Senior Quality Assurance Engineer

eSimplicity•Columbia, MD

10d•$117,300 - $156,300•Hybrid

About The Position

ESimplicity is a modern digital services company that partners with government agencies to improve the lives and protect the well-being of all Americans, from veterans and service members to children, families, and seniors. Our engineers, designers, and strategists cut through complexity to create intuitive products and services that equip federal agencies with solutions to courageously transform today for a better tomorrow. We are seeking an experienced Sr. Quality Assurance Engineer to own the quality strategy for a federal financial regulatory agency's enterprise data engineering program. This role is responsible for ensuring that every release to the agency's enterprise data platform is fully tested, documented, compliant with the program's enterprise ETL standards, and ready for government review and acceptance. The ideal candidate brings deep expertise in automated testing, IV&V and UAT coordination, code coverage and quality gates, and release documentation for large-scale, data-centric systems in an agile environment. Successful candidates will be eligible to hold a U.S. Federal Public Trust security clearance (Moderate Risk). This position is contingent upon contract award.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related technical discipline. OR; In lieu of a degree, four additional years of related experience is required
Minimum of 8 years of software testing/quality assurance experience, including experience leading QA activities for delivery teams.
Hands-on experience with automated testing frameworks and integrating automated tests into CI/CD pipelines.
Demonstrated experience developing test plans, test cases, and traceable test documentation for large, data-centric systems.
Experience with code quality tooling, including code coverage measurement, static analysis, and dependency scanning.
Experience supporting UAT with end users and resolving findings on rapid timelines.
Strong understanding of QA methodologies, SDLC, and Agile practices; experience with Atlassian Jira/Confluence or similar test management tools.
Excellent command of written and spoken English, with the ability to produce clear, complete, government-ready documentation.
Ability to obtain and maintain a Moderate Risk Public Trust clearance; residing in the United States.

Nice To Haves

Experience supporting formal IV&V processes in a federal environment.
Experience testing AWS-based data platforms and ETL pipelines (Glue, Spark, Athena/Trino, Airflow, S3).
Proficiency in Python or SQL for test automation and data validation.
Familiarity with OWASP ASVS, secure development practices, and federal compliance requirements including Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Privacy Act of 1974.
Testing experience in regulated industries (finance, government); ISTQB or other QA certifications.

Responsibilities

Define test strategies, quality gates, and the Definition of Done for two-week agile delivery iterations; ensure releases meet government acceptance criteria before deployment.
Develop and maintain comprehensive ETL Test Plans, test cases, test data, and validation criteria ensuring data pipelines are functionally correct, reliable, and meet business and data quality requirements.
Lead adoption of automated testing frameworks, including unit, integration, and user-facing functional tests executed automatically through CI/CD, providing consistent protection against regressions.
Manage code coverage measurement and progression toward the contract standard of a minimum 90% test coverage, with metrics visible in real-time dashboards.
Coordinate Independent Verification & Validation (IV&V) and User Acceptance Testing (UAT) cycles; ensure findings are fully addressed and resubmitted within rapid contractual timelines and iteration counts stay within contract quality thresholds.
Prepare Corrective Action Plans (CAPs) when performance standards are not met; ensure defects are logged, prioritized, triaged, and resolved in collaboration with engineering.
Ensure complete, accurate release documentation accompanies every staging and production release, including approved test cases and results, data flow diagrams, architecture diagrams, and all artifacts required by the program's ETL standards.
Verify data quality standards, including complete record and field loads, XSD validation where required, duplicate load prevention, and Data Steward-approved quality checks (e.g., AWS Glue data quality facilities).
Integrate static code analysis, dependency scanning, and security scans into the Definition of Done; support delivery of code free of medium- and high-level vulnerabilities (OWASP ASVS 4.0, Level 2).
Support periodic load and performance testing and validate results against acceptance criteria.
Track quality metrics and provide regular status reporting on quality, risks, and release readiness to the Product Owner and program leadership.
Support timely, accurate responses to data engineering customer inquiries and tickets in accordance with program service standards.
Collaborate with Product Owners, Data Officers, IV&V teams, and developers to align QA practices with the program's enterprise ETL standards and drive their continuous improvement.