Principal, Quality Assurance Architect

OCC • Chicago, IL

5d • $152,900 - $261,700 • Hybrid

About The Position

The QA Architect drives testing tool strategy and orchestration, sets the technical direction for QA work, and supports the test automation team. The role works closely with development and test teams to meet OCC’s quality objectives.

The architect designs, develops, and maintains testing tool frameworks and solutions; establishes QA automation, performance, and failover testing principles; evaluates automation technologies and their feasibility and return on investment; and validates and optimizes existing automation frameworks. The role develops and maintains Jenkins pipelines, designs and troubleshoots integrations between Jira and test management tools, and identifies manual tasks that can be automated to reduce cycle time. It also researches automation frameworks for data analytics and reporting applications.

Working in an Agile team throughout the product lifecycle, the architect contributes to sprint planning, helps create stories with robust acceptance criteria, identifies incomplete requirements, documents and implements end-to-end business process automation testing strategies, and prepares training materials. The role promotes automation adoption, supports production by testing time-sensitive defects, and communicates test results and patterns to provide feedback to requirements, design, and development teams. It helps ensure information systems and services meet quality, performance, audit, and security standards.

OCC is the world’s largest equity derivatives clearing organization. Founded in 1973, it provides clearing and settlement services for options, futures, and securities lending transactions and operates under the jurisdiction of the SEC, CFTC, and Federal Reserve Board. The position offers a hybrid work environment with up to two remote days per week.

Requirements

• Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science, an analytical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• At least 10 years of experience in the IT industry, including at least 5 years in Quality Engineering, tool architecture, and orchestration using open-source and commercial toolsets.
• Experience with Agile methodology.
• Experience integrating Jira with a test management tool.
• Experience creating automation scripts, developing automation frameworks, and developing Jenkins pipelines.
• Strong design and development skills in at least one of Selenium, Cucumber, FitNesse automation for Appian, Protractor, or ServiceNow Automated Test Framework.
• Strong design and development skills in CI/CD pipelines.
• Broad knowledge of lifecycle development, change control management, and test planning management.
• Strong analytical skills, including the ability to devise testing methods for sophisticated systems, diagnose system defects, and clearly communicate findings and learnings.
• Strong written and oral communication, analytical, problem-solving, judgment, and time-management skills, and the ability to work effectively with users, management, and staff.
• Motivated self-starter with creative problem-solving skills.
• Ability to multitask, meet deadlines in a fast-paced Agile environment, and handle multiple projects simultaneously.
• Knowledge or experience in data analytics and reporting.
• Experience with relational databases and query tools such as SQL Server, Oracle, and DB2.
• Automated testing tool experience with tools such as Selenium, Cucumber, Cypress, ServiceNow Automated Test Framework, QTP, or Protractor.
• Programming or scripting experience or knowledge in Java, JavaScript, VBScript, and Python.
• Experience with ETL tools such as Alteryx and reporting tools such as Tableau.
• Experience with robotic process automation software such as Blue Prism.
• Understanding of CI/CD pipelines and tools such as Jenkins, GitHub, GitLab CI, or Azure DevOps.
• Knowledge of test management and defect tracking tools such as Jira, Zephyr, HP ALM, or SpiraTest, and proficiency in tool integrations.
• Familiarity with performance testing tools such as JMeter, LoadRunner, or Gatling.
• Understanding of containerization technologies such as Docker and orchestration tools such as Kubernetes.
• Knowledge of cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud Platform.
• Strong experience working with Linux OS.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in the Options and Futures industry.

Responsibilities

• Design, architect, develop, and maintain software testing tool frameworks and solutions, applying best practices.
• Establish design principles for QA automation, performance testing, and failover testing, and provide options and recommendations.
• Research automation technologies, assess implementation feasibility, and provide return-on-investment statistics.
• Validate and optimize existing automation frameworks to support consistent quality.
• Develop and maintain Jenkins pipelines for automated execution of test automation scripts.
• Understand Jira-to-test-management data flows, design generic workflows, and debug integration issues between tools.
• Identify opportunities to replace manual tasks with automation and reduce cycle time.
• Research and develop automation frameworks for data analytics and reporting applications.
• Collaborate with Agile teams throughout the lifecycle to support quality in analysis, design, development, and testing.
• Participate in sprint planning, help create stories with robust acceptance criteria, and identify missing or incomplete requirements.
• Document and implement end-to-end business process automation testing strategies and help prepare training materials.
• Influence test teams to adhere to automation practices and demonstrate the value to leadership teams.
• Help ensure information system products and services meet quality, performance, audit, and security requirements and are properly represented externally.
• Assist production support by testing time-sensitive defects and advising on system functionality.
• Communicate and analyze test results and patterns, providing feedback to requirements, design, and development teams.

Benefits

• Hybrid work environment with up to two days per week of remote work.
• Tuition reimbursement.
• Student loan repayment assistance.
• Technology stipend for connecting to the network while working remotely.
• Generous paid time off and parental leave.
• 401(k) employer match.
• Competitive medical, dental, and vision benefits.
• Potential eligibility for a discretionary annual incentive compensation award; the stated target range is 23% to 30%, and awards are not guaranteed.
• Collaborative and supportive environment intended to encourage work-life balance and employee wellness.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal