Senior QA/Automation Test Engineer

Guidehouse•Tysons, VA

16h•$130,000 - $216,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Guidehouse is seeking an experienced Senior QA/Automation Test Engineer to lead quality engineering initiatives and support the delivery of enterprise-class software solutions within a fast-paced Agile and DevSecOps environment. This role is responsible for defining testing strategy, advancing automation maturity, improving software quality processes, and ensuring scalable, reliable, and secure application releases. The Senior QA/Automation Test Engineer serves as a quality advocate and technical leader, partnering with software engineers, architects, product owners, business analysts, DevOps teams, and stakeholders to embed quality throughout the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC). The successful candidate will possess deep expertise in test automation, quality engineering, CI/CD integration, and modern testing methodologies while driving continuous improvement and mentoring junior team members. This position supports a large integrated platform with frequent software releases and requires a proactive approach to risk management, defect prevention, automation optimization, and operational excellence.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or related technical discipline.
Equivalent combination of education and FOUR (4) years relevant experience may be considered in leu of degree.
U.S. Citizenship required.
Exceptional analytical, troubleshooting, and problem-solving abilities.
Strong written and verbal communication skills.
Ability to effectively influence technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Proven ability to manage multiple priorities in a dynamic environment.
SEVEN (7) years of professional experience in Software Quality Assurance, Test Automation, or Quality Engineering.
Minimum FIVE (5) years designing and implementing automated testing frameworks and solutions.
Experience leading testing efforts on large-scale enterprise applications.
Experience operating within Agile, Scrum, SAFe, or comparable delivery frameworks.
Experience supporting CI/CD and DevSecOps environments.
Demonstrated expertise in: Test automation architecture and framework design.
Demonstrated expertise in: Functional, integration, regression, system, API, database, and end-to-end testing.
Demonstrated expertise in: Quality engineering methodologies and best practices.
Demonstrated expertise in: Defect lifecycle management and root cause analysis.
Demonstrated expertise in: Test strategy development and risk-based testing.
Demonstrated expertise in: Continuous integration and continuous testing practices.
Demonstrated expertise in: Enterprise SDLC processes and release management.
Demonstrated expertise in: Software quality metrics, reporting, and test governance.
Strong experience with: Java (preferred) or equivalent object-oriented programming languages.
Strong experience with: Automation framework development and maintenance.
Strong experience with: TestNG, Junit, Nunit, Selenium, Katalon, or equivalent testing technologies.
Strong experience with: SQL and database validation techniques.
Strong experience with: Source control platforms such as Git.

Nice To Haves

Experience building automation frameworks from the ground up.
Experience implementing Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) using Cucumber or SpecFlow.
Experience with Test-Driven Development (TDD) environments.
Knowledge of contract testing and service virtualization.
Experience with intelligent and AI-assisted testing platforms.
Experience testing cloud-native solutions hosted in Microsoft Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud Platform.
Experience with containerized applications using Docker and Kubernetes.
Knowledge of distributed systems, event-driven architectures, and microservices.
Experience validating serverless and API-first applications.
Experience integrating automated testing into enterprise CI/CD pipelines.
Understanding of DevSecOps principles and secure SDLC methodologies.
Experience supporting automated security, vulnerability, and compliance testing.
Familiarity with OWASP principles and application security testing.
Experience conducting load, stress, scalability, and performance testing.
Experience leveraging observability and monitoring platforms.
Familiarity with Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) concepts.
Experience establishing performance baselines and service-level objectives (SLOs).
Insurance industry experience.
Understanding of customer experience (CX) and digital product quality principles.
ISTQB Advanced Test Automation Engineer
ISTQB Advanced Test Manager
Certified Agile Tester (CAT)
SAFe Agilist or SAFe Practitioner
Certified Scrum Master (CSM)
Microsoft Azure Fundamentals or Azure DevOps certifications
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner or equivalent cloud certification

Responsibilities

Serve as the lead quality engineering resource for assigned applications, platforms, and initiatives.
Establish and maintain comprehensive test strategies aligned with business, technical, security, and compliance requirements.
Define quality standards, testing approaches, automation objectives, and release-readiness criteria.
Advocate for quality-first and shift-left testing practices across development teams.
Identify quality risks early and provide recommendations to reduce production defects and operational impact.
Promote continuous improvement of testing methodologies, tools, frameworks, and processes.
Architect, develop, maintain, and enhance enterprise-scale automated testing frameworks.
Design reusable automation solutions for functional, API, integration, regression, UI, database, and end-to-end testing.
Lead automation initiatives that improve test coverage, execution efficiency, and release confidence.
Establish automation standards, coding practices, and framework governance.
Integrate automated testing into CI/CD pipelines and DevSecOps workflows.
Evaluate and recommend emerging automation technologies, AI-assisted testing tools, and quality engineering solutions.
Develop and maintain comprehensive test plans, test cases, test scenarios, and testing documentation.
Review business, functional, technical, and architecture requirements to ensure adequate test coverage.
Execute and oversee functional, integration, performance, regression, system, user acceptance, and release validation testing.
Ensure traceability between requirements, test cases, defects, and production releases.
Validate application functionality, usability, performance, reliability, and security expectations.
Lead defect triage sessions and quality reviews with development teams and stakeholders.
Perform in-depth root cause analysis of defects, failures, and production incidents.
Identify recurring quality challenges and recommend preventive solutions.
Establish defect metrics and reporting that drive actionable improvements.
Verify corrective actions and ensure adequate regression coverage.
Participate in sprint planning, backlog refinement, architecture discussions, sprint reviews, and retrospectives.
Collaborate with developers to ensure testability of system designs and requirements.
Support continuous integration and continuous delivery practices through automated validation gates.
Partner with DevOps teams to improve deployment quality, release automation, and environment stability.
Contribute to secure software delivery through automated validation and security-focused testing.
Mentor and coach junior and mid-level QA engineers and automation specialists.
Conduct peer reviews of test cases, automation scripts, and quality artifacts.
Establish quality engineering best practices and promote knowledge sharing throughout the organization.
Lead process improvement initiatives and champion innovation within the QA.
Serve as a trusted advisor on software quality, testing strategy, and automation approaches.
Consistently deliver testing activities that align with sprint, release, and program objectives.
Support high-quality releases with minimal production-impacting defects.
Proactively identify and mitigate quality risks before deployment.
Continuously expand and improve automated test coverage across applications and platforms.
Reduce manual testing effort through scalable and maintainable automation solutions.
Improve execution speed, reliability, and reporting of automated test suites.
Drive measurable reductions in defect leakage and production incidents.
Improve overall software quality metrics through proactive quality engineering practices.
Establish repeatable, efficient testing processes across teams.
Maintain modern automation frameworks and testing architectures.
Ensure automation assets remain maintainable, reusable, and scalable.
Demonstrate expertise in enterprise testing disciplines and emerging technologies.
Effectively communicate testing status, risks, dependencies, and recommendations to technical and business stakeholders.
Build strong collaborative relationships with engineering, product, architecture, and operations teams.
Mentor team members and contribute to organizational quality maturity.

Benefits

Medical, Rx, Dental & Vision Insurance
Personal and Family Sick Time & Company Paid Holidays
Parental Leave
401(k) Retirement Plan
Group Term Life and Travel Assistance
Voluntary Life and AD&D Insurance
Health Savings Account, Health Care & Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts
Transit and Parking Commuter Benefits
Short-Term & Long-Term Disability
Tuition Reimbursement, Personal Development, Certifications & Learning Opportunities
Employee Referral Program
Corporate Sponsored Events & Community Outreach
Care.com annual membership
Employee Assistance Program
Supplemental Benefits via Corestream (Critical Care, Hospital Indemnity, Accident Insurance, Legal Assistance and ID theft protection, etc.)
Position may be eligible for a discretionary variable incentive bonus