Senior Staff AI Engineer, (AI Quality & Test Automation)

Illumina • San Diego, CA

11d • Onsite

About The Position

Illumina is hiring a Senior Staff AI Engineer to set technical direction for quality engineering across enterprise platforms, with a focus on using AI agents to test software and testing AI agents before production use. This is the most senior individual-contributor QA role, responsible for test architecture, leadership of the Tricentis platform, and safe, auditable agentic testing for regulated and GxP-relevant systems. The role provides technical leadership to 10–20 QA and automation engineers across vendors and teams, and sits within Enterprise AI, partnering with Data Engineering, application teams, and Quality & Regulatory. The position is based in San Diego, California, and is not remote.

The role owns enterprise test strategy and the architecture, standards, roadmap, and governance for a quality platform spanning Tricentis products and enterprise applications. It develops multi-agent test workflows with defined human approvals and audit trails, and establishes evaluation gates for AI agent releases, including datasets, scoring, security, safety, correctness, and cost checks. It also integrates agents and tools through MCP, embeds quality practices into CI/CD, and works with Quality & Regulatory to produce validated, Part 11-compliant evidence using FDA CSA and GAMP 5 practices.

The successful candidate will set multi-year technical direction and drive adoption without direct authority; make build, buy, and partner decisions; align vendors and system integrators to common quality standards; mentor senior and staff engineers; and communicate quality risk and release recommendations to executives. Success measures include an approved agentic test strategy and Tricentis reference architecture, increased regression automation coverage, reduced SAP regression cycle time and production defect escapes, AI agents released behind evaluation gates, and CSA-aligned evidence for in-scope GxP systems.

The estimated U.S. base salary range is $141,600–$212,400. Placement depends on experience, skills, location, and internal equity. Employees are eligible for a variable cash program (bonus or commission), and eligible roles may receive equity. The company also offers benefits including genomics sequencing access, family planning, health, dental and vision coverage, retirement benefits, and paid time off.

Requirements

• 12+ years of software quality engineering experience, including 5+ years as a lead, principal, or staff-level engineer setting strategy across multiple teams.
• 5+ years of hands-on enterprise-scale Tricentis Tosca experience, plus working knowledge of qTest and at least one of NeoLoad or SeaLights.
• Demonstrated delivery of test automation for packaged enterprise applications; SAP S/4HANA or ECC and Salesforce experience is desired.
• At least 1 year building or operating LLM-based or agentic testing in production, beyond proof-of-concept work.
• Strong coding skills in at least two of Python, TypeScript/JavaScript, Java, or C#.
• Deep CI/CD experience with GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, GitLab, or Jenkins, including quality gates.
• Experience testing in regulated environments such as GxP, medical devices, or SOX, and producing audit-ready evidence.
• Clear written and spoken communication with engineers, product owners, and executives.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• Expertise in Tosca and qTest and practical command of Tricentis agentic products released in 2025 and 2026.
• Knowledge of agentic QA workflows, AI agent and LLM application evaluation, MCP and agent-to-agent protocols, AI-native browser/UI automation, CI/CD and modern engineering practices, and regulated quality principles, as detailed in the posting.

Nice To Haves

• Tricentis certifications such as Tosca Architect, qTest, or NeoLoad; Tosca Automation Specialist and Architect certifications are strongly preferred.
• ISTQB Advanced or Expert certification, or ISTQB Certified Tester AI Testing (CT-AI).
• AWS Certified Machine Learning or AI Practitioner certification, or Databricks Generative AI Engineer certification.
• Published MCP servers, evaluation suites, or open-source test tooling.
• Experience in life sciences, genomics, diagnostics, or medical devices.
• Experience leading an SAP S/4HANA migration or RISE program test effort.

Responsibilities

• Own enterprise test strategy across SAP S/4HANA, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Workday, custom applications, data pipelines, and AI agents, using risk-based shift-left and shift-right approaches.
• Architect and lead the Tricentis quality platform, including Tosca, qTest, NeoLoad, SeaLights, LiveCompare, and Tricentis AI Workspace; define standards, reusable libraries, licensing, and roadmap.
• Design and run multi-agent testing workflows that generate, execute, heal, and triage tests, with human approval points and audit trails.
• Create evaluation frameworks and release gates for AI agents, including golden datasets, LLM-as-judge scoring, red teaming, tool-call correctness, safety, and cost checks.
• Connect agents to tools through MCP, integrating Tricentis and internal MCP servers with Claude, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, and Codex through the Enterprise AI gateway and policy.
• Embed test impact analysis, quality gates, and release-risk scoring in CI/CD pipelines.
• Partner with Quality & Regulatory to apply FDA CSA and GAMP 5 practices and produce Part 11-compliant evidence for regulated systems.
• Mentor senior and staff engineers, conduct design reviews, write playbooks, and lead the QA community of practice.
• Own and report the quality scorecard, including escape rate, automation coverage, cycle time, and cost per test.
• Set multi-year technical direction and gain adoption without direct authority; make build, buy, and partner decisions with clear cost and risk reasoning.
• Lead vendor and system integrator partners toward a common quality standard, and coach engineers toward staff-level thinking and AI-fluent testing.
• Explain quality risk to executives and recommend whether to ship or hold releases.

Benefits

• Access to genomics sequencing
• Family planning benefits
• Health insurance
• Dental insurance
• Vision insurance
• Retirement benefits
• Paid time off
• Variable cash program (bonus or commission)
• Equity for eligible roles
• Employee Resource Groups offering career development, cultural awareness, and social responsibility opportunities

What This Job Offers

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