Quality Automation Architect

Tommy Bahama•Seattle, WA

18h•Onsite

About The Position

The QA Automation Architect/Manager leads the design, strategy, and execution of the organization’s test automation practice. The role combines technical architecture with people leadership: building scalable automation frameworks, setting quality standards, and managing automation engineers to support reliable, high-velocity releases. It embeds quality throughout the software development lifecycle by partnering with engineering, product, and DevOps teams and establishing or maturing formal automation practices. The role owns enterprise test automation architecture and strategy across API, smoke, UI, functional, integration, performance, and regression testing. It establishes frameworks, tooling, standards, and team structure; defines the long-term roadmap and technical standards; selects tools and methodologies; and integrates automated suites into CI/CD pipelines. The role also hires, mentors, and manages QA automation engineers; sets goals and supports career development; oversees resourcing, budget, and prioritization; and serves as the automation strategy contact in cross-functional planning and release discussions. It defines and reports quality metrics, drives root-cause analysis of production defects, promotes shift-left quality practices, and makes risk assessments and go/no-go quality recommendations for major releases. This position is on-site Monday through Friday at the Seattle office. The annual pay range is $127,900 to $165,000. Applicable pay varies based on experience, knowledge, skills, work location, and available budget.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
8+ years of experience in QA/test engineering, including at least 3+ years architecting automation frameworks at scale.
2+ years of experience managing or leading a QA/automation team.
Demonstrated experience building a QA automation practice from the ground up, establishing frameworks, tooling, processes, and team structure where none previously existed.
Strong hands-on programming skills in at least one commonly used test automation language: Java, Python, or JavaScript/TypeScript.
Proven experience with automation frameworks/tools such as Selenium, Playwright, Cypress, or Appium.
Experience integrating automated testing into CI/CD pipelines, such as Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or CircleCI.
Solid understanding of API testing using Postman, RestAssured, or similar.
Experience with Git and Agile/Scrum development practices.
Strategic thinking and ability to translate business and release priorities into a coherent, scalable automation roadmap.
Technical leadership and hands-on expertise sufficient to set direction and earn trust.
People-management skills, including hiring, coaching, developing engineers, and providing clear, actionable feedback.
Ability to communicate technical tradeoffs and quality risk in terms non-technical stakeholders can act on.
Sound judgment under ambiguity, particularly when building new practices from scratch.
Ability to collaborate across engineering, product, and DevOps without formal authority over those teams.
Accountability for quality outcomes across the full release lifecycle.

Nice To Haves

ISTQB or other relevant QA certifications.
Experience with performance/load testing tools such as JMeter, Gatling, or k6.
Familiarity with containerization and orchestration, including Docker and Kubernetes.
Experience with cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or GCP.
Exposure to BDD frameworks such as Cucumber or SpecFlow.

Responsibilities

Design, build, and own enterprise test automation architecture across API, smoke, UI, functional, integration, performance, and regression testing.
Establish and mature the QA automation practice, including frameworks, tooling, standards, and team structure.
Define the long-term automation roadmap, tooling strategy, and technical standards for the QA organization.
Evaluate, select, and introduce tools, frameworks, and testing methodologies to improve coverage, speed, and reliability.
Architect and maintain scalable, maintainable automation frameworks.
Integrate automated test suites into CI/CD pipelines to enable continuous testing and fast feedback loops.
Hire, mentor, and manage QA automation engineers; set goals, conduct performance reviews, and support career growth.
Establish coding standards, review practices, and automation best practices across teams.
Manage resourcing, budget, and prioritization for the automation function.
Act as the primary point of contact for automation strategy in cross-functional planning and release discussions.
Define and track quality metrics, including test coverage, defect leakage, automation ROI, and flakiness rate, and report them to leadership.
Drive root-cause analysis on production defects and incorporate learnings into test strategy.
Partner with development teams to shift testing left and embed quality practices earlier in the SDLC.
Own risk assessment and go/no-go quality recommendations for major releases.