage, and definition of done.
Drive adoption and standardization of test automation across UI, API, and integration layers.
Oversee automation frameworks (e.g., Playwright, Selenium, REST/API testing, etc.) and ensure they are maintainable and scalable.
Integrate automated testing into CI/CD pipelines (Azure DevOps experience preferred).
Collaborate with Platform Engineering on test infrastructure, environments, test data, and observability.
Ensure QA practices align with regulated development and validation requirements (e.g., SOPs, traceability, audit readiness).
Partner with Validation teams to define pragmatic, efficient testing and documentation approaches.
Support audit readiness by ensuring test evidence is accurate, accessible, and defensible.
Help modernize validation practices without sacrificing compliance.
Define and track meaningful quality metrics (e.g., test coverage, defect trends, escaped defects, automation effectiveness).
Use data to inform leadership decisions and improvement initiatives.
Continuously evaluate and improve testing processes, tools, and workflows.
Work closely with Software Engineering Managers, Product Owners, Platform Engineering, and Operations.
Participate in release readiness, incident reviews, and post-release retrospectives.
Act as the primary advocate for quality across the engineering organization.