Lead Test Automation Engineer - Level 4

Northrop Grumman•Colorado Springs, CO

1d•$117,500 - $176,300•Onsite

About The Position

Northrop Grumman Space Systems, Multi-Domain Operations, and Missile Defense Integration Business Unit (BU) has an exciting career opportunity for a Test Engineer Lead – Test Automation (Level 4) to join our team of qualified, diverse individuals. This position supports the Modeling and Simulation Vistas – Threat and Advanced Simulations Development (MSV‑TASD) program and will split time between Schriever Space Force Base (SSFB) and the Northrop Grumman facility in Colorado Springs, CO. This role requires candidates to be onsite daily with very limited remote/hybrid work available. The selected Senior Principal Test Engineer Lead will be part of the TASD Systems Team, overseeing test engineering with a primary focus on automated test design, development, and integration. This position will lead the effort to transform several software projects and their associated application suites from primarily manual test execution to a strategy that relies predominantly on automated testing. The Test Engineer Lead will support the development and verification of TASD software products across the portfolio, including Threat Modeling and Simulation Software (TMSS), Red‑Force Objective Simulation Environment (ROSE), Missile Defense Advanced Simulation (MDASim), Threat Generator External (TGx), and the Missile Defense Space Tool (MDST). Responsibilities include designing, testing, analyzing, benchmarking, validating and verifying, documenting, automating, and integrating products for all organizations within the TASD program.

Requirements

Bachelor’s Degree in a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics) discipline preferred from an accredited university and 8 years of related experience; a Master’s Degree in a STEM discipline and 6 years of related experience; or a PhD with 4 years of related experience.
Self starter with the ability to work both independently and in a team environment.
Strong written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills to collaborate effectively with technical teams and customer personnel.
Familiarity with Agile software development practices.
Solid understanding of the software development lifecycle and how testing and automation integrate into that lifecycle.
Hands on experience designing, developing, and maintaining test automation, including:
Experience with at least one automated testing framework (e.g., unit, API, or UI).
Experience building automated regression suites and integrating them into build or CI pipelines.
Experience successfully leading a team of test engineers, including setting priorities, assigning work, and providing technical direction.
Experience training or coaching others in development of test automation, such as mentoring manual testers or developers in automation practices and tools.
Ability to obtain and maintain an active U.S. Government issued secret security clearance, a minimum of an interim secret clearance will be required to start.

Nice To Haves

Experience with C++, C#, Java, Python, or other modern development languages, including the ability to read and review production code and contribute to test code.
Experience with automated test frameworks and tools, such as:
Unit test frameworks (e.g., JUnit, TestNG, NUnit, xUnit, pytest, or similar).
API test frameworks or tools (e.g., REST Assured, Postman/Newman, Karate, or similar).
UI/client automation tools (e.g., Selenium WebDriver, Playwright, Cypress, or platform specific desktop UI automation tools).
Experience in agile software development methodologies including Scrum, Kanban, and Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe).
Experience engineering modeling and simulation (M&S) systems using an optimistic and/or conservative discrete event simulation platform.
Knowledge or experience in several of the following: missile defense domain knowledge, command and control, and modeling and simulation development.
Experience designing or operating CI/CD pipelines (e.g., Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Azure DevOps) that incorporate automated tests and quality gates.
Experience with Atlassian tools such as Jira, Confluence, and Git (or equivalent work tracking, documentation, and configuration management tools).
Experience defining and tracking test/quality metrics and using them to influence design, prioritization, and risk management.

Responsibilities

Leading the definition and implementation of a test automation strategy and roadmap to transition multiple TASD software products from manual to automated testing.
Creating, selecting, and/or integrating test automation frameworks and tools for unit, API/service, and UI/client‑level testing, and defining standards for their use across teams.
Leading the design and implementation of automated regression, integration, and end‑to‑end test suites for client, client–server, and cloud‑based simulation systems.
Creating or utilizing test tools and harnesses to support test automation (e.g., scripting, test data setup, environment orchestration) and training other test engineers in their use.
Supporting agile software teams within the context of a larger program, including embedding automation into CI/CD pipelines and enforcing quality gates.
Supporting the development of simulation and software architectures, including coaching software teams on building testable and test‑friendly applications (e.g., appropriate interfaces, test hooks, logging, and observability).
Leading the test engineering team in efforts to improve product quality through rigorous testing, analysis, automation, and peer review, including identification and reduction of unreliable or inefficient tests.
Interfacing with TASD customers and stakeholders, preparing and presenting technical briefings on test strategies, plans, status, and results.
Defining and tracking test and quality metrics (e.g., automation coverage, defect trends, test stability) and using them to drive continuous improvement.