Sr Lead, SW Quality Eng

Northern Trust • Chicago, IL

3d • Hybrid

About The Position

We are seeking an experienced Senior Lead, Software Quality Engineering to provide technical leadership and drive quality across Salesforce solutions, custom-built applications, and web platforms. This role will define testing strategy, lead automation and continuous quality practices, and partner with engineering, product, architecture, and business teams to deliver secure, reliable, and high-performing solutions. The successful candidate combines hands-on quality engineering expertise with strong leadership, risk-based decision-making, and practical exposure to AI-assisted testing and engineering tools.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, information systems, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Typically 10 or more years of software testing or quality engineering experience, including at least 3 years in a technical lead or senior leadership capacity.
• Strong hands-on experience testing Salesforce solutions, custom enterprise applications, web applications, APIs, and system integrations.
• Demonstrated experience building or advancing test automation using modern programming or scripting languages and industry-standard frameworks.
• Strong understanding of software development life cycles, Agile delivery, DevOps, continuous integration/continuous delivery, and shift-left quality practices.
• Experience with functional, regression, integration, end-to-end, exploratory, performance, security, accessibility, and production-validation testing.
• Proficiency with API testing, database validation, source control, defect-tracking tools, test-management tools, and pipeline integration.
• Ability to analyze complex systems, identify quality risks, troubleshoot failures, and communicate clear recommendations.
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams, influence without direct authority, mentor engineers, and manage competing priorities.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to present quality status and technical risk to senior stakeholders.
• Salesforce: Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Lightning Experience, Apex, SOQL, platform security, release validation, and Salesforce APIs.
• Automation: Selenium, Playwright, Cypress, WebdriverIO, Cucumber, or comparable tools; API automation with tools such as REST Assured, Postman/Newman, or equivalent frameworks.
• Languages: Working proficiency in one or more languages such as Java, JavaScript/TypeScript, Python, or C#.
• DevOps: Git-based workflows and automated execution within tools such as Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, Jenkins, or comparable platforms.
• Quality Practices: Test pyramid, behavior-driven or test-driven approaches, contract testing, data-driven testing, parallel execution, reporting, and root-cause analysis.
• AI-Assisted Engineering: Exposure to generative AI, coding assistants, intelligent test-generation tools, prompt design, output validation, privacy considerations, and responsible-use controls.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in a regulated, financial services, or other high-availability enterprise environment.
• Experience with Salesforce-specific automation platforms or release-management tools.
• Knowledge of cloud platforms, microservices, event-driven architectures, mobile testing, and containerized test environments.
• Familiarity with performance engineering, application security testing, accessibility standards, and site-reliability practices.
• Salesforce, quality engineering, cloud, Agile, or DevOps certifications.

Responsibilities

• Own and evolve the end-to-end quality engineering strategy for Salesforce, custom applications, APIs, integrations, and responsive web applications.
• Lead test planning, estimation, execution, defect management, quality reporting, and release-readiness assessments across multiple initiatives.
• Design and implement scalable automation frameworks for user interface, API, integration, regression, and data-validation testing.
• Establish risk-based testing practices and quality gates within Agile delivery and continuous integration/continuous delivery pipelines.
• Validate Salesforce configurations and customizations, including workflows, security profiles, permissions, Lightning experiences, Apex-based functionality, integrations, and platform releases.
• Guide testing of custom and web applications across functional, cross-browser, accessibility, usability, performance, security, and resiliency dimensions.
• Partner with developers and architects to improve testability, shift quality left, strengthen code-level testing, and prevent defects.
• Apply service virtualization, test-data management, environment management, and observability practices to improve test reliability and speed.
• Use metrics and trend analysis to communicate product risk, automation effectiveness, defect leakage, and continuous-improvement opportunities to technical and business stakeholders.
• Evaluate and responsibly apply AI-assisted tools for test-case generation, automation development, defect analysis, test-data synthesis, requirements review, and engineering productivity.
• Mentor quality engineers, conduct technical reviews, define engineering standards, and foster a culture of ownership, learning, and continuous improvement.
• Coordinate with distributed teams, vendors, and business partners to ensure consistent quality practices and successful production releases.

Benefits

• retirement benefits (401k and pension)
• health and welfare benefits (medical, dental, vision, spending accounts and disability)
• paid time off
• parental and caregiver leave
• life & accident insurance
• other voluntary and well-being benefits
• discretionary bonus program that may include an equity component

What This Job Offers

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