Senior AI Test Automation Engineer

CarParts.com•Long Beach, CA

4d•Hybrid

About The Position

CarParts.com is seeking a Senior AI Test Automation Engineer to join their AI-powered engineering team. This role is focused on integrating AI into the core of test automation, from writing and running tests to analyzing results. The engineer will work with AI coding assistants, automate test generation using AI agents, and implement AI-driven test execution strategies. The position involves building and maintaining test automation frameworks, integrating tests into CI/CD pipelines, and collaborating with development teams to ensure quality across various application architectures. A significant portion of the role involves leveraging AI/ML tooling and LLMs to enhance testing efficiency and effectiveness, treating prompt engineering and token economics as engineering disciplines.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related field / equivalent experience.
6+ years of software engineering experience with deep, hands-on test automation expertise.
Proficient in programming using JavaScript / Node.js; experience with TypeScript strongly preferred.
In-depth, hands-on expertise with Cypress and Playwright, including fixtures, network interception, parallelization, and cross-browser execution.
Proven experience with mocking and stubbing libraries and contract testing for APIs.
Proven experience creating test automation for microservice APIs, for end-to-end testing or testing API services in isolation using mocks.
Proven experience creating test automation for one or more application types: Single Page Application (SPA), Progressive Web App (PWA), responsive design, and Multi-Page Application (MPA).
Proven experience using Git source control and continuous integration tools (Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI).
Solid understanding of software testing methodologies, test planning, and test case design.
Strong communication and collaboration skills to work effectively with cross-functional teams.
Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills to identify and troubleshoot issues.
Experienced working in Scrum teams; able to adapt to evolving project requirements and priorities.
Strong organizational and leadership skills.
Comfortable working on the command line.
Hands-on experience using LLMs (OpenAI, Anthropic, or equivalent) to generate, refactor, and maintain test code.
Comfortable using AI coding assistants (GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, Claude Cowork, Cursor) daily to accelerate test development.
Able to write effective prompts for test generation, test data creation, refactoring, and documentation.
Demonstrated ability to build or extend AI-assisted testing workflows, such as: Test generation from requirements, user stories, acceptance criteria, or code diffs; Intelligent test selection and prioritization based on change impact; Automated failure triage, root-cause summarization, and flaky-test detection; Self-healing locator and selector strategies.
Familiar with agentic concepts: tool-calling, structured output, multi-step task decomposition, and human-in-the-loop review checkpoints.
Understands foundational LLM concepts: tokens, temperature, context windows, embeddings, and RAG.
Can evaluate AI-generated tests and code for correctness, security, and coverage, not just accept output blindly.

Nice To Haves

Experience with Selenium, Appium, Jest, or Puppeteer.
Proven experience testing applications built with frameworks like Express, Next.js, and React.
Experience designing or contributing to MCP servers or similar context-orchestration layers.
Experience with performance testing tools (k6, JMeter, Lighthouse).
Experience with public cloud services (AWS, Azure, GCP).
Experience with ecommerce/retail purchase journeys.

Responsibilities

Design, develop, and maintain automated test suites in Cypress and Playwright for functional, regression, end-to-end, and cross-browser testing.
Build robust, scalable test frameworks, including custom commands, fixtures, page objects, network interception, and mocking/stubbing.
Create test automation for microservice APIs, testing end-to-end or in isolation using mocks, stubs, and contract testing.
Cover SPA, PWA, responsive design, and MPA architectures across desktop and mobile browsers.
Integrate automated tests into CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, Jenkins, GitLab CI); monitor and maintain automated test execution.
Develop and execute performance and load testing scripts to identify bottlenecks, collaborating with performance engineers.
Perform targeted manual, exploratory, and UAT/production validation where automation is not yet the right tool.
Automate test writing by building and refining AI agents and pipelines that generate Cypress and Playwright specs from requirements, user stories, acceptance criteria, and code diffs.
Automate test running through intelligent test selection based on change impact, automated failure triage with root-cause summaries, flaky-test detection and quarantine, and self-healing locators.
Write prompts, evaluation harnesses, and monitoring for AI-assisted testing workflows, treating them as code.
Evaluate AI-generated tests for correctness, coverage, and reliability.
Build shared tooling, including CLI utilities, test data generators, and internal developer tools powered by AI.
Contribute to MCP servers and integrations that expose test infrastructure to LLM-powered clients.
Work closely with developers to understand application architecture and expand test coverage; participate in design and code reviews.
Contribute to test planning and strategy discussions; define and execute test plans aligned with project timelines and goals.
Investigate and analyze defects, documenting and reporting issues with detail.
Mentor engineers on test automation and AI-assisted testing patterns.
Adhere to department procedures, processes, and best practices: SDLC, Change Control Management, Agile ceremonies, and ticket management.
Stay current with AI/ML tooling, LLM advances, and testing ecosystem developments.