Specialist, Quality Engineer - Test Automation Developer

Nationwide Mutual Insurance•Columbus, OH

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

If you’re passionate about being part of a dynamic organization that enables a Fortune 100 company with nearly $70 billion in annual sales to drive innovation and adopt new technologies that deliver business results, then Nationwide’s Technology team could be the place for you! At Nationwide®, “on your side” goes beyond just words. Our customers are at the center of everything we do and we’re looking for associates who are passionate about delivering extraordinary care. The Group Benefits team is looking to add 3 Test Automation Developers. The Test Automation Developer (TAD) is a specialized quality engineering role responsible for designing, building, and maintaining automated tests and frameworks that validate application quality across the SDLC. TADs combine strong QA mindset with software development skills to create repeatable, reliable automated tests that support rapid, high confidence delivery in a DevOps / CI/CD environment. At Nationwide, this role is a key part of a line’s test capability, often paired closely with developers, analysts, and manual testers to ensure automation coverage at the UI, API, integration, and regression levels. Key responsibilities Design and implement automated test suites Analyze functional and non‑functional requirements, story acceptance criteria, and test strategies to identify scenarios suitable for automation. Design and develop automated tests for web UI, APIs, services, and integrations using approved Nationwide toolsets with focus on Playwright. Implement data‑driven and parameterized tests to support broad coverage across data variations and configuration options. Build and maintain test automation frameworks Configure, extend, and support test frameworks and utilities (e.g., page-object patterns, service clients, shared libraries) to promote reuse and maintainability. Treat test automation as a first‑class application : design, architect, refactor, and manage test code with the same engineering rigor as product code. Contribute to and follow Nationwide’s Test Automation Reference Architecture , standards, and quality engineering practices. Enable fast, reliable regression and release validation Develop and maintain regression, smoke, and acceptance test suites that can be executed on demand and/or via CI/CD for each release and deployment pipeline. Optimize suites for speed, stability, and coverage , focusing on automation where it provides the greatest value. Manual and automated testing to support the various stages of testing including Smoke, Functional, Regression, Performance, Stress, Business Continuity, Penetration Testing, etc. Support production/staging verification by running appropriate non‑destructive automated checks to build confidence in releases. Integrate automation into CI/CD and DevOps practices Integrate automated tests into common CI/CD tools (e.g., GitHub Actions, Harness, Jenkins) so tests run as part of pull requests, nightly runs, and release pipelines. Collaborate with DevOps engineers to ensure test suites are reliable in shared environments and provide actionable feedback when failures occur. Contribute to test reporting and quality dashboards (e.g., via Azure DevOps (for Group Health Benefits), Cucumber reports, Splunk) to make test results transparent to the team. Partner across the line and guilds Work closely with developers, manual testers, analysts, and product owners to align on test strategy, acceptance criteria, and automation priorities. Participate in Three Amigos / story elaboration sessions to shape testable requirements and define “done” with automation in mind. Engage with Quality Engineering and Test Automation Guild communities to share patterns, accelerators, and best practices; adopt approved standards and tools from those communities. Quality and test data stewardship Help plan and manage test data and environments required for reliable automation, leveraging approved test data and environment management approaches where applicable. Ensure automated tests contribute meaningfully to coverage and risk reduction , using test optimization and design techniques where appropriate.

Requirements

Experience in software quality assurance with hands‑on test automation development responsibilities (not just framework usage).
Proficiency in at least one programming or scripting language commonly used at Nationwide for test automation and core to Group Health Benefits (e.g., .Net, C#, Angular, Javascript, Python, Bash or similar).
Skilled in SQL, Oracle or other relational database technologies with proficiency to right queries to support testing needs.
Practical experience implementing automated tests using modern frameworks , ideally including: Preference for experience with Playwright or other browser‑based UI and end-to-end testing.
Demonstrated ability to: Analyze requirements and user stories, identify appropriate automation candidates, and design effective test cases.
Write, debug, and maintain test scripts and supporting utilities (e.g., page objects, service clients, data loaders).
Work within Agile teams and contribute to sprint planning, estimation, and story definition from a testing perspective.
Familiarity with CI/CD concepts and running automated tests as part of a pipeline, preference for skills leveraging Azure DevOps.
Strong analytical, debugging, and root‑cause analysis skills, especially when triaging automation failures vs. product defects.
Operates as a “developer‑minded tester” : comfortable working in code, version control, and CI pipelines while maintaining a strong testing and risk‑reduction mindset.
Collaborates effectively across roles (developers, analysts, product owners, architects, DevOps) and communicates clearly about test strategy, coverage, risks, and results.
Takes ownership of automation health; keeps suites maintainable, reliable, and aligned to changing application architectures and test strategies.
Continuously looks for opportunities to shift testing left , expand automation coverage where it is most valuable, and retire low‑value manual regression where safe to do so.

Nice To Haves

Experience with: Data‑driven and model‑based automation , including test design techniques to maximize coverage with fewer tests.
API and service‑level automation using tools such as Postman, SoapUI, or REST clients.
Performance, security, or accessibility testing tooling (e.g., JMeter, Axe, SonarQube, NowSecure) as part of a broader quality strategy.
Prior experience working within or contributing to an enterprise Test Automation Guild / QE community of practice .
Knowledge of Nationwide test automation standards , including the Test Automation Reference Architecture , approved tools, and quality engineering guidelines.

Responsibilities

Design and implement automated test suites
Analyze functional and non‑functional requirements, story acceptance criteria, and test strategies to identify scenarios suitable for automation.
Design and develop automated tests for web UI, APIs, services, and integrations using approved Nationwide toolsets with focus on Playwright.
Implement data‑driven and parameterized tests to support broad coverage across data variations and configuration options.
Build and maintain test automation frameworks
Configure, extend, and support test frameworks and utilities (e.g., page-object patterns, service clients, shared libraries) to promote reuse and maintainability.
Treat test automation as a first‑class application : design, architect, refactor, and manage test code with the same engineering rigor as product code.
Contribute to and follow Nationwide’s Test Automation Reference Architecture , standards, and quality engineering practices.
Enable fast, reliable regression and release validation
Develop and maintain regression, smoke, and acceptance test suites that can be executed on demand and/or via CI/CD for each release and deployment pipeline.
Optimize suites for speed, stability, and coverage , focusing on automation where it provides the greatest value.
Manual and automated testing to support the various stages of testing including Smoke, Functional, Regression, Performance, Stress, Business Continuity, Penetration Testing, etc.
Support production/staging verification by running appropriate non‑destructive automated checks to build confidence in releases.
Integrate automation into CI/CD and DevOps practices
Integrate automated tests into common CI/CD tools (e.g., GitHub Actions, Harness, Jenkins) so tests run as part of pull requests, nightly runs, and release pipelines.
Collaborate with DevOps engineers to ensure test suites are reliable in shared environments and provide actionable feedback when failures occur.
Contribute to test reporting and quality dashboards (e.g., via Azure DevOps (for Group Health Benefits), Cucumber reports, Splunk) to make test results transparent to the team.
Partner across the line and guilds
Work closely with developers, manual testers, analysts, and product owners to align on test strategy, acceptance criteria, and automation priorities.
Participate in Three Amigos / story elaboration sessions to shape testable requirements and define “done” with automation in mind.
Engage with Quality Engineering and Test Automation Guild communities to share patterns, accelerators, and best practices; adopt approved standards and tools from those communities.
Quality and test data stewardship
Help plan and manage test data and environments required for reliable automation, leveraging approved test data and environment management approaches where applicable.
Ensure automated tests contribute meaningfully to coverage and risk reduction , using test optimization and design techniques where appropriate.

Benefits

medical/dental/vision
life insurance
short and long term disability coverage
paid time off with newly hired associates receiving a minimum of 18 days paid time off each full calendar year pro-rated quarterly based on hire date
nine paid holidays
8 hours of Lifetime paid time off
8 hours of Unity Day paid time off
401(k) with company match
company-paid pension plan
business casual attire